Wow, can you believe it’s already the second week of March? Holy cow, this year is flying! But the good news is it means it’s time for another round of goal-setting!

I mentioned in January when I introduced my One Little Word for 2013, DETERMINATION, that I planned to pair my word with four goals every month, themed around the phrase “This Month I’m Determined To…”, complete with a 6×6-inch inspiration card to keep my goals front & center throughout the month.

You can find templates for making your own monthly inspiration cards here.

This is what my February card looked like:

February 2013: Monthly Goal Update

So how did I do my February goals?

Well, I’m not going to sugarcoat it, this month was a bit of a bust, haha. If I’m feeling generous I’d say I completed 1 out of 4 but even that’s a stretch.

1 & 2 definitely didn’t happen, although I did start #2 so that’s something! #3 would have happened but once we found out we were going to be moving, I decided it didn’t make much sense to do it now. Luckily our new place should have an even better space for it.

And #4 is the one I’d say I completed but not really – definitely didn’t achieve 2x a week but since we went on a big trip with lots of hiking, I figure time-wise it balances out. So maybe half a point?

Looking back I think there are two reasons for that:

1) After the high of January, I was a bit too ambitious with my goal-setting this month. There were quite a few big time consuming items on there that I’m not sure I really had time to commit to, especially not all at once. Not to mention that all of the goals were big enough that I’m not sure I really believed when I set them that I could achieve them.

2) I included too many shoulds instead of wants. I want my goals to be fun & inspiring not a re-hash of my regular to-do list.

So what am I planning to do differently in March? Here are a few things:

1) Simplify, simplify, simplify. I love big scary goals but I also want my monthly goals to be realistic and achievable. There’s nothing worse than feeling like why try before you even start. So I need to make sure to make more little goals that I can easily check off rather than ones that are too daunting to finish.

2) Track my progress. As part of her I Choose class at Big Picture Classes, Elise included some printable goal tracker sheets. I’m planning to print out one for each goal so I can track my tasks as well as my successes. I also think I’ll print out a different calendar just for goal planning/tracking.

3) Don’t be too hard on myself. I’ll admit when I first realized the end of February was here and I hadn’t accomplished any of my goals, my first thought was “I suck and I totally failed this month.” Really the answer is I didn’t, my priorities just ended up being different than I thought they would be. It happens. This is the great thing about setting monthly goals – it allows you to reassess and start fresh every month. Love that.

March 2013 Goal-Setting

So with that in mind, here’s the digital version of my goals inspiration card for March:

And here’s what it looks like hanging above my desk. I may end up moving it back towards my to-do list but for now I’m liking that it’s capturing my attention again simply by being in a different place. Sometimes you gotta just switch things up to make things happen!

I’m not going to lie, I had a tough time coming up with goals this month. For some reason I was feeling a lot of stress & anxiety over which ones to choose. Adam said he thought it was because we have a lot to do before our move but I think it’s more that I’m still trying to find that balance for big vs little goals and personal vs business goals.

Last month I felt my goals were too big/business-focused so this month I’m focusing on tasks I want to do just for me. Our big task this month is to start purging and sorting in preparation for our move since Adam will be gone for training a big chunk of April, so I tried to keep my other goals small and fun.

Considering as soon as I started putting together my inspiration card, I was already feeling motivated to start, I’d say I’m on the right track.

One Little Word 2013: February Assignment

I mentioned last month that one of the ways I’m staying in touch with my One Little Word this year is through Ali Edward’s One Little Word class at Big Picture Classes. This month’s assignment was to create a vision board based around your word. I’ll admit, I procrastinated horribly about doing it but once I started, it was actually fun!

Ali’s example was on a 16×20-inch canvas but I wanted something a little smaller so I went with a 14×18-inch canvas which seemed like a good size.

I decided to do this all paper as opposed to digital so I started by ripping a bunch of pages that had words/images I liked out of a stack of magazines (mostly Real Simple & one Oprah magazine). Then I started layering the big images first…

And kept adding bits until I had a design I liked…

Next came the glueing stage. I’d planned to use this Matte Medium I had on hand since it said it was good for collage on bottle and I figured it’d be similar to mod podge. Uh, no, totally wrong. This stuff didn’t work at all! All it did was wrinkle the paper and make it curl up so it wouldn’t stick at all.

This was also the time Adam chose to come home from work and my frustration must have been showing because his response to me was “Uh, I think this is why you do digital.” LOL!

I eventually resorted to a combination of a regular old gluestick and my trusty tape runner. Worked WAY better and didn’t wrinkle all the paper. The only downside was the tape runner is permanent so I couldn’t adjust things after I placed them, so there’s a few items not quite where I wanted them but I figure this isn’t really the kind of project where perfection is required.

Here’s what my finished DETERMINATION vision board looks like…

I did end up spraying it with a clear spray to seal it but since the edges of some of the small pieces are sticking up still, I may glue those down a little better. Overall I’m really happy with it! I love the bold colors and the mix of type – very me. Not sure where I’m going to put it yet but I’m thinking somewhere near my desk so I can see every day.

Well that’s it for this March edition of 2013 Goal-Setting! How’d your February goal-setting go? What do you have planned for March?

Psst…what to get in on the monthly goal-setting action? Pick up your own copy of the 2013 Monthly Goal-Tracker Templates or OLW Goal-tastic 2013 Goal-Setting Bundle at Sweet Shoppe Designs.

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