Tag: Purposeful

What is Inspiring You?

Books, Podcast, Blogs – I never really thought I would be a writer and I guess that my go hand in hand with the fact that I have never been a big reader either. Those that knew me in high school or growing up know the struggle I had to get through any required reading or writing assignment. In college, I was thankful that my Engineering curriculum had minimal English Literature classes and so the amount of novels and heavy reading started to reduce. That is not to say there wasn’t plenty of reading needed, but at least it was a little different.

It took years before I finally would pick up a book and read for fun. I still didn’t do it often but I at least would grab a book when I would head on vacation or maybe a little bit in the evenings before bed. I know some of you can’t imagine this but for me it was never enjoyable and honestly I am not a very fast reader so that probably is why I avoided it. I would rather wait until the movie came out and typically it would before I would finish the book anyway.

In the last few years, I have started to embrace reading a bit more and finding books that I enjoy. It is still typically only when I am on vacation or have enough down time where I can get lost in reading to get started with a book. Once I am started I can pick it up and read it a little at at time to finish it. It can still take months or even a year or more to finish a book by the time I have picked it up and put down so many times. A few years ago I discovered a love for audio books and since then I am loving current books in a whole new way and finishing them before they are old news. Last year I “read” 12 books through listening to them. I also finished another two that I read in print version too!

In addition to audio books, I have also fallen in love with podcasts and discovering new ones that I can enjoy. I have always known I was an auditory learner but this has been fun to embrace the technology and trends we have available to us and enjoy books and inspiration in new ways. I will share some of my recent favorites but I would love to hear what books, podcast and even blogs you enjoy and find inspiring too.

A few recent favorites….

Several of these books led to podcasts I am following too so we will group them together.

Bob Goff has two books that I have really enjoyed in the last year (or last couple of years if I am honest). I received the first Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World as a gift from my friend Lisa a couple of years ago. I was thankful for the book at the time but as I shared above I am not a quick reader so it has taken a while to finish it. I am so glad that I finally finished reading it earlier this year so I could fully appreciate the value of this gift. All of the proceeds from sales from Bob’s book Love Does are donated to work he has in Uganda at the Restore International Leadership Academy. This book is a gift of inspirational short stories that will lift you up and encourage you to push forward to Love in more real ways everyday as well as to find the out of your mind ways to LOVE BIG too plus this book also continues giving through it’s sales to further one of those very stories as it invests in big ways in the lives of young people in Uganda. In the mean time while I was slowly making my way through the print version of this book, I knew I was liking Bob’s spirit and grabbed Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People as an audio book as soon as it was available. I was not disappointed with this one either. Both of these books have challenged me to see people around me differently and look for ways to show love in my own unique way. The fun thing about finding an author you start to enjoy is when you discover they have a podcast and you can continue following along that way. Just this month I have finally checked out the Dream Big podcast and started listening to some of the recent episodes. It is fun to hear stories referenced from the books and even people from our own area here in North Carolina.

In the last year, I have become intrigued with the Enneagram system. It is an ancient personality type system that has a way of outlining just how many of us are wired and how we are motivated and react to those situations and circumstances around us. I heard that the book The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery by Ian Morgan Cron & Suzanne Stabile was a good place to start to learn a bit more about this so I added it to my list of audio books and enjoyed learning more. As my sister and I have shared some books and podcast we are listening to, she shared about a podcast that she was enjoying that had a summer special on Enneagram and suggested I might enjoy it too. I did and have since really enjoyed other episodes from Annie F Downs and her That Sounds Fun podcast. Her EnneaSummer series was so fun to listen to in June. She had friends of hers who were in each of the different categories join her over 9 episodes. She would ask them to share answers to questions to prompt what their motivation or drivers were to responding in different ways. As the listener you could hear how same response from different types might be for different reasons because of what motivates each of them. We are all wired uniquely and understanding some of those motivators can help us relate to one another more effectively.

