The month of May was one that I would prefer to avoid repeating. There were things that went terribly wrong and things that will forever leave my heart more broken than before.
Looking back on May, these are the moments in May that stand out the most.
We had to put our dog, Oscar down. We got him when he was 5 weeks old and he was going to be 12 this year. This will be one of the hardest days that we will have gone through as a family.
I was fired from my job. There really is nothing to say about this as it isn’t worth my energy.
My middle child turned 12!! I have NO IDEA how this is even possible. It was so much fun taking her to the movies with her friends. It brought me back to when I was 12 and hanging out with my friends.
I restarted blogging and this is my third week of being consistent with two blog posts per week.
My blogging numbers during the Rebuild Your Blog Challenge have increased more than I expected them to. (Nothing better than that!!) From my current numbers on May 30, my sessions are up by 757%, my page views are up by 733%, and the users are up by 475%.
I feel like I am going into the month of June so much stronger than I went into May. I am excited to see what happens over the next month. I am back to sharing my blogging and business goals every month.
It is time to stay accountable and keep moving forward. Before we dive into the goals that I have set for the month of June, let’s talk about steps that you can take for goal setting.
ACTIONABLE STEPS TO SET AND REACH THE GOALS YOU SET
We could all use some help with the goal-setting process and I wanted to share some tips with you. I love setting goals. It gives me clarity on what it is that I want to achieve and the direction that I want to go with my business, life, and blog. These actionable steps will provide a solid foundation to help guide you to success.
1: Know and define your vision
Think of your monthly goals as a roadmap to your bigger goals and vision that you want to achieve. This means that you need to know where you want to be in the future and what it is that you want to accomplish.
Knowing your vision is going to help you to continuously move forward when creating your monthly goals. You want all of these goals to guide you to your destination.
2: Set S.M.A.R.T goals
I am sure that we have all heard this before. What does S.M.A.R.T. stand for?
Specific: You need to clearly define what it is that you want to achieve.
Measurable: You need to know how to track your progress. What are milestones or metrics that you can use to help you with this step?
Achievable: You need to set goals that are within your reach but still require you to get uncomfortable to help you grow.
Relevant: Make sure that they are relevant to who you are including your values, aspirations, and your life vision.
Time-bound: You want your goals to come with a deadline.
3: Break down the goals into steps
Some of the goals that we create can feel overwhelming. To make them more manageable, you are going to want to break them down into smaller steps. Think of this as creating a roadmap of milestones that will lead you to the bigger goal. This way you can focus on one step at a time, making smaller strides that you can celebrate along the way.
4: Create your action plan
I love action plans. It gives me control of the goals that I am going for. It gives me a plan for how to move forward. A lot of time, this is where we can get stuck. How do we create an action plan when we don’t know how to achieve our goal? I have been here before.
Grab a piece of paper so that you can now do some fun brainstorming.
Write your monthly goal at the top of the page
Write down the steps that you can take to get to that goal
Write down the resources that you will need to achieve those steps
Write down the date that you would like to achieve this by
Check in with yourself every week to see how you are doing with the actions
When creating your action plan, you can take it a step forward and take all of this information and put it into a giant calendar. This allows you to take it a step further and know what needs to be done on what day in order to reach your goal.
5: Take consistent and intentional action
Unfortunately, it isn’t enough to put it down on paper for your dreams to manifest. You now need to put all this brainstorming to work. You are going to need to build positive habits that support your goals and prioritize your time effectively.
I have said this before but you need to be clear on how much time you have to achieve your goals. If you work full-time on top of trying to run a blog and a business, you will have less time than someone who works part-time or who doesn’t work outside of the home. The same goes for someone who has children.
We all have outside factors that are going to affect how much time we have to work on the goals that we are trying to achieve. Be honest with yourself but remember that small steps taken consistently can lead to significant progress over time.
6: Honestly monitor your progress
Why did I add honestly in this one? Because there are times when we will make excuses for why we are not showing up. I have done it before and I am sure that I will do it again. Excuses don’t help me when I am trying to build a business or even my blog. No matter, how much I want to believe the excuses that I tell myself, I know there is something else that is behind them.
As I said earlier, check in with yourself weekly. This allows you to evaluate how the week went. What went well and what didn’t go well? How can you improve it for the following week? Be honest with this evaluation. No one else needs to see it and it is only going to give you the tools to move forward.
7: Find someone to help you stay accountable
This ties in with number six. Having someone who is going to check in with you and help you stay accountable is a great way to monitor your progress. Seeking support from others can significantly impact your goal achievement.
These individuals are going to provide you with encouragement, advice, and accountability to keep moving forward. I am opening up my Goal Accountability Membership again. If you are looking for a group that will support you, this group is for you. For only $22/CAD per month, we will have a monthly brainstorming session and a weekly check-in session.
Now that we have covered the actionable steps that you need to take, let’s talk about my blogging and business goals for the month of June.
BLOGGING GOALS FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE
I am going into June strong when it comes to my blogging game and that makes me so excited. The Rebuild Your Blog Challenge will continue in my Facebook group, Becoming The Blogger Within. I’d love for you to join us! I do a quick video every day (almost daily) that gives you an action step. Today I will be sharing day 10 of the challenge.
