I’m not going to lie, September was a rough month. Fortunately, not due to health reasons. My health was actually doing quite well, strangely enough, despite all the emotional turmoil and distress I was under. Yes, once again, personal circumstances interfered with my blogging. I somehow did even worse this month in reaching my goals even though I cut them down from 10 to only 5 to help me focus. Yes, I’m disappointed, but I also know I did my best for what was going on in my life. As much as I love this blog, real life priorities come first. Luckily, things all worked out and I’m doing fine now.
Anyway…it’s October now and officially fall! My favorite month and favorite season – how can I not be excited!? I already had my birthday that happened on the 2nd which was AMAZING (post coming next week) and have already posted twice (this makes three times) within the first week so this month is off to a great start! I’m hoping the good times, (relatively) good health, and good blogging continues all season long!
I’m sticking with just 5 goals this month. We’ll see how I do and then maybe I’ll bring it back to 10 after that. I feel very optimistic that all these goals are attainable and hoping to see every one crossed off come the beginning of next month! Before I jump into these new goals, however, let’s go over September…it’s not going to be pretty.
September Goals Recap
Personal Goals
1. Start working on my business – I’ve thought a lot about it, but still haven’t written anything down or decided on anything concrete. I pretty much made no progress here at all. Definite fail.
2. Read a book – Another definite fail. Besides my Bible readings and devotionals, I didn’t turn a page last month 🙁
3. Exercise – Not a total fail, but I definitely didn’t accomplish what I was hoping for. I got some light walks in here and there, but I really need to kick it up a notch. Hopefully joining a gym will help give me more accountability since I’ll be paying for it.
Blog Goals
1. Catch up on my blogging – I made this goal because my lack of posts in August due to health and personal reasons made me fall very behind on all the posts I had planned. I hoped that I would be able to double up on posts in September and catch up, but I actually ended up posting even fewer posts than I did in August. I won’t add this again as a goal this month, but I definitely plan on doing my best to “catch up.”
2. Create a media kit – …. This has been on my monthly goals since I started posted monthly goals months ago. I did try this month. I found a free template, started working on it, then my computer crashed…and I just never got back to it. Not putting it on this month’s goals but still hoping to get it done. I am not thrilled with the template I have. If anyone has any recommendations for free media kit templates, please comment and direct me to them – I’d be so very grateful – thanks!
October Goals
Personal Goals
1. Write thank you cards – I was blessed with some wonderful gifts for my birthday. Card writing is not something that comes naturally to me, but it’s something I definitely want to do more of.
2. Sign up for gym membership – Planet Fitness, here I come! As stated above, I need to kick my butt into shape. I can do all the walks and sits up I want around and in my apartment, but I really need to build my strength as well and for that I need to use some machines.
Blog Goals
1. Start scheduling my social media posts – I know this is something pretty much every blogger does for their Twitter and Facebook posts, and while I know how to do it, I don’t. I like to do all my posts in real time. It’s totally not practical though so I need to change that. I’ve used Hootsuite before and liked it fine, and I’ve looked into Buffer – which one do you guys prefer?
2. Reorganize my Pinterest – I’ve already started doing this a bit so I feel pretty good about crossing this off my list next month. I know how valuable Pinterest can be to driving traffic to your site and I haven’t utilized it very much. As I stated in a previous goals post, I think I’m going to sign up for either Tailwind or Board Booster to help me schedule posts every day. I can’t decided which to go with though. I’ve heard a lot of pros and cons about both. Once again, I’d love to hear which one you all prefer in the comments.
3. Reach 2,000 followers on Instagram – I finally reached 1,700 followers on Instagram this last week! Just a few months ago I was a total Instagram newb that maybe posted 2-3 times a month. While I’m still no expert and will never be someone who can post multiple times a day, I am posting at least twice a week (I know that’s still really low, but I’m working on doing it at least every other day now) with relevant hashtags and thanks to the wonderful discovery of comment pods, my engagement is way up. Since it took me so long to cross the 1,700 mark, I know adding 300 more followers in one month might seem like a lofty goal, but I think it can be realistic. I’m really committing to posting almost daily and keeping engagement up, and I think those two things will help me in reaching this goal.
