January in Review #Blogging #Goals

January Review

I didn’t strictly adhere to my ‘must write a new year resolution list’ at the start of the month, in fact, I adopted an altogether new approach for 2017 which involves only a few goals, and a more laid back attitude. So far, so good.

One of the goals I did set for my blog was to publish a monthly review where I could check stats, assess the posts I’ve written and the interaction they received, as well as sharing the links in case anyone missed one. Over previous years I’ve been a bit lax with analytics, but I’ve come to realise that if I want to provide valuable content, then I need to see what you, my dearest blog reader, enjoys.

I have also been asked to provide a few guest posts for other blogs this month, and I’ve embarked on a couple of advertising boosts to lift the profile of my blog and hopefully get my articles in front of a wider audience, after all, that’s the whole point of writing. I want to help as many people as I can to embrace their best self, to be confident in their skin, and to believe that they can achieve anything they want.

How was January?

Stats:

I’m delighted with the increase in views. Overall, the blog received 15,075 new visits which is an incredible leap. Yay! The most popular post of the month was Adopt a Skinny Thinking Routine to Help with Your Weight Loss.

Published Posts:

Week1 – How to Ensure You Have a Great Year Using a Happiness Jar

Week2 – Releasing Negative Emotions

Week3 – How to Avoid Self-Sabotage

Week4 – Adopt a Skinny Thinking Routine to Help Your Weight Loss

Guest Posts:

Rosie Amber’s Blog – Week 1 How to Review the Last 12 Months

Rosie Amber’s Blog – Week 2 Power Words for 2017 

Rosie Amber’s Blog – Week 3 Setting Goals for 2017

Rosie Amber’s Blog – Week 4 Planning for a Perfect Year 

Socially Shared Business Network – Change Your Beliefs and Change your Life

Goals for February:

February is the month of love! Those of you who know me well will understand when I reach for the sick bucket. I don’t ‘do’ romance. Actually, that’s not strictly true; I’ve never met anyone who does romance and I therefore only know about flowers, chocolates, and romantic weekend trips because I’m a sucker for a rom-com film (sshh, don’t tell anyone).

As I can’t produce love infused blog posts from a personal perspective (unless we count my horrific experiences on a dating site!), I thought I’d concentrate on self-love. I know a great deal about this topic as it’s one of my main goals for 2017 – learning to appreciate myself, flaws and all, and turning the negative inner dialogue into positive self-talk. February’s theme will cover this in more detail, and I hope you enjoy reading my posts on this subject.

Over to You:

Your mission if you choose to accept it is…

I thought it might be a fun twist if at the end of every monthly review I set you some fun exercises. I want you to think about the following questions, grab your journal and note down any thoughts or feelings that bubble to the surface or feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.

Q1. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? What small steps can you take between now and December 31^st to achieve it?

Q2. What does a day in the life of your dreams look like? Write your perfect day from the minute you wake up to when you go to bed. Where are you, who are you with, what would you do?

Q3. If money was not an issue what career would you have or what lifestyle would you adopt?

I’ll add another three questions to the February review. You don’t need to share your answers; they’re for your personal development. If you can keep all your notes together in one journal then by the end of the year, you’ll have a great overview of 2017 to work with when you want to do a review, set goals, or release anything that isn’t serving your greater purpose. Until next month.

Thanks for visiting my blog, I hope you enjoyed this post. Want more? Connect with me here:  Twitter @ShelleyWilson72, Instagram or check out my Facebook pages http://www.facebook.com/FantasyAuthorSLWilson and http://www.facebook.com/MotivateMeBlog. You can also find me on Pinterest

What Does Happiness Mean To You? #MondayBlogs

I was invited to do a talk for a motivational group recently on the theme of ‘Heaven on Earth.' I spent a long time thinking about what that meant to me.

Eventually, I decided that happiness was the one thing that gave me contentment. But sometimes we think that happiness is out of our reach – it’s something to work towards – a goal if you like.

When I’m at home, and I talk about setting goals, I can see my kid’s eyes begin to glaze over. ‘Oh god, she's off on one of her hippie trips again!’

That’s okay; they’re young. Goals aren’t as important to them. For them, happiness is already a huge part of their life; they don’t need to think about setting goals to achieve it.

Make Time For What Matters - Now!

Everyone knows how much I love writing lists and goal setting, and it’s commonly known that I enjoy a good New Year resolution or two. The New Year is a great time to work on new beginnings and fresh starts. However, you don’t need to wait until January 1^st to make relevant changes to your lifestyle, career, health, or wellbeing.

September, for me, is the perfect month to embrace those new adventures, start a new academic course either online or at night school, or begin a health regime that will keep you mentally and physically fit during the winter. It’s a month of crisp weather, the promise of home grown apples and blackberries, and let’s not forget the oodles of back to school stationery just waiting to be purchased.

For years I put off getting started, not just with my writing projects, but with my health, and wellbeing. I would grumble about my muffin top and back fat but then demolish a cream bun at the local coffee shop. I would tell myself that ‘this year’ was when I’d finally write that book. Year after year I did this until finally, something clicked – I was only letting myself down.

