July Reflections - What I Loved, What I Learned & How I Can Improve

Where the hell did July go? It whizzed by in the blink of an eye. I am slowly learning that the more I reflect, the more I learn and the more I want to improve. It's like an ongoing never-ending cycle, but a good one. With each month, comes the need for acceptance in certain areas of life and I discover that there are some areas I have been focusing on, that perhaps I no longer need, or want to change. Things I Loved About July I read a lot of Medium articles, I commented and clapped for those I enjoyed and I now share 5 of my favourite articles each Thursday on various platforms and again on Sundays in my round-up post. https://thisisstillme.medium.com/5-of-my-favourite-articles-on-medium-this-week-with-a-befitting-bonus-article-c2a8c367d770?source=friends_link&sk=f1e5e4cc7239982dddde55affcddc31f https://thisisstillme.medium.com/5-articles-i-read-on-medium-that-inspired-and-motivated-me-to-keep-going-41a5314deff4?source=friends_link&sk=92a565cd3a8e3f2bf1b1788c7c22e762 https://thisisstillme.medium.com/5-articles-on-medium-that-boosted-my-mood-my-motivation-8b1e0a6cff00?source=friends_link&sk=d7611ea73d217a2ec916da0eee81ac30 https://thisisstillme.medium.com/5-articles-on-medium-that-resonated-with-me-on-finding-my-purpose-1ccc1461c042?source=friends_link&sk=e561e199974e46358d46a3305a882648 I honestly do enjoy reading articles from other writers and I think it's important to share them with my readers as they may enjoy them too. After doing that, I decided to branch outside of the bubble of Medium and share things I come across during my week, whether that be a TV program, podcast, email or online article. I get quite a lot of good recommendations myself this way, so again why not share a good recommendation? I have now started sharing 5 things I've seen and hard each Sunday. https://thisisstillme.medium.com/things-ive-seen-and-heard-this-week-b18200481ca3?source=friends_link&sk=becc0d7395387c2c9b1829404d99d21c https://thisisstillme.medium.com/5-things-ive-seen-heard-in-the-last-week-aa1669934a15?source=friends_link&sk=7b21816111c6f12cc2f5948c2f6c9aee https://thisisstillme.medium.com/3-very-different-tv-shows-a-challenge-an-update-on-an-old-mystery-eda8c426b66c?source=friends_link&sk=1fa04873db8342b507c52215ae9108d5 I spent a lot of time with friends this month, catch ups, lunches and birthday celebrations. We've sat inside our houses, outside in the sun, gone to restaurants and danced the night away and I have enjoyed each and every moment. I want to continue to spend some time with friends each week. I took some downtime, even though I was kind of forced to. I sat down, watched TV, read books and sat in the garden with Toby, watching him frolic with the butterflies. Once I reminded myself that it's not "lazy" to have a little chill out now and then, I really enjoyed it. What I Learned Planning my writing time in advance. I was writing my posts the day before I wanted to publish them, I was making mistakes because I wasn't proofreading properly and I was getting overwhelmed. Now, I plan my week, what content I will write and on which days, making sure I allow myself sufficient time to proofread before scheduling. It's working really well so far and I can now have days off from writing if I want to. Reviewing my morning routine every now and then. Life changes and things happen, so as well as planning my writing time for the week, I also review my morning routine. I started waking up at 7 am each morning. This gives me some time to myself before the husband gets up for work, but it's also good for my sleep routine. Whilst on holiday, we are all getting up early to visit the theme parks and when we're not, I'm up early still, giving me time to write, catch up on messages or just have a little read and a cup of tea (I brought some Earl Grey for this very thing) Everything will be ok. I catastrophise, I know this now. If something goes wrong, I think the worst. If the husband and I argue, I think my marriage is over, if someone doesn't reply to a message, I think I have upset them. It can be exhausting. It doesn't happen every day, thank God! But when it does, it can be pretty horrible. I am slowly learning to ride with the emotions, even though it can be very painful at times, I remind myself it will be over, not to make any rash decisions and if I must let out the thoughts in my head, to do it via writing, rather than speaking as nine times out of ten, I will want to delete those words within a day or two. How I Can Improve I would like to work on my confidence in my writing. Whilst I am much more confident in publishing on various platforms, when it comes to pitching articles and putting myself out there into the world and making some money, I freeze. I still haven't set up my LinkedIn profile, finding excuse after excuse not to do it. I know I need to just get on with it so this is something I want to really work hard on in August. I'm hoping to get my blog routine flowing, which will free me up some time to work on articles that I can pitch. I have so many ideas! I need to stop giving myself huge to-do lists. I am going to decide on the number of tasks per day I am comfortable with and stick with that, if I need to add something to my to do list, then I need to take something off. I would also like to get more movement in my days. I downloaded the FIIT app a couple of weeks ago and did a couple of classes before I came away. Whilst on holiday, I'll be doing LOTS of walking, I want to keep the momentum up when I get back and make sure I have at least three exercise sessions planned for each week. What do you learn about yourself in July?