I have shared before about my love for Lara Casey’s book Cultivate What Matters. Through following her and her recent blog and social media posts, I recently discovered a dear friend of her’s Nancy Ray. She has a new podcast Work and Play with Nancy Ray. What a fun title and what sweet nuggets she has been sharing each week about how to live fully awake and with purpose through transitions. I am finding myself anxiously awaiting the post each Tuesday when a new one is added.

This list goes on but we will keep it to these couple for now. I hope you will enjoy exploring a few new inspiring books or podcasts. I would love to hear what is inspiring you too in the comments here or through e-mail or messages.

For those that know my sister, you will not be surprised to know that she and I think a lot a like and will be into similar things. The funny thing to me was that I had drafted this post about my favorite books and podcasts for you all and check my social media to fine her blog post below shared. You may find a few similarities here – we often share a few of our favorites with each other so it is no surprise that our lists have some authors in common.

What I’ve Been Reading (Listening to) Lately…

5 years ago

Filling my Cup

When the days get hectic, my posts become a bit farther apart but I thank you for sticking with me this summer as I have dusted off this blog and given this a try and posting more regularly. As I shared at the beginning of the summer and you will find as we continue, this will not be a daily blog update but typically I will share one or more times a week. I have had several posts outlined out but not quite finished so hopefully I can get a few extra ones scheduled for next week.

Yesterday, was a day of recharging for me, a vacation day I wanted to take a couple of weeks ago but with several commitments at work recently this was the best day to put it on the calendar and make it happen. I know of myself that sometimes I just have to put a day like this on the calendar to allow myself time to recharge. Often in our family we remind each other that we are only able to be the best we need to be when we take care of ourselves first – we like to remind each other of this with the image that we are to “put on own own oxygen mask first” just like they tell you on an airplane with the safety instructions. So whether I am “Filling my Cup”, “Putting on my Oxygen Mask” or another cute way to remember to make “self care” a priority, I know that this is important for me. It is necessary for me to be the best version of me for those around me.

How do you like to recharge?

Time alone: For me, it typically requires some time of being by myself with an unscheduled, block of time and having that time at home. For those of you who have studied the Enneagram, I am finding that I am very much a #2 and I want to be a helper to everyone around me – which sometimes can be distracting from the things I need to do for myself and can be exhausting when I am trying to sort through the needs of others and can’t even figure out what is on my own lists. To recharge, I have to have some time to think about what I need and then I can be more focused when other needs are weighing on me. (If you are new to the Enneagram, I recommend the book The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile or the summer series EnneaSummer on the Podcast: That Sounds Fun by Annie F Downs)
Time with my people: Connecting with my closest friends and family is an important part of recharging to me. Time to hear how they are doing and to talk through the challenges and celebrations I am facing.
Time to make progress: Typically a part of recharging for me also includes making progress on my to do lists. It may be running errands, projects around the house, work with my own photo projects or other projects I have had on my lists whether it be a mental lists or one of the many post-its or notepads floating around. Sometimes even the act of regrouping my lists can be helpful too. I know my fellow lists makers can understand this one.

It sometimes takes work to make happen but I have been blessed with a few things sprinkled over these last few weeks that have helped fill my cup in both big and small ways.

Lunch and dinner catch up dates with dear friends that I haven’t seen in months – oh how it sometimes takes us way too long to make those happen but they are so sweet when we finally connect.
Hugs from kiddos I love and time hearing what is important & exciting in their lives.
Checking items off my list of to dos and errands – this list is finally starting to look a bit shorter. It might need to get below 90 degrees on a weekend I am home for me to tackle that mulch project I didn’t get done this spring.
I received flowers (shown in the photo above) from someone at work as a simple thank you for the work I do.
A wonderful unscheduled day off from work to have the space and the room to think and dream a bit.

I would love to know how you find your rhythm with recharging. What fills your cup? We are all different and motivated by different things. Do you need time to yourself or do you need to be with others? Do you seek out a day every few months or do you have a routine that let’s you recharge more often? Do you crave a few hours or a day to recharge? What activities help you feel more grounded and ready to tackle what life throws your way?

This doesn’t always fit in a neat box or in my timing but I know that it is work fighting for and making sure I get it scheduled and make happen on a regular basis. I hope you find your own way to take care of yourself and fill your cup so you can be the best YOU for those around you too!

