Around this time last year, I released this particular printable to help people set their goals for 2015 in a way that takes the pressure off and gets you to respond from your gut.
I started sharing it and then the magic started happening when Carrie Green of the Female Entrepreneur Association created this video around it:
Soooo many people came over to my little corner of the blogging world and downloaded the printable after that!
Now that the year is coming to an end, I've been hearing back from lots of people who are saying that many of their goals on this nifty little printable have come true!
Truly, the first step to achieving anything is harnessing the power that comes with writing down what it is that you want.
And that's why I've started making printables - to help more people write down more goals. If I can get you excited about filling in boxes with your wildest hopes and dreams, I've succeeded here. And as of today, thousands of people have downloaded this printable and done just that.
Once again I come to you with another MID month printable. Haha! Honestly, the reason they're mid month lately is because I've been all over the place literally with travel and big events, but I'm actually starting to think that MID MONTH PLANNING is just as valuable as planning at the beginning of the month because it gets you to REVIEW and readjust your sails if you've gotten a bit off course.
(It's not necessary to subscribe to anything in order to receive this printable, but if you DO want to stay in the loop and always know when I release a new printable, then click on the box at the very end of this blog post.)
Since it's already November 15 and I'm just getting this printable out today, I'm titling it "Hello Mid-November." I've been travelling for the last 2 weeks and just left Paris hours before the attack that left over 120 people dead. I can't believe it, please pray for the people there and the people everywhere who are victims of the violence that is happening right now.
This month's printable focuses on gratitude and moving forward. I started working on it on the plane and finished it up here at a bed and breakfast in Japan where I'm wrapping up my trip.
Hello September! Every year feels like it goes by super fast and I think 2015 is the fastest year EVER. It's also been one of the best years ever and the best is still yet to come!
So this month, I'm doing something a little bit different to introduce this printable in the Hello Month series. I am going to share my answers with you. Names and personal details will be replaced with "X".
Whenever my mind or schedule feels particularly all over the place, I approach my day from the foundation of mind-mapping it all out first.
Mind-mapping allows you to write the way you think - with one thought branching off into another and then another. When it comes to planning my day, I mind-map in two ways - depending on the kind of day I'm having...
Can you do me a favour and hover over the image above and "Pin It" to Pinterest? Thank you. :)
And just like that, it's August. haha. SO! New month, new goals, new energy, fresh start. When I create these printables, the questions and prompts I come up are just what come to my mind. Two things have been on my mind lately: Self-Care and Passive Income.
I'm starting to read a book called The One Thing. It opens up with how people are working harder than ever in an age of unlimited opportunity and yet many people still can't quite get out of the hectic ping-pong frenzy of home - work - home - work - home - work and the feeling of never getting ahead of the game.
Before I started creating passive income and understanding the concept of leverage, I was stuck on that ping-pong table. I used to run a coffee shop, spinning a dozen plates - literally and mentally. Knowing that I didn't want to be doing that long-term helped me make the decision to shut it down.
When we take the time to plan out our focus and goals for the month, it is so. much. easier. to plan out our weeks and days and feel like we're operating in harmony with a bigger vision for our lives.
This particular printable is extra special because it's from my Ultimate Life Binder kit and it has a section at the bottom reserved for reviewing the last 30 days at the end of each month.
What if the goal that you're working on took 2 weeks to achieve instead of 12 months?
What if the level that you're working to reach in your business took 2 months instead of 2 years?
This is something I've been learning lately: We give ourselves too much time to complete something and, by doing so, we actually make the process of achieving our goal harder than it needs to be.
We need to start using our brain power in more creative and urgent ways. It takes very little creativity to map out how we can make something happen over the course of one to two years, but what if we really put our minds to work for us and entertained the "crazy idea" of making something big happen 5x sooner?
When I look back over anything significant I've achieved, it always took however long of a time I gave myself to make it happen.
I'm sure you've heard of the Parkinson's Law: "Work expands to fill the time available for its completion." Well, here are a couple of times when I took a big goal and made it happen in a matter of weeks when I used to think it would take much longer...
Can you do me a favour and hover over the printable above and click on the "Pin It" button to share it on Pinterest, please? Thank you! :)
We're officially half way through the year and I hope you've taken the time out to conduct a Mid-Year Review for yourself. This Hello Month printable is full of prompts and questions to help you get clarity RIGHT NOW for how you're going to make the most of July, which I feel is just as important as New Year's Day because July kicks of the second half of the year! Let's accomplish more in the next 6 months than we did in the last 6 months, shall we?!
The reason I make these one page goal setting printables is because I think it would be a real pity to go month after month without taking even 10 minutes to sit down and "set your sail." The clarity that comes from identifying what it is that we want is what keeps us from drifting.
As Jim Rohn said - life is always going to be pushing at us. It's up to us to push back and we do that through making plans and taking action. :)
Would you like for me to design a day planner printable specifically for YOU? Click HERE.
Keeping track of your success habits is an amazing way to make consistent progress towards your goals. If you're not keeping track of your daily activity, then you're putting yourself in a position that makes continuous improvement difficult and mysterious.
Having a clear view of how much attention you're giving to the activities that MATTER will help you create a plan for improvement so that each week can be better than the week before, instead of just a mediocre repeat.
Here are 3 powerful reasons why you should be keeping track of your daily habits and routine:
Have you ever found yourself working like crazy only to find that you're going in circles? I think this happens when we forget to give ourself a target to focus on. Without a clear idea of what we want to achieve, we're just spinning our wheels - we're keeping our head above water, we're "surviving," but we're not moving any closer to the shore.
What is your shore? What does it look like? How long will it take you to get there?
When you know what you want, you can hold a picture of it in your mind. You always get what you picture in your mind. How clear is your picture? Having a clear idea of what you want means that you can stop treading water in the middle of nowhere and start swimming toward your target because now you can actually SEE it.
I hope these HELLO MONTH printables help you see your target a little more clearly every month...
When you buy a new pair of shoes, is there an old pair that you can remove? When you bring home 5 new items of clothing, can you admit that there are probably 5 items in your wardrobe that you just never wear? When you buy a stapler that works so much better than your old one, do you actually pick up the old one and donate it? Or does it stay on your desk collecting dust because it's "still useful"?
Raise your standards on what deserves to be deemed "useful" or "valuable" when it comes to your space and start subtracting whatever doesn't meet YOUR standard.
(Hi, would you mind hovering over the pretty image above and pinning it on Pinterest for me?
Thank you for being awesome.)
Before I start talking about this printable for May, let's take a look at April. How are things looking for you now that April is over? Have you gone back and looked at your answers for the Hello April printable yet? Do you feel like your life and mindset are more aligned with those answers than they were 30 days ago?
Here are my answers to some of April's questions...
If you are a Dr. Who fan, you're going to love these printables featuring Doctors 9, 10, and 11. I made this set for Michelle Turner from Geeked Out Girl and she's made them available for free to subscribers on her site.
Whoa, April is here already. The theme for this month's printable is...ALIGNMENT.
It's something I've been working on a lot lately. My bedroom walls are covered with papers of plans, goals, mind-maps, ideas, brainstorms. Little by little, I'm refining my focus, aligning more and more with what I really want to create and work on.
The most interesting part of this project is that I am scratching out ideas and deleting them almost as much as I am adding them. It's weird that I find myself still setting goals that I think that I should have, but after a couple of days of looking at a particular goal and "trying it on for size," