Good day! Just a note, but this is the first official blog I've written directly from my new website on Shopify! Since we're into new things now, I thought I would reflect on quarter one with you and let you know what I accomplished and how I did. Question: do you set quarterly goals for yourself? I usually set goals for the year, break them down for the quarter, and then break them further down into monthly goals. In addition to that, I will add additional monthly goals that only make sense for that month. (i.e. If there was a birthday and I had to plan a party for one of my kids).
If you have been following along with my content, you will know that I use the Cultivate What Matters Powersheets Goal Planner. This is my main source of anything really, except for the brainstorming and thinking that precedes the actual goal planning. (I have been working on a new system of brain storming, but I have yet to decide how it's going to play into my routine and/or entire planning and journaling system).
As for Quarter one, I have to admit that I didn't have any super goals. I didn't travel anywhere, nor did I accomplish anything super important. I do notice that most of my goals within the quarter were more monthly goals than anything.
Since we were coming out of Christmas, it's always a hard time of year for us. Not that we overspent - we probably spent the least amount of money this year compared to the last ten. It's more because my husband was out of work over the holidays when the ground is frozen (he's a pipe fitter) and there's only so much other work to go around. So we laid low for the first few months of the year.
I can't say we did well in the finance department either since we had no money coming in until mid February. We couldn't save anything, but we are continuing to pay off our consumer proposal as well as our property tax bill. We fell behind on that when we had our son (who has cystic fibrosis). However, I was able to complete our taxes for 2025, and I got those in three months early! I always like getting that out of the way as soon as I'm able to.
I did set small, rewarding goals for myself to try to boost my morale over these harder times. I cleaned and organized a lot. I set a new cleaning and organizing schedule for myself. I try to clean and/or organize all areas of my house at least twice a year. By this, I mean areas such as the basement, the main coat closets, the cupboards, etc...
I also set a cleaning/chore chart for my kids but we are still working on that. It's hard to ingrain the habit when you have kids with ADHD. I also cleaned out my filing cabinet. That's always extremely rewarding because it feels fresh and new once it's done. I take important documents and save them in a box in my basement, and things that can be thrown away are shredded.
I do include my planner setups in my goals, but since my business kind of depends on that, it's something that always gets completed and I don't really need a reminder for that.
The two things that we did not accomplish that I would have liked to was sledding on the hill by our house with the kids, and going on a trip to Red Deer, even if it was for a regular weekend. This winter was too cold and bitter and we didn't have the money for gas.
All in all, I'm happy with my progress. I alway try to explain (to anyone) that having small goals that may seem insignificant are actually really important to have. If you are successful at these small (hopefully positive) tasks, it helps build good maintenance habits. If you have ever read the book, Atomic habits, you will know that the small things add up to greatness and that's how we succeed in life.
We don't have to climb the entire mountain in a day. Small distances help us gain traction each day and we'll still reach the end goal, it might just take a little longer. The important thing is that you're taking those small wins for yourself.
Thanks for reading and we'll see you next week!
Sandra
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