5 years ago

The Story of the Sunflower

I have a great hope of a day when I have a yard with flowers and plants that can be enjoyed regularly and maybe even mulch that is put down at the correct time of the year but until then I will celebrate when I have a few living flowers in pots or keep the grass alive another summer or the clay dirt is not too exposed in the flowerbeds.

This past spring my mom was helping me re-pot some flowers that we had hoped might survive another season and shared with excitement that she had picked up some sunflower seeds and that “WE” should plant them at my house. This “WE” in our family normally means one of us has a great idea and all of us are going to “get the opportunity to” participate in some form. So off we go, right that moment to the back yard and size up a good spot for our seeds to be planted. The encouraging part to me was as my sister read the package that these seeds needed bright sun but that actually thrive in bad dirt. Good thing because I believe that any beneficial top soil was scraped off my lot long before my house was complete and I have some mighty fine packed clay to work with in this little yard.

We proceeded to plant our little handful of sunflower seeds along a flower bed I had started to prep a few years ago. Like I said we have some fine clay underneath that thin layer of mulch but needless to say we planted our seeds and hoped for the best. I did my best to remember to water them and watch for how they were doing and sure enough after a few weeks, we had a few sprouts and then those sprouts began to grow. It has been fun to watch this out my back window and see as I go and come each day from work. When the weather has brought heavy rain and even hail a few weeks ago, I was quick to check and see how our sunflowers were handling it. A few leaves and one of the stalks did show some damage but the main stem was still strong and growing.

This little plant has been a great reminder of all the lessons we can learn through a garden – even a garden of just a couple of sunflowers. This plant didn’t require good soil – it makes the most of where it is planted. It weathers the storms that come it’s way. It needs nurturing, water, sun and a bit of tending but no matter what how much help it gets from those things, it still kept growing.

This weekend it was fun to wake up and see the first peak of yellow pop through. I don’t know how many flowers we may get this summer but this one bud beginning to open has been a treat and blessing to watch. I am reminded of how it started from a simple seed in the dirt. If you haven’t had a chance to read the book Cultivate by Lara Casey, she makes a great parallel to our lives about how Good things grow in the dirt and It is OK to Grow Slow and my favorite – Little by Little progress will add up. So as I continue to watch the slow and steady progress of this beautiful flower, I will remember the other progress I am working on in goals related to health, projects around the house, work assignments, etc and remember that the little bits of growth and progress can turn into something very beautiful in just the right time.

5 years ago

What does caught up look like to you?

Years ago, I would hear people who scrapbooked with me say that they were so many years behind and I could tell it bothered them. I decided then that my more realistic goal was to be no more than a year behind. If I was scrapbooking last year’s Spring this Spring, then I could enjoy the fun new products and memories at just the right time. I did from time to time jump in and do a few pages of a current event to make sure I didn’t forget the details but I set my expectation to not stress on the staying “current with today” mentality. As the years have gone on, I will swing from 6 months back to almost 2 years but generally hover around the 1 year mark and that is success for me.

This last year brought a few life changes, a big job change and with that came less time to scrapbook, pair that with a year that seems to have been a big photo year with travel and lots of fun and I had slipped further behind than I like to be but I kept working a little at a time. Starting with 2019, I also took on a slightly different strategy to help my work move along a bit quicker. I started focusing my 15 minutes a day several days a week on picking my favorites and I would knock out one month at a time. I started as I always do with the current photos (January) and once I got caught up with the current month in 2019, I would go back to the next month that I had with my project and spent a few days picking my favorites and putting them in a sub-album. If I didn’t have time to scrapbook then I would at least get my photos prepped and ready. This has made a huge difference and I am already well on my way to having my favorites picked out already for 2019 once I get ready to do those photos too.

Remember that “caught up” can and does look different for each of us – it may be finishing one important project for you from years ago, it may be getting the next year’s album done, it may be gathering your photos and picking your favorites so that they are where you can find them and share the when you wish, it may be creating a gift for a friend.

