Each year I set goals to help me focus on my priorities and grow as a person. I spend an hour or so each month looking back at what I’ve accomplished that past month and planning specific steps I can take to move forward during the next month.
2015 Goals
Professional
1. Add high school certification to my teaching license
-I’m so excited! After passing my PRAXIS test and submitting all of the necessary information to my state board of education, I am now certified in grades 6-12 English!
2. Develop a remediation curriculum for middle school English
-I taught a 6th grade English remediation class at my school last year. I also tutor after school and teach summer school. I hadn’t found a curriculum that I really liked for this group of kids, so I decided to make my own. It is working well so far!
3. Add 10 products to my Teachers Pay Teachers store
-I have now added 4 products. If you are a teacher or homeschooling parent, check out my post on selling on Teachers Pay Teachers! I plan on doing more work on my store over the summer.
Spiritual
4. Pray the Morning Prayers at least 4 times a week
-I am really excited at how much improvement we’ve made on this. I wrote about our new morning plan for including prayers here.
5. Read through the New Testament
-I am now finishing Ephesians
6. Read 3 spiritual books
-I have finished two: In the Heart of the Desert by Fr. John Chryssavgis and The Way of A Pilgrim translated by Olga Savin.
Family
7. Do one family outing a month
-This month we went on our family vacation to visit my husband’s parents and my parents. The last two weeks have been a series of family outings! 🙂
8. Have one date night a month (in or out of house)
–We had an evening where we played games and sat on the porch with a glass of wine. Simple. Perfect.
9. Watch 12 movies on AFI Top 100 list
-We have watched 9 so far.
Personal
10. Complete the 30 Day Abs Challenge
-I am beginning to despair of ever accomplishing this one. I’ve started at least three different times but always get bogged down around Day 10. Has anyone else tried this?
11. Run a 5K
-This month I will register for a 5K in October. Yikes! That sounds scary just saying it!
12. Publish one piece of writing
-I submitted my first guest post to Money Saving Mom in February. Then I recently had another post in June. Check them out!
13. Read 100 books
-73 so far! I’m definitely on track to complete this goal this year. When I started this challenge I thought it might be too outrageous. Now I’m excited that it seems completely reachable!
Altogether, July was a wonderful month of small victories and baby steps in the right direction.
How are you doing on your goals?
(Linked to Small Victories Sundays.)
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Sarah says
Congrats on your progress! I really need to beef up my teacherspayteachers store. It hasn’t been updated in a long time. Congrats on the AFI movie list, that’s only list of things to accomplish as well and some of those films are BORING. 🙂 This month I’m watching King Kong (from 1933 I think) and Dr. Strangelove.
Good luck!
Sarah says
We watched King Kong recently and had a lot of fun with it! There’s some pretty interesting interpretations of it out there (mostly about racism and suppressing African Americans). This month we’re going to watch In The Heat of the Night and I’m not sure what else!
david says
Sounds like quite a month. I like your simple approach to dates with your husband. Having real time is much more important than fancy/ expensive time. I was also glad to see you read Fr. John Chryssavgis’s book, In the Heart of the Desert. He is a excellent writer and so skilled at bringing the heart of the Fathers into our modern world and our struggle as Orthodox today.
Wish I could say I am on track to read 100 books. That is Great!
Thanks for your blog.
David
julie@frugallyblonde.com says
Great job on your goals! I love those summer nights on the porch with a glass of wine. We always lose track of time and it gets way too late, but it’s just so relaxing to sit and talk.
Sarah says
Thanks! Isn’t that one of the best things about summer? 🙂