This is giving me the accountability to continue to move forward with my blogging and has helped my numbers increase and continue to increase.
Goal 1: Double my blogging numbers from where they are now
I have seen HUGE growth in my numbers as you can see from the numbers I shared above but I am ready to continue to see this growth. That means that I need to keep showing up consistently.
Goal 2: Increase my Pinterest content plan
Again, since the Rebuild Your Blog Challenge, I have seen a HUGE increase in my Pinterest numbers. My impressions are up 466%, my engagement is up 466%, my audience is up 409%, and my engaged audience is up 209%.
Now that I am seeing this increase, I need to come up with a Pinterest strategy that is going to work for me. Ideally, I would like to publish 3 new pins per day. I know that I am going to need help to do this. I am thinking of getting one of my kids to help with this as I have done that in the past. It gives them money to spend as well as helps them learn how to use Pinterest and how to create graphics and content.
Goal 3: Continue with 2 blog posts per week
For the month of June, I may add an additional two blogs per month. This would mean that I would publish two new posts every other week and then on the alternating week, I would publish three new blog posts.
This is a big undertaking and I need to have a plan going in. This will include having guest bloggers for my website to help with this demand. If you are looking to be a guest blogger, I’d love to have you on my website! Please reach out.
Those are the goals that I am setting for the month of June when it comes to blogging. Now let’s dive into business goals.
BUSINESS GOALS FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE
Now that my blog is coming back to life, I feel like I can move forward in my business. I have a few things that I am working on so that I can continue to grow.
I jump in feet first when it comes to anything business related. If something doesn’t work out then I can figure out a different program to create or a different direction to go into. If I overthink things, I get stuck in that process and that doesn’t help anyone.
Goal 1: Get 3-5 women in my Goal Accountability Membership
I love being able to be the support system for others. I love being the accountability that someone needs to keep moving forward.
I have been there. I know what it is like to want to give up and I want those around me to know that they have my full support. This membership is a great way to meet like-minded women who want to support you and see you grow. Plus at only $22/month, it is a great way to keep moving forward when all you want to do is give up.
Goal 2: Get 3-5 women signed up for Splash Into Blogging Incubator
I absolutely love teaching and coaching people. It brings so much happiness to me and that is why I love this incubator. It gives the participants 9 different workshops while also giving them a support system to move their blogs to the next level.
This incubator is for beginner bloggers who have been blogging anywhere from 1 month to 12 months. It is going to help them refine their blog while building a content strategy to help them build a readership.
Again, this program is all about support and having help to move forward. This program is 9 weeks long and you will get weekly calls, monthly brainstorming sessions, and more. To learn more about the incubator, check last week’s blog post here.
Goal 3: Increase my email list
I have been getting back into sharing with my email list. I will admit that this is one thing that I am consistent at and I am sure that my subscribers are hating the yoyo effect that has been happening.
I am ready to give them the love that they deserve. I have been sending a weekly email to them for two weeks now. I want to create some new freebies so that I can breathe some new life into my list.
If you aren't on my email list, here is my most popular opt-in, The Blog Post Creation Map.
PERSONAL GOALS FOR THE MONTH OF JUNE
I wanted to add another section to this blog post and share a few of the personal goals that I have for the month of June. Personally, May was not easy and it has required a lot of looking within and a re-evaluation of what is important to me and what isn’t. These goals are going to help me continue to do that while deepening every other aspect of my life.
Goal 1: Walk every day
I went for a walk yesterday and I have decided that every day at 11 am, I will be walking. I am not going to lie but my legs are a bit sore after the walk that I did yesterday. During my walk, I had an idea come to my head and so I decided that it will be included in every walk that I do.
I took my shoes and socks off and grounded. You can also call this Earthing. This is where you go barefoot and connect with nature. There are a few benefits of this including…
Lowers your stress levels
Improves your immune system
Increase your energy
Restore balance to the body
Speed wound healing
Helps to balance hormones
I’d love to hear if you ground daily.
Goal 2: Enjoy and soak in every moment with my family
I am going to see my family in June and I am so excited. I really want to soak in every moment that I can with them. This is our time to make memories and I can’t wait!!!
Goal 3: Continue with morning pages
Three days ago I started doing morning pages. If you haven’t heard of this, Julia Cameron was the creator of morning pages as a fundamental part of the book, The Artist’s Way. This is a way to do automatic writing and get all of those thoughts that take up space, out of our head.
I will admit that I am finding them harder than I expected to. I have so many thoughts going through my head but I am finding it hard to put them down on paper, to assign actual words to those thoughts.
I set my timer for 20 minutes and just write whatever comes to mind. I do this first thing in the morning so that I can start my day with a clear head.
These are my main focuses for the month of June. I am doing a few other things along with them but these are the ones that I truly want to grow and that I feel are going to help me most with digging deep and figuring out what I want with my life.
Have you set goals for yourself? Are you ready to take control of your life and keep moving forward? I would love to hear the goals that you have set for yourself in the comments. If you are looking for support, come and join the Goal Accountability Membership. We are starting June 1.
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