What project do you want to get caught up with this month? I am excited to have made some great headway the last few weeks on my project and am down to one remaining week in 2017 and will be jumping on 2018 soon.

5 years ago

All in One Place or Close to It

As we continue talking about ways to Save in June, we have talked about:

Saving you money through our Summer Sale – Be sure to check out the Summer Sale Page for the new products added this week. There are a few albums still available and will stay on the lists through Sunday, June 16 to give you extra time to add those to your order.
Saving you time through our 15 Minutes a Day Plan – You can pop back over to the post last week and get caught up if you missed it. Take it one day at a time and only 15 minutes.
Now let’s talk about Saving and Protecting our Photos.

One of the biggest challenges I have found is that I use to have photos EVERYWHERE. There were some on my camera, some on my computer, some that were printed and tucked away in a box or envelope from the store. I would run across boxes of photos from my parents or even be given some from grandparents or other extended family. The first thing I knew I needed was a home for ALL of my photos. A way to have them all in one place was so important. I may not have perfected this process but for the most part it helps me keep the photo clutter contained.

First, I started with printed photos and through a few Creative Memories Power Sort Boxes I created a system that would work perfectly as my home for all my printed photos until I was ready to put them in a scrapbook or had time to go through them further. Although there isn’t much fancy about this box, I like that it is photo safe and has compartments so I can sort my photos quickly. The tabs can be labeled with a simple regular pencil and erased when I am ready to relabel a section for another group.

Even if you don’t have a box like this, you can achieve the same thing with any container, my biggest encouragement is that you find a container that works for you and start collecting those photos that are already printed.

Second, I discovered that with our growing digital age, many of my current photos were digital and were on my camera and were starting to collect all over my computer. Over 12 years ago, I started using a computer program called Historian to help me organize all of my photos on my computer. It is a PC based program that you can purchase from Forever – on Sale this week for less than $60 or you can try it at any time for FREE for 30 days. This software is amazing for organizing – you can group photos by people, albums, and other tags plus at any time sort by date. There is an amazing photo editing tool built in if you would like to click an easy button or do your own photo editing on special images. I appreciate that this software resides on my computer and my images are always accessible to me without internet connectivity. You can back up your photos from Historian to CDs or external hard drives or link it with Forever’s cloud based storage for permanent back up.

For years, I used Historian exclusively with CD back ups done every few months. About 4 years ago I discovered Forever when I was looking at options for backing up for my photos with my new computer that no longer has a CD drive. Forever provides a permanent home for our photos and other media through their Permanent Storage Account. You pick how much space you need and pay once and it is yours FOREVER. You only pay more if you need more space. Forever Storage links with my Historian software to upload any photos I want to save or back up. Forever also has a FREE app that allows my to access my account from my photo, I can sync & upload my phone photos to my app. With the start of using Forever, I have taken advantage of the Auto Sync feature on the app to provide me peace of mine that my phone photos are always safe. I sync when I am on WiFi so they are backed up each time I come home and connected. When my phone was acting up a few months back, I did not stress about getting my photos backed up because I knew there were already on my Forever Account – safe and sound. I can organize in my account by albums or tags and share or download from the Forever website no matter where I am – as long as I have internet access I am able to get to all of my photos. Forever also let’s you try out the storage account for free with a 2 GB FREE account. You can use this link to give it a try and get a $10 Welcome Coupon that you can use if you want to place an order in the first 60 days: https://www.forever.com/ambassador/elizabethgoodson

Do you find yourself being the keeper of your family’s or extended family’s photos from years, maybe decades ago? Once I started being the person in the family to do scrapbooks and keep my photos organized, my family started sending any extra photos they found to me too. Many of these are photos from years ago, of generations before me. They are photos that I am not the only one who will treasure them but I needed a way to share them easier. One of the other amazing things that I discovered with Forever was the power of the Media Conversion Services Forever offers. They take such special care of my media when I send a box in. They make sure that each item is handled with a white glove service and that they scan or digitize it like it was their own families items. I have had photos, slides, negatives, documents, video and audio converted and get so excited when my order if finished and I start seeing the items show up in my Forever account. This has been another great way to clear my extra clutter by gathering those items that have been taking up space and sending them off to Forever to digitize. I can then determine if I still need the original, share it with other family members or discard it and save that space.

