Celebrating the wins!

I’m not going to be shy about saying I feel like I’ve really killed it in the past month! I’ve had so many wins with 365 Day Project I’ve practically been leaping out of bed every morning and embracing each day. I feel like I’ve had a new lease on life and it’s been so encouraging I’ve got so many people supporting me, encouraging me and joining me on this journey, so again, thank you. 

Another month has been and gone (where is 2012 disappearing to?!) but I had some fantastic wins, and I’m starting to tick off a lot of my goals for the year up until June 30, 2013. I’ve had a lot of people ask me how I came up with this list and tips for starting one themselves – this list is made up of things I’ve always wanted to do, should’ve done ages ago or things I’ve always made excuses for. Ask you friends what are those things you always say you want to do, but never actually do, and that should form a lot of your list! Please let me know if you’ve started a blog with a similar idea, I’d love to follow you and support you along the way! 🙂

Wins for August..

3. Go to the GYM 3 times a week – CHECK

I’ve been absolutely smashing this goal thanks to beginning the Michelle Bridges’ 12 Week Body transformation! Part of this program encourage participants to exercise SIX times a week, so I’ve definitely been batting this one out of the park. I’m loving my 5.45am workouts, I begin the day feeling alive and refreshed and ready to throw myself into whatever the day brings! A few posts ago I challenged you to try an early morning workout, and a lot of my friends have tried it with great results. If you haven’t tried it yet – PLEASE do!! I cannot tell you more how fantastic I’ve been feeling, and combined with my clean-eating with the delicious 12WBT recipes, I’ve lost 6KG over the past 3 weeks since I started 🙂 Today I completed the 9KM Sydney Running Festival Bridge Run and I am already looking forward to doing it again next year as well as the City2Surf and improving my time for both!!

4. Find a mentor – CHECK

It’s said that too often mentorships never begin because mentees are too afraid to ask someone they admire to mentor them! After a few weeks of putting it off, I finally got around to asking someone to mentor me and I am so glad I did! We met up for the first time last Thursday and it was so great to just have someone to chat with about life, to be encouraged and to pray together. Wisdom from the generations before us is seriously underrated, so if mentoring is something you’ve been considering, STOP PUTTING IT OFF and ask that person you’ve been admiring from a far! I’m really looking forward to sharing our journey together!

12. Amp up my blog hits – CHECK

So in my original goal setting I said I wanted to reach 2,000 hits by December 31, 2012. I’m SO happy to say it’s September and I’ve already reached 2,283 hits!! Unbelievable! Thanks for coming back again and again, it means so much to me and I hope I’ve been able to encourage you in some way or another! I wanted 5,000 hits by June 30, 2013 but hey, let’s aim high and reach that by December 31!!! I’ve recently learnt about the ‘social media calendar’ concept, basically mapping out various posts by dates by pinpointing particular events that may be of interest so I’m going to commit to doing this for the remainder of September to make sure I’ve got some content continually coming your way! 😉

Making progress…

6. Learn 24 new dishes

If you follow me on instagram you’ll see that 12WBT has been turning me into a bit of a Masterchef in the kitchen. Every meal I make has been completely new to me and has been healthy AND delicious! This week I’ll blog about one of my favourites in the past month as that was my promise in this goal, so you’ll be able to give it ago too… check out the picture though, hopefully it’ll make you want to come back for the recipe!!

5. Host bi-monthly dinners for newbies at church

We haven’t had one of these yet! So we’ve need 2 to catch up. We’ve got one locked in for the next fortnight, so we’re looking forward to a night of great fun, fellowship, food and board games!! We’ve been so blessed with our apartment, and now I’ve got some confidence in the kitchen we’re looking forward to opening up our home to others!

Needs improvement…

18. Read Jane Austen’s anthology

So I’ve just been achieving the “read a novel a month” goal, so haven’t even started delving into Jane yet! I’m planning to get stuck into Sense and Sensibility later this month as soon as I finish the Messenger 🙂

20. Date night once a month

We’ve definitely had spontaneous dates (like a gorgeous Spring picnic in the sun last Sunday!) but need to make a more concerted effort to really book in our dinner dates each month to make sure we get through the different cuisines as planned 🙂

Phew! Well that’s enough updating for now; I’m ready to take on the next 2 weeks of this month with a focus on the things I need to improve but also still kicking butt in the areas I’ve achieved some wins. 2 challenges for this ahead for you – try an early morning workout (doensn’t have to be at 6am, 8am is great if you normally begin your day at 9am) and find a mentor and sum up the courage to ask them to mentor you; I am sure they will flattered by the privilege of sharing life with you!!

PS – Join my online book club! I talked about it here yesterday.