Project You! Abandon the To-Do List

Project You!

Week 3: Avoid Goal Setting and Abandon the To-Do List

Last week we looked at how to stop feeling guilty, you can read that post HERE.

Today, I want to talk about NOT setting goals. Don’t adjust your monitor; I did just suggest that you avoid goal setting – me, the queen of resolutions!

Over the past year, I’ve had to abandon some challenges due to my health; it was upsetting and unnerving as I saw this as a ‘failure.' As the year rolled by, I began to understand the importance of living without a purpose.

My to-do list was, and still is but in a much smaller scale, a great comfort to me. I love a schedule and a deadline, and I find it helpful to run the household events/tasks using a paper diary and calendar.

However, how often have you looked at your to-do list and felt defeated? Not because you haven’t managed to tick off all the tasks but because you find those particular duties hold no meaning. It’s just ‘stuff to do’ instead of activities that drive your real goals forward.

Seize Life and Live It Now - Ribbon of Life Experiment

When I ran my Motivate Me workshops several years ago, there was an exercise I did that shocked many of the ladies sat in the audience.  It was an eye-opener for all of us and a simple visualisation of how we shouldn’t ‘wait for the right time’ before we follow our dreams or action our goals.

Try it for yourself:

Take a 100cm length of ribbon and a pair of scissors.

Now ask yourself the following question; “What is the estimated lifespan of an individual?”  When we did this exercise, my group decided that 80 years was about right.  The actual figure is 79 years so they were pretty close.  If you agree, cut 21cm off your ribbon and throw it away.

Create A Monthly Care Plan To Achieve Success

Over the past two weeks, we’ve looked at using a Daily Practice and Weekly Intentions to achieve our goals and stay motivated.

If you’ve been following my series of posts about staying on track with your resolutions, goals or challenges, then you will be well on your way to success.  Your daily practices will be as routine as brushing your teeth, and the list of weekly intentions will be driving your goal forward.  This week I am going to share tips on creating a Monthly Care Plan. 

When I started my blog in 2013 – and subsequently wrote my book, How I Changed MyLife in a Year – I had to create a monthly plan to inspire me to succeed, month-after-month.

As with any goal, you will only achieve success if you are 100% committed.  Alongside the commitment comes planning.

Let me ask you a question – what have you achieved in your life that made you felt great?  Big or small, it doesn’t matter, just remember the feeling that washed over you and settled in your stomach; it’s called pride.

Making Weekly Intentions Will Help You Achieve Your Goals

Last week we looked at the advantages of including a ‘Daily Practice’ into our routine to help us achieve our goals.  You can read that post here.  Today I’m talking about ‘Weekly Intentions’.

We used 'running a marathon' as our example for last week so this week we'll look at another type of goal.  I know so many people who wanted to 'learn something new' as part of their resolution list.  It’s an admirable goal!  Keeping our brain active has huge benefits for our mind, body and soul.

So where do we start?  Let’s ask ourselves those all important questions:

1.      Why am I doing this?

2.      When am I doing this?

3.      What do I need to do to achieve success?

How to Stay on Track with Your Goals by Using a Daily Practice.

The majority of our New Year Resolutions, goals and aspirations fail because of a number of reasons; a lack of planning, not being fully committed or setting ourselves unattainable challenges.

It’s like we purposefully set ourselves up for a fall.  We don’t have to operate in this way.  Setting a challenge that may test us can be liberating and life changing.  Writing my book, How I Changed My Life in a Year taught me that.

Yes, we all scribble down a list of changes we want to make each year, and yes, be the end of the third week many of us have abandoned them.  I heard on the news this morning that today is the day our weight loss ambitions are discarded and we attack the biscuit tin!  If we looked at that list for a moment, we might see the reason:

No Need For Goal Setting - Try 'Flow' Setting Instead

Normality has returned to the Wilson household (well, as normal as you can get with three teenagers under one roof!)

We all shuffled back to school, college and work this week with as much enthusiasm as a wet mop.  I’m not surprised about the kids – that comes with the territory, but I’m a different story.  I love my job very much and yet I returned with a melancholy aura.

 

My evenings aren’t much better.  At the end of last year, I would finish work to do my household chores.  I’d feed the kids, clean the fish and then settle down in front of my laptop to bash out a chapter or two and tackle an article or blog post.

 

Instead, I find myself staring at the wall with a bewildered expression plastered to my face.  It’s not writers block.  I know this because my head is crammed full of story and blog post ideas that scream at me with every waking moment (thank goodness for post-it notes!). 

 

It finally hit me at 2am the other morning as I tossed and turned in bed and eventually turned the light on to empty my thoughts onto paper.  I’ve been so busy organising my blog content to help motivate my readers that I forgot all about setting my goals!

 

I feel like a balloon let loose in the sky and is floating aimlessly.  That perfect quote, ‘a dream without a plan is just a wish’ is on repeat in my brain.