Where is your place for all of your photos and media? Do you have one, are you looking for a system for your printed photos or those on your computer to keep them organized? If I can help you, fill in this simple form and I will be happy to help you with the next steps.

Here are some ways to Take Action in your 15 Minutes a Day this week:

Find a container you already have or reach out and let’s get you a Power Sort Box to be your home for your printed photos – you Photo Box
Go through your house and gather those loose photos or special videos and put them in your Photo Box.
Identify if any of the items in your Photo Box should be scanned and converted
Let me know if you want to add your media conversion order with my next group box or if you want to take advantage of the amazing sales on media conversion boxes June 16 or June 18th.
Determine how you want to organize your digital images. Historian and Forever Storage are my go to tools but the biggest advice I have is to pick 2 places to have your digital images since it is never a question of if our computer or technology will crash it is a question or when. Don’t wait until it is too late!

Let’s keep working on your photo projects a little each week and see what progress you find as you lighten your load!

5 years ago

Cultivating Joy & a New Routine

With a cup of coffee and a few moments of quiet, I have enjoyed many weekend mornings at my kitchen table with my Write the Word Journal and my thoughts. It has been a little over a year and a half when I learned about these journals and got my first one from Cultivate what Matters. I have done Bible studies and other devotionals but there was something about this that was simple and the perfect fit for what I needed this time. This has not been a daily journal or even a weekly journal but more of a simple way to center me with a passage of scripture that I would write out in my own handwriting and a place to journal: I am Grateful for… and what was On My Heart Today. It was only 2 simple pages so when I could carve away a few minutes on a day I didn’t have to hurry out the door, I would sit and complete one day’s entry. This journal has been a place to record my thoughts, my heartaches, my celebrations, my struggles, my progress and even my dreams for what may come. There is nothing magical about this little book but it has served as a very useful tool to carry me through a season of seeking and searching for the next step I would take with my career as well as the things that happen each and every day.

I have wrapped up my first journal, Cultivate Joy earlier this week. I can’t wait to jump into the pages of my next one Cultivate Hope but before I place my Joy Journal on the shelf, I have flipped back through the pages one more time. I am reminded that I had no idea what was ahead for me when I started this nor did I set a specific timeline or expectations for completing it but as the days and weeks have passed and my thoughts have been noted, it is interesting to see how God has taken this process and these 2 simple pages I have completed to help me nurture my faith and Cultivate a sense of Joy and Gratitude within the pages of this book.

As many of you are here visiting my blog regularly this summer with a photo focus, I offer this comparison to you. What if you looked back on this summer from the other side – maybe it is early September, maybe it is at a gathering with family and friends over the holidays later in the year. What if you could look back and see that the little steps you made in June, July and August with your photos have paid off. What would that look like, would it be sharing the precious gift of a photo that you found and love and now can share it with the people you love? Would it be a gift you share with a friend of a photo you took that has special meaning? Would it be that you have cleared out that courner of the room or closet that has been cluttered with photos or project supplies and now you have room to enjoy this space again.

This too does not have to be a daily project, a weekly project or even a regular routine but I promise you when you take little steps forward, one and then the next, no matter how small you will be amazed when you look back at how far you have come when you add them together. Each time I pulled out my Joy Journal, I spent only 15-20 minutes. I can tell you the blessings that have come from that investment of time have been far greater than those minutes would suggest.

If you are following along with our Lighten the Load Photo Challenge, I hope you have picked your project, area, or focus. If you have not yet, pop back over to the Welcome Post and be sure to share with me once you decide. If you can’t decide where to start, please message me, comment below or reach out and I will be glad to help you with a starting point.

I will leave you with this additional thought from the Cultivate What Matter‘s team about Summer – are you ready to get in there and cultivate, prune and tend to what we need to so we can reap the rewards later?

Whether it is a photo goal or a personal goal, what can you spend 15-20 minutes on this week to make progress forward toward something you want to see done.

5 years ago

Welcome to our 2019 Lighten the Load Summer Challenge!

