I’m one of the people that has a stack of books to be read. I’m constantly updating my good reads “to read” shelf. But I’m happy to report that this year I made a HUGE dent in my reading goals.
Links to books (all are Chapters Indigo, but you could check amazon or any local book retailer)
We are 18 days out from 2023. I hope between the get togethers, holiday meals and gift giving your are making time for YOU. As a mom of daughters, with a full fledge and progressive career with ambitions of growing my business – goal setting has always been my thing.
But with the new year I definitely try to be more intentional.
Below is the process I’ve developed over the years + sharing my vision board capturing visual cues of all the areas I’m setting goals in (wellness, learning, career promotion, financial abundance, family, friends and world travel).
Retrospective on the past year: I use the life audit wheel and do an audit of the areas of my life that went really well (10) and the areas that I felt I could have put more effort towards or that could have gone better (1 being the lowest on the scale)
Write in words what the life audit showed me: This is really about writing down what went well and what didnt. So now you have two representations of the past year.
Get clear on what you want to achieve: Now taking the written retrospective, write down all the things you want to achieve. Be as detailed as possible. And also make room to jot down the feeling you have when you think about these achievements. And most importantly, write down actionable steps to get where you want to be (full disclosure: this will take you more than one sitting)
Pinterest, pinterest, PINTEREST! You are gonna grab all images that show you achieving everything you clearly articulated in step 3.
Make you vision board: Now you are going to make a visual representation of what you wrote in 3. Before you make your vision board, make a gratitude list, meditate, light a candle, clense your crystals – just be in the most receiving space you can be in! Once you love what you’ve created (also: this could take a few tries) PRINT it out, save to all of your desktop wallpapers & make sure you look at it multipe times a day.
You’ll notice a pattern here, we think, write and visualize. Repeatedly. Why? Because the brain can’t tell the difference between something actually happening/how it feels when you achieve something vs when you just think about achieving it & feel the feelings. Once you brain believes you’ve achieved it, you’ll starting behaving in a way and taking actions in the direction of that achievement.
BONUS: Do future journalling – everyday of the new year, potentially as part of your morning journalling practice. This is where you write down everything of the day as it it’s already happened (ie: these will be the actionable steps you wrote down in 3 aboce). Again tricking your brain into thinking you’ve already achieved the accomplishment but on a daily basis.
I need to raise a glass! A cocktail glass full of a strong espresso martini!
Today is the day that I finally launched the digital planner that I first realized I needed to create 5 years ago!
And I realized that I needed to say something about ideas. All the ideas that ever was and every is have already been ideated. The only thing left is for us to uniquely execute the idea. The uniqueness comes when we put our own spin on an idea – that’s the easy part! But execution is where perfection and fear can get in the way! And it’s the fear and perfection that prevented me from executing!
Suffice to say – we should keep practicing the execution. Because success comes from 10% of an idea and 90% of execution!
I just logged into my blog and saw that I have a dozen or so posts sitting in drafts! I know we are in the age of 150 characters and dizzy transition videos…but I love long form media just like I love my spring bound planner and books from the library. So I’ll keep blogging until the internet is taken off line LOL
Today was mothers day and I for some reason was feeling exhausted. So a little story time. I’m still recovering from this crazy thing that’s taken over the globe. Two areas I’m trying to get back to base level are my workouts and my mental concentration. I’m giving myself grace but lets just say that 2km is the most I can do and skipping journalling for scrolling mindlessly are what I’m trying to work through.
Well I took it a little easier with February and decided on a fiction read that I knew was already streaming ;)
Little fires everywhere by Celeste Ng
Usually when I start a book, it takes me a few pages or at least a chapter before I start to connect the dots and actually start to “listen” (read: pay attention) to what’s going on. Which means I don’t always get the story line right away. I also didn’t follow the story until Moody was watching Pearl from afar after biking to her new home. What really drew me to the story initially was Mia’s story line. I loved that she is a mixed media artist and a photographer in the truest sense. This book was full of little twists and turns but in a way that wasn’t too abrupt or aggressive. Seeing the juxtaposition between privilege and humble family lives was both lovely and painful. I enjoyed how the author made little links between Mia and Elena’s life (as mothers, women creating careers/pursing their life’s work and as humans living a traditional and not so traditional North American life). Another small detail I love about this book – it’s set in the 90s!
In my head I imagined Mia/Pearl to be Asian (in the book their race is unspecified but not in the show adaptation). And it wasn’t until we learn that Lexie is in an interracial couple that I noticed that race was an underlying theme of the book. I really appreciated that the novel talks about race, biases and the way a community my think they are “doing better” than the rest of the world/country.
If you need a weekend read or a vacation read. Or just a break from the business/strategy/self development books (like me) I would definitely suggest picking this book up!
I’ve been trying to read 20+ pages a day which has really helped me to read more efficiently. And because of that I managed to finish 2 books in a little over a month! I’m trying to diversify what I read because I’ll normally read business/strategy/career books and get bored and not want to read for a while. Or read thriller/suspense/fiction one after another and then I feel like I’m consuming without learning anything. So to prevent that – I switch it up (ie: thriller, followed by business, followed by fiction, followed by self growth, followed by thriller etc). It’s a good way to stay motivated and the habit of reading a certain number of pages of day helps too! Read on to see my reviews :)
How Women Rise by Sally Helgesen and Marshall Goldsmith
This book had me nodding in agreement throughout! The authors present 12 habits that women specifically do to serve them well earlier in their career – actually end up holding them back when they further their career. What I really like about this book is that they talk about women-specific behaviours that I’ve learned also learned from other sources (like women not speaking up for their accomplishments). The peer reviewed sense of it really made me feel like these things I do are common to all women and I shouldn’t feel bad. More specifically, the habits of building relationships and never leveraging them or try to be perfectionists – I was immediately able to see the habit in me and other women I knew. With each habit, the book provided an example and actions to overcome it. A great book and something I will reference and read again.
This book is about a close knit community and the strange things they know about one another and the efforts they go to preserve what they believe to be the truth about their neighbours. The story reads well and although I wouldn’t say it’s a page-turner, it was definitely something that kept me engrossed. Harper’s roommate is sentenced to 20 years in prison for a crime. But her conviction is overturned which sends all of her accusing neighbours into a frenzy (and against Ruby). Including Harper, who although believed Ruby to be innocent, but now wants to remain on the inside with her community. There are twists, turns and random pieces of information that don’t necessarily add to the story but are still interesting info about the characters. Definitely a great vacation ready! *fingers crossed* we’ll be able to take vacations this year ;)
