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Choosing a Focus for Each Month + Free Printables
Throughout this year, I’ve been trying an experiment choosing a focus for each month. I love setting and achieving goals, and lately I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how to make goals more attainable. So I’m changing the way I set goals and sharing what I learned with you all!
I really love the idea of setting multiple big goals at the beginning of a new year, but this year that felt really out of reach, and honestly self-defeating, as the last couple years my chronic illnesses and new health issues have prevented me from reaching goals.
So I decided to choose a focus for each month—not a set number of to-do’s or things I had to complete by a certain time. To me, a focus is flexible and helps guide where I put my energy and what I work on.
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Snapshot Journal: Spring Is Here
I love that recording just a brief snapshot of what I’ve been up to has been an attainable, rewarding goal. I’ve enjoyed looking back at my previous snapshot posts.
This practice seems especially helpful for those of us with chronic illness who enjoy journaling. I’m finally recovering from a bad ME/CFS flare that sent me to bed for most of five days and then lingered for over two weeks longer, so I wanted to spend some time reflecting on good things.
I hope this post inspires you to create a snapshot journal of your own. Feel free to adjust it to fit your own interests and energy levels.
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Snapshot Journal: What I’m Doing Currently
I’m back with recommendations of books, shows, and more that I’ve been enjoying, along with an update on me.
I took a blogging break for a few months because I received new medical diagnoses and had to have surgery in July. I also went through a time where there was concern that my cancer had recurred, but results from my surgery came back clear, praise God.
I didn’t feel like writing about these challenges at the time. And I also didn’t feel like blogging without addressing them because it felt like I would be denying my reality and the affect it was having on me.
I share this as a reminder that if you have a chronic illness or blog about chronic illness, we don’t have to share things right away. And we don’t have to share everything if it doesn’t feel helpful.
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Snapshot Journal: What I’m Doing Currently
I wanted to try a new kind of blog post where I create a list showing a snapshot of what I’ve been doing lately. I’m recording what I’ve been enjoying to celebrate the little things and practice gratitude.
This list is partly drawn from this blog post by Gillian Parlane about documenting and remembering the little things. I’ve been reading her blog after enjoying her TED Talk: Change Your Closet, Change Your Life.
My snapshot journal is also partly inspired by what I’m learning about neuroplasticity and health.
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My List of Little Joys – August 2019
Here is my latest list of little joys, part of my effort to focus on the things that I am thankful for and to remember all the little moments in life worth celebrating.
Keeping track of little joys has helped me to see that there is more to my reality than just the problems I’m facing. There are lots of reasons to smile, laugh, and enjoy life, even during rough times.
I’ve been recording some of the things that make me grateful as my own spin on gratitude journaling.
I’m glad I’m revisiting this style of post because *usually* summer offers me a little relief from fatigue and pain and symptoms—and unfortunately, that has definitely not been the case this summer. The weather has been so sporadic that I’ve not been able to benefit from consistenly warm days. We’ve had a day or two of balmy weather, then rain, and the rapid changes in weather sends my fibromyalgia, dysautonomia, and asthma into a tailspin.
It’s rough feeling worse when you were anticipating feeling better. I’m just realizing now how much I was banking on having some more time to write and go do things with friends this summer. Now summer is more than halfway gone, and I’m honestly feeling a bit robbed of my favorite season. (Can anyone relate?)
So I’m recording the highlights from the last couple months in a deliberate effort to remind myself that I *have* been able to do fun things this summer. Also, I want to try to focus more on the good.
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My List of Little Joys – April 2019
Here is my latest list of little joys, part of my effort to focus on the things that I am thankful for and to remember all the little moments in life worth celebrating.
Knowing I’m going to be recording things that make me feel more joyful has helped me to keep up with my goal of gratitude journaling, and journaling in general, more often.
I honestly needed this practice in place over the last couple months. I’ve faced quite a few health setbacks recently, including a sinus infection, an injury, reacting badly to a new medicine I tried, and having to stop a treatment that was helping me, plus worsening insomnia due to tachycardia. Whew, it’s easy to get bogged down and overwhelmed when you see a lot of things going wrong, and it’s easy to dwell on them. Keeping track of little joys has helped me to see that there is more to my reality than just the problems I’m facing. There are lots of reasons to smile, laugh, and enjoy life, even during rough times.
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My List of Little Joys
I want to try a new style of blog post, and would love to hear what you guys think of it!
I’ve been wanting to get back into gratitude journaling after an unintentional break, as well as just journaling in general. I used to write journal entries fairly regularly, but lately its been…every four months or so.
I noticed a funny trend when I’ve been writing in my gratitude journal lately—I’ve wanted to write something down that made me happy, but it made me feel silly to say I was GRATEFUL for it. So I thought I’d combine gratitude journaling with capturing moments that brought me joy.
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Practicing Gratitude When You Don’t Feel It
As promised, I’m following up on my previous blog post about starting a thankfulness journal. I recently had a revelation about my thankfulness journal that I hope will help you if you find yourself, as I have, struggling with gratitude.
At first I didn’t think I really needed a follow up post after finishing my experiment in journaling. Sure, I said I would in that initial post, but I felt resistant when I tried to start writing. Where was this coming from?
I realized I was having trouble with gratitude in one particular area: my health. (Surprise, surprise!) When I’ve gotten a good piece of health news lately, I haven’t felt anything. Shouldn’t I feel grateful? Isn’t that the correct Christian attitude? I found myself feeling guilty that gratitude wasn’t my first reaction, so I started doing some soul-searching.