This is going to be a fun and focused time to help you Lighten YOUR Load with your photos, photo projects, project supplies or even that undone project guilt. It doesn’t matter if your photos are printed, on your phone, in a box, still on the camera or on the computer, this is the right place for you. I truly believe when we focus on a few specific tasks and break down our goals into small manageable pieces we see better results. My plan is to help you with those specific tasks that will help you make progress, real progress toward a completed project! Are you ready to get started with Step #1 this week?

Step #1: Setting a Summer Lighten the Load Goal

What area are you most interested in tackling this summer? Are you overwhelmed and not sure where to start? See if this list sparks an idea for you:

Are you wanting to get your photos off of your phone and camera and backed up so you can do something with them later when you have more time? Maybe your Summer Goal will be: Create a system to clear my 2018 & 2019 photos from my phone, organize them and back them up.
Is there a project you want to complete – maybe it is finish a 2018 photo book or a vacation you went on this past year, maybe it is dust off that child’s album and finish it before they graduate, get married, etc? Maybe your Summer Goal will be: Gather my 2018 photos and complete my Family Photo Album for 2018.
Are you interested in getting your scrapbooking supplies finally organized so you find that perfect paper pack or sticker? Maybe your Summer Goal will be: Gather all of my scrapbooking supplies in one place, remove items I no longer need, pull the items I need for my next project and take inventory of any supplies I am missing.
Are you interested in getting that box of family photos and/or videos converted to digital so you can finally get rid of the old prints or film that you no longer can enjoy. Maybe your Summer Goal will be: Pull out that old box of media (or collect the pieces into one place), get a media conversion box and pack it up to send off for conversion this summer.
Are you wanting to complete a gift or invitation for a baby shower, wedding, birthday, etc? Maybe your Summer Goal will be: Pick the project (album, canvas, wall art, cards, calendar, etc.), determine the number of photos needed, gather and complete your project.
Maybe your goal is different than these, you know what you have nagging at you or that has popped on your list.

I will touch on tips and ideas that will help you with many of these but you will want to have a personal goal in mind. Whatever you choose I encourage you to PICK ONE! Write it down for yourself and then comment below or e-mail me directly so I know what you are working on – make this your summer Lighten the Load Goal. If you finish that one, you can move to the next but let’s start with ONE and get it DONE.

Have you picked your goal? You want to do that before you go any further. You can let me know you goal here:

Now that you have checked off Step #1 – Set your Goal, here is a brief overview of what you can expect to see in upcoming posts.

I will be sharing updates each of our 13 weeks with a focus for the week, tips to help guide you and other updates. The biggest thing to remember is that you don’t need to do all the things that I may share. Pick one or two areas you want to work on each week and just do those, you can always come back later to these posts and pick up other ideas. As we get things up and going each month there will be more posts at the beginning of the month with generally one post a week later in the month. Take it at the pace that works for you. I want to make sure you have all the info you need when you are ready for it.

Take a peak at what you might see each month:

June is going to have a focus on Saving

Saving Money
Saving Time
Saving and Protecting our Photos

We will talk about tips for working in just a few minutes a day only a couple of times a week and seeing how that can make HUGE changes to the progress we see. We will create a rhythm and system that can carry you through the summer and through your next project. I will share some BIG savings with by Buy 2 Get 1 Sale – watch for a new group of products each week on the Summer Sale Tab.

In July, we will focus on Organizing

Organizing our Photos
Organizing our Supplies
Organizing our Memorabilia

We will continue building our new rhythm and focus on organization of our photos and scrapbooking supplies. I will offer my Annual Scrapbooking Yard Sale with a bit of a refresh to help you clear out the old items you have and make sure you have what you need for your next project.

As we wrap up in August, we will focus more on Sharing

Sharing our favorite photos
Sharing our finished projects
Sharing photo gifts and the gift of peace of mind with others

We will continuing building on our system so we can share more of our photos with those we love. We will celebrate finished projects and learn more about sharing our projects with others. With our photos are safe and those projects that are most important to us are done, we will also be able to share the peace of mind that we have after a summer of completing our Goal.

