September Goals 2020

Whether it is the beginning of a year, the month, school season, or trimester, I love setting goals. While of course taking action is the key to achieving any goal you set, I feel that the act of writing down your intentions is half the battle. It has been almost two years since I have shared my monthly goals on this blog, but I am hopeful that reviving this style of post may serve both as a source of motivation for me to reach these aspirations and also inspiration for you to set your own goals for September.

Typically, I set rather specific goals with quantitative elements, as I feel that the more detailed your intentions are, the easier it is to make slow but steady progress. This September, however, I chose to set fewer, broader goals. Part of the reason I wanted to allow myself more flexibility in achieving these goals is because I am about to begin my senior year of high school. Along with balancing academics, much of my time this fall will be dedicated to working on my college applications, and so I want to be mindful of these commitments. Also, while I do have a variety of goals in distinct categories, I chose to simply share my main personal goals. 

Pleasure Reading 

If you know me personally or have read some of my other blog posts, you probably know that I love to read. For me, reading is not only a fun and engaging way to learn, but also an activity that relaxes me and relieves stress. Often it is difficult for me to read for pleasure during the academic year because I am so focused on school work, and I know this year will be even more busy with college applications. Perhaps that is even more of a reason to allow myself time to read for pleasure, however, as taking time off to do something you enjoy is so beneficial for mental health and to avoid burning out. Whether I am reading every night or simply a few of nights a week, forty or five pages per day, I would take a little bit of time off each week to read a book of my own.

Reflective Journaling

Reflective journaling is such a great exercise for relieving stress, practicing gratitude, and ensuring that you are in sync and listening to your inner self. In early spring, during the beginning of lockdown, I was journaled pretty consistently, though oftentimes I just crafted gratitude lists and did not really write much else. As summer approached, I started using my notebook more for to-do lists and organizational purposes. I only recently resumed traditional journaling this past week. It has been so enjoyable, and I am hopeful that journaling will not only help me to relieve some of the stresses associated with school, but also to keep my thoughts organized and to prevent me from becoming overwhelmed.

Consistent Blogging

As I mentioned in my post entitled My Blog: Reflecting on 2019 & Goals for 2020, one of my main goals for my blog this year was to upload more consistently throughout the academic year. In the beginning of my junior year, I did not upload a single blog post in September, October, or November, though I did ultimately did get back on track in December and have been pretty consistent since then. Of course, school is always my top priority, but as with the activities above, blogging is an outlet for me to both express my creativity and disconnect from the stresses of school life. In order to remain more consistent, I am going to try to utilize the scheduling feature on Blogger so that I can write posts in advance and publish them at more regular intervals.