Let's Get It! Oct 2015

I started this series to hold myself accountable on my monthly goals and as a chance to reflect on the previous month. Check out my goals post from last month here

I can't believe it's the last quarter of the year. Time is flying!

My birthday was this week, so naturally I've been thinking about what I want for my life more than usual.

How did I do last month?

Here were the goals:

• Being in the moment in Costa Rica
• Attend One Live Event
• Promote a New Meal Planning Master Class
• Homeschool Plan
• Consistency Consistency Consistency

Being in the moment in Costa Rica - I was definitely in the moment! OMG! This trip was amazing from start to finish. I ate some amazing food and connected with my extended family on a deeper level. 

Attend One Live Event - Even though I consider myself an outgoing person, I have a hard time getting out the house to attend events. I went to Vegan SoulFest in Baltimore last month and had a great time.

Raw vegan goodness from Khepra's  - almond hemp burger, cauliflower bites, curried wild "rice", broccoli and "fried" plantains

There was plenty of delicious food, live entertainment, I connected with several of my YouTube viewers (heyyy!), listened to a couple of speakers and watched a cooking demo.  

with Chandra Lee of OrganicFlavas

I'm so glad I went!

Promote a New Meal Planning Master Class - I used my email list, social media and virtual workshops to promote this class. I really want to present more workshops (online and off), so I invested in an online course to help me become more efficient. I'm really excited to share my experiences and teach more families how to start a vegan life.

Homeschool Plan - I finally have a plan for the new year that I know will work really well for the boys. They're taking online classes for some of the day to give them more structure and to take some of the pressure off of me. I'm feeling really good about this transition!

Consistency Consistency Consistency - Confession time - Before I started working on this blog post, I didn't think I did anything last month. Even though vacation was amazing, it felt like it took me a long time to get back in the groove. I was out of commission for 2 weeks.

My goals for consistency each month are:

• 2 podcast episodes (posted 1)
• 2 YouTube videos (posted 2 woohoo!)
• Post daily on social media  (I went a whole week without posting anything) 
• Send out a weekly newsletter to the folks on my list (done)
• 2 blog posts that aren't related to my YouTube videos & podcast (I wrote a whopping 7!)
• 1 free virtual workshop (I did 2!)

Takeaways: I am way too hard on myself! Even though I didn't have perfect consistency, I covered a lot last month and would have never known if I didn't write this post.

I struggled to get those 2 YouTube videos out on time, so I will probably start a monthly series sharing a vegan tip. Vlog style videos are usually easier for me to edit, so I can record and batch that content in less time.

I will also make sure that my podcast episodes are recorded and mostly edited by the end of the first week of each month, so that I don't have to scramble to get those out on time.

Being inconsistent with social media has shown that I need to finally invest in a scheduling software to stay on top of it. I can schedule all my posts in advance and not worry too much about my Facebook and Twitter turning into a ghost town.

 

5 Intentions for the New Month

7 Day Detox/Cleanse - I haven't done a detox in a few years, so this will be interesting. I really feel like it's time for a reset, so eating all raw/fresh food for a week will be helpful. If you want to follow along with the cleanse or join in, follow me on Facebook - We're starting on October 11th.

Walk or Lift Weights Daily - I walked each day all summer for a minimum of 30 minutes. The vitamin D, consistent movement & sweat (detox) did wonders! I kind-of got off track when I went on vacation, so I want to get back to doing it daily this month.

Upgrade my lighting & sound quality on YouTube - I am still researching this but it's definitely time to upgrade my production quality over there. I have some big plans for the new year, so the uplevel is about to get real.

Wake up at 6 AM each morning (including Saturdays) - In a perfect world, I would wake up at 4 AM and finish all my biz work for the day by 9 AM. I always have a productive day with both work and family when I do this....but maintaining this is another story. For this month, I will test out 6 AM and see if that's more of my sweet spot. Then again I should probably just work on going to bed earlier. *sigh*

Attend one event - I will pay attention to my Meetup notifications for events, attend DC Veg Fest or Hip Hop Green Dinner this month.

That's it!

What are you goals for the new month? Leave me a comment  

Goals for September 2015

Since I enjoy reading what other people are doing to move forward with their business and personal goals, I've decided to hold myself accountable with monthly posts about my goals.

I refuse to have my year end like it did in December 2014 - depressed, ashamed and with no real focus. 

My theme for the rest of the year is Confidence & Discipline because I really want to grow in those areas.

I've always considered September my new year (instead of January) because it's my born month and I tend to reflect more during this time.

Even though I plan to work on more than 5 tasks, I will keep it simple here and write about no more than 5 here.

Goals

1. Be present in Costa Rica - For the last couple of years I've struggled with being present while on vacation. I find myself thinking about how I haven't really "earned" a trip (since I'm still building my business) and whether or not we can truly afford it. I'm heading to Costa Rica next week and made the decision ahead of time to not beat myself up! I will instead spend quality time with my extended family and celebrate my dad's 60th birthday with JOY. 
2. Attend One Live Event - One of the reasons we moved closer to DC nearly a year ago is to get closer to the action. I haven't really done much to get out there, so this month I will get rid of my crazy excuses and attend Vegan Soul Fest or Naturalista Hair Show.
3. Promote A New Meal Planning Master Class - I've been working on course materials and a marketing strategy for this class and can't wait to help more families (I did a similar class to this last year) how to plan simple and delicious vegan meals. Get more details about the class here 
4. Homeschool Plan - Our family isn't new to the homeschool life but we really need to revamp our routine for the new school year. I want more structure and enrichment activities on our weekly schedule. I've been working on paper and in Google Calendar to theme our days to get more out of them.
5. Consistency Consistency Consistency - For the last couple of years I've struggled with keeping on a schedule with YouTube, the podcast, being active on social media and writing content here. My issue - I stay in my head and overanalyze to the point that I don't start or finish as much as I should. *shaking my head* I spent the last couple of days working on a content strategy and will work hard to start batching my work to get ahead. This will truly be a process but I'm down for the challenge.

That's it for this month!

Shout out to Think & Grow Chick, Be Free Project & Nectar Collective for inspiring this series. :-)

What are your goals for the new month? Leave me a comment :-)