Let’s get started!

6 years ago

Lighten the Load Summer Challenge – COMING SOON

As we wrap up Spring and kick off Summer with Memorial Day as the unofficial start this past weekend, I am prompted to savor the change in seasons and the beauty of the new and exciting things that come with a change in our routines. This time of year makes me think about clearing out the old and making room for the new. That can apply to so many things in life – from Spring Cleaning my home to preparing the way to complete a project that has been lingering. It is also a time to Lighten the Load whether it be a physical load or the load I carry with unfinished projects and pick the couple of project I want to tackle. This has been on my mind a lot over the last several weeks as I have looked at my own load of projects and stuff that needs clearing out. With that thought….

….I invite you to Lighten the Load with me this Summer!!! I plan to help you Lighten the Load with our photos, photo projects, project supplies and even that undone project guilt. I will be launching this special Lighten the Load Summer challenge to inspire you and guide you to Lighten YOUR Load whether it be a small project for a few weeks or a big project that takes all summer. There will be Sales, Challenges, Tips and Inspiration along the way – and you never know when there might be a few prizes too. This will run from June-August with a celebration at the end. You can choose where to jump in and how much to tackle but I know from my own experience that when I take a project or goal and break it into smaller pieces I am always amazed at the progress over time.

You can start thinking about what is on your list of photo related projects, how many are started but not yet finished, do you have extra supplies tucked in your bag that are weighing you down. Get ready, we are going to have some fun and start to feel lighter as we move through the summer. Are you ready to hear more?

6 years ago

It is time for a mid-year Goal Refresh

In order to understand what I mean by a mid-year Goal Refresh, I probably should give you a bit of background on this Goal Setting process that I have been doing for the first half of 2018.

Background

You may be like me, I have often thought about making a New Year’s resolution but if I had to guess most of us don’t remember our New Year’s resolution a few weeks later much less in July.

I was so excited last summer to be introduced to a concept called Powersheets by Lara Casey. Powersheets are a tool to help you be intentional in goal setting – help with processes to set goals in a way that will stick and so you can see things start to happen. For the first time that I can remember, I actually know what my goals were in January and how far I have come since then. I am excited about reviewing them at this mid-year point to see what may need to change and what I want to keep plugging a way toward.

If we have seen each other in person recently or you have followed me on social media in the last few months, you probably have picked up on how much I am loving what Lara Casey has to share about intentional goal setting and cultivating what really matters in our life. She teaches about breaking down those things that matter into bite size chunks and then working on them a little at a time. I am a believer in Little By Little Progress Adds Up!

The Process

I started before the end of 2017 with purchasing my first Powersheets goal planner, I spent a little time reflecting and planning and then jumped in with both feet. You don’t have to have a fancy planner to tackle your goals intentionally but a pretty planner and new pens always help.

I thought about the things that were important to me, where I wanted to be when I am 80 years old, what I wanted to see progress on in this season of my life and what were the things that were in the way of me making progress. I brainstormed lots of ideas, dreams and wishes and put them on paper. I spent more time in prayer & reflection and began to find some common themes to the items on my list, for example: “taking care of my health”, “loving the people I am around well”, “finding joy in the work I do”, and “extending hospitality”. I grouped my items into a list of 8 goals. These would be my framework for decisions about personal relationships, business growth, career path, faith, finances and much more.

Now that I had the framework for my goals to start 2018, I had to break them down into manageable chunks. This is where the fun come in – you get to pick which goals you will focus on, how you will break them up and how to take the next step whether it be the first step or the next step forward.

Lessons Learned

I learned quickly that some goals are good monthly goals to be worked on over the whole year or during a season of several months, some were better as weekly where I could see progress a little bit more regularly and some needed to be daily habits. I learned that I can’t “do it all and do it well”. When I try to do it all, I will generally deprive one area of my life while trying to improve something else and neither area gets the proper attention. Sometimes there are seasons to focus on different goals and when I embrace this, letting go of the other areas that are not priorities this week or month, I can make real progress on the goal I am working on. I also learned that there is a compound effect from being intentional with this system and working on the right things a little at a time but consistently month after month, week after week, I started to see real progress.

