Goals for June 2022

 I know. I know! I just started telling you about our camping trip, and I've already interrupted myself. Never fear! I shall come back with more stories. Because...oh! Were there ever stories!

I used to do some monthly goal posts, and I stopped doing those along the way. There were a handful of reasons I paused those posts, and I honestly wasn't sure I would ever bring them back. But I think I'd like to try writing them again. The goals themselves are happening whether or not I write publicly about them. But I think, for now, I'd like to blog about them again. 

Today is the first day of June, and I've been pondering over the past few days what my goals should be for this month. Yesterday, I committed them, in ink, into my new planner, so today I will share them with you!

1. Spend time in my Genesis study every single day. For the past few months, I've been traveling slowly (and so delightfully) through a very in-depth study on the book of Genesis. I've been using the inductive studies from Precept Ministries. They offer book-of-the-Bible studies in a variety of depth-levels, so if you don't have much time each day, you can choose a lighter version of the study, and if you want to crawl in with all the word studies and commentaries and everything else, you can choose a more time-consuming study. Of course, I picked the hardest one. I sometimes spend more than one real-time day on a written day in the book, if I feel like I need to camp there for a while. I've been learning so much, and I am so glad I picked this study! BUT! Sometimes I don't do it every single day. Sometimes I do something lighter/easier instead, and I want to spend June more fully committed to this study. So my goal is to spend time in THIS study every single day in June. I don't have to complete a full day in the book, but I need to spend time in MY day on the book. 

2. Do stretching every day for 5-10 minutes. A few years ago, when I was much more consistent with my workouts than I am right now, one day per week was devoted only to stretching. Some weeks I lived for that day! It felt so good to spend a half hour or so in deep stretching after all the weights and cardio made me sore throughout the week. Earlier this year, when I worked with a health coach, she taught me the value of consistency in movement. After months of being so crazy busy that we didn't have time to move around much at all during the day, I discovered (to my great delight) that May brought new habits to both of us. We were able to start taking daily walks - usually twice a day, because of Lexi - and it's been really wonderful to get back in the habit of purposeful walking. I also have gotten back to drinking my 96 (or more) ounces of water every day, and that's been good, too! So this month, rather than waiting for one day each week to do a whole bunch of stretching, I am committing to spending 5-10 minutes each day purposefully stretching! I'm excited to see that develop into a habit over the course of June! 

3. Develop social media posts and a newsletter for Love INC. This might be a slight cheat, because I have already put some time and work into it. But most of the work will fall to the month of June. As you know, Ryan just started a new job as the executive director of our local Love INC affiliate. He has a pretty small staff, so I'm hopping on board as a helper! I have lists upon lists upon lists of things I'd love to do, so I'm taking the same advice I gave him and am picking one thing to work on for this month. Though they've had a social media page for some time, it hasn't been regularly updated, so I've been working to put together some content and posts to share on there. (The organization as a whole has also recently rebranded, so I'm learning to use all their new logos and colors!) The local affiliate also hasn't had a newsletter in recent months, so we're going to bring that back. I'm excited to work on these projects!

4. Write from prompts every single day. Speaking of writing...I decided to shake things up a bit (just in my personal writing life) this month. Back in my college days, several of my professors would ask us to free write on a topic for 5-10 minutes at the beginning of each class. They would supply prompts and we would write. Probably most of that writing wasn't worth anything, but every now and then, we would find something worth keeping born out of a prompt. And whether or not it was worth keeping, it was a good exercise to write about something that pushed us out of our topical comfort zones. So I have a list of prompts lined up for June and plan to do a 5-10 minute free write each day! 

5. Do something encouraging for someone every day. Something I ran into while I was putting together social media content for Ryan's work actually prompted this goal for me. When we were at WillowBridge, especially the last several months of our time there, each day was mostly about trying to make sure we were one step ahead of our tenants in their thought processes (and any action those thoughts might lead to) - and just survival, really. There were days when people blessed us with notes, texts, gift cards, coffee, you name it, and those little thoughtful acts were beyond meaningful to us. It felt like we didn't have the capacity to do much in return at that time, but I'm determined to do so now! So I have a goal to do something encouraging for someone every day. Might just be a quick text. Might be a little gift. Might be a meal. I don't have a plan. But I am excited to point my focus outward and see what needs I might be able to meet! 

I have one more goal too, but I'll wait and tell you about it on the flip side! (Don't want to ruin any surprises!) 

How about you? Any goals for June?