Hey. Welcome back. Thank you for reading this post!
At the beginning of each month, I always feel like I need to start fresh. In my mind, it’s the time to spring clean and set new goals and (hopefully) set up a plan to achieve them. However, I always find myself scrambling to do the minimum and before I know it, it’s already the 7th of the month. At that point, I say to myself, “the month is already done, I’m not gonna bother to set up anymore.” And the cycle continues…
So recently, I decided to just put together a little list of 5 things to do to start a new month. I made it fool-proof for myself and simple. If there’s too much to do, I simply won’t do it.
Here are a few things I do to get started in a new month!
- I create/ research new affirmations for the month. A lot of them I find on Pinterest. A few I create according to my circumstances. If you check out my Instagram (@herlifenotyours), one of my most recent posts was my affirmations for the month of May. I try to include everything from relationships, to finances, to work and I keep any negative wording out of it. For example, instead of saying “I don’t want to spend any money unnecessarily”, I’ll say “I will spend my money wisely.” I kind of slacked in reciting them in the month of June, so I transferred the same ones to July.
- I do my basic beauty routine. This includes shaving my face, changing my toothbrush head and adding a new colour to my wardrobe. Shaving my face helps my skincare goes on better and my face smoother for days when I wear makeup. And my wardrobe is all neutrals (see what new neutrals I bought!), so every month, I try to rotate which pop of colour I enjoy the most. I also toss 3 panties and 3 pairs of socks because I recognized that a lot of my undergarments are old and I tend to hold on to them for some strange reason.
- I do a deep clean of my room. I dust my mirrors and my bed frame. I snake the drains in my washroom. I wipe down the window frames. If it’s needed, I’ll change my shower curtain. I just try to do the bigger tasks that take me longer to complete and that instantly lift the mood and cleanliness in my room.
- Planning. I absolutely love to bullet journal. The creativity and freedom of expression and being able to customize it every month or week or daily. However, I’ve started to do most of my planning and creating my to-do lists digitally and use my bullet journal for just journalling in the morning. So every month, I decided to dedicate some pages to tracking healthy habits and writing down memories. I find that when I’ve looked back on previous months (and even years) of bullet journaling, I can remember the time and space I was in when I re-read something. I want to ensure that I’m keeping memories of all the good things that are happening. I also, occasioanlly, select a new Bible plan. However, I usually do the daily Bible readings on the YouVersion app.
- Finally, I fast. I’m not sure if I’m supposed to talk about fasting. I know it’s an agreement between myself and God for specific purposes. But, I do attempt this every month. For the first 3 days, I try not to listen to any music besides gospel, I try to avoid Youtube (which, if I’m being honest, I failed this month), and generally try to avoid anything that I know distracts me from recognizing God’s mercy in my life. It might vary from month to month. I’ve tried to avoid meat and have even done traditional fasting where I don’t eat until a certain time. The general goal is to reset my focus on what is most important and remove anything I know will distract me from it.
That’s it! That’s what I (try to) do every month. I usually do this at the end of the month or the first 3 days. Let me know in a comment if there’s anything you do to start a new month. I’m always looking for suggestions!
Have a beautiful day,
HL