It has been refreshing to have a plan for both action and a plan for reflection. Some months I have been able to knock things out and check them off my list and then other months I have had to extend myself an extra measure of grace. Part of this journey has been a focus on cultivating gratitude each month too; pausing to think about what I am grateful for, who I am grateful for, progress I am celebrating, areas I am extending grace, things I am letting go of for the next month and things I am saying yes to in the next month. We can all too often take people, experiences and times in our life for granted. Cultivating gratitude is one way to make sure I am mindful of this each month. I still have plenty of room to grow on being intentional about sharing with those around me my gratitude in the little and big things.

Goal Refresh

Each quarter I have been pausing to take a look at my goals and making sure that I still believe they are to be on my list for this year, checking off any that are completed and adding any new ones that may come up. My goals this year have stayed the same so far but I enjoy seeing the progress on each of them. One of my goals back in January was to “Cultivate a positive and joyful attitude at work”. When I wrote this several months ago, I envisioned this being at my current job, doing the things I needed to do to bring joy to those around me, help my days be less stressful, and find new rhythms to my routine to get out of the rut that I felt that I was falling into. In my work to explore this new perspective, I had no idea that God was weaving together another part to this story. This part would take through one of the hardest decisions I needed to make and one of the biggest changes of my life – a major job change. I know that the focus on my goals and the framework of where I wanted to go personally and professionally helped guide my decision. It was hard to leave what I knew for so many years but I am excited that this job change that has re-energized me with excitement for the work I do and the people I can help. I can’t wait to see where the next 6 months takes me as I continue to work on little by little progress in many aspects of my life.

If you are interested in following Lara Casey and the Cultivate What Matters Team, I encourage you to check out their blog and website: Cultivate What Matters

6 years ago

Turning the Page to a New Chapter

I am overdue on updating this blog and sharing how I am Seeing a Greater Purpose in my life, my career and my business. I hope to jump back into this a bit more as time allows. My blog posts may be short and sweet but hopefully they will share a glimpse into the things going on in my life and can be an encouragement to you.

The last few months I have been digging into what matters to me – what I really want to be doing, how to be more purposeful in my actions. I had been in a season of feeling like I was in a rut or stuck with just going through the motions each day. I am coming out of this season and this is largely from spending time doing some reflecting and intentional goal setting. I am loving the fruits of this process. I look forward to sharing a few other bits and pieces of this journey but the biggest area where this is showing up right now is with a BIG job change that I am making this month with my full time job. I have worked in the same place for almost 14 years but when a new opportunity came along a couple of months ago, I had to dig deep and determine if it was the right time to make a change. Since I had been spending time over the last 6 months evaluating what was important to me, this opportunity came at a strategic time for me. I was ready to make a change, I knew that I needed to make a change, I just had to decide if I was brave enough to take that step.

As I am still in the process of turning the page over to this new chapter, I will share a few reflections I have had this week as I have wrapped up one job and prepare for the beginning of the next. The friends I have at work have helped me celebrate this process well. We have shed tears of sadness that we will not have each other in the day to day aspect of our lives but we have also celebrated that with change comes growth for many and we can find new ways to continue our friendships. I love this photo that was captured at my Going Away Party and the story it tells. My smile shows the joy and gratitude I felt that day and the name of the book I received Do More of What Makes You Feel Alive” is so very fitting for the season I am in.

I have been touched by many friends, longtime coworkers and colleagues who have been intentional during these last few weeks in connecting with me, sending me an e-mail, stopping by my office, going to lunch, offering to help me in my new role or writing out their thoughts in a card. To hear that you are leaving a legacy with the work you have done, that you have inspired someone with your kindness and willingness to help when needed, that you have given someone strength to be brave in their own journey of being stuck – each of these are precious messages that I will treasure long after the cake is gone, the balloons fade and the new job starts. I am a better person for relationships with the people who have crossed my path and experiences I have had these last 13 years, 9 months, 3 weeks and 6 days.

I am thankful for this journey I am on and look forward to seeing where this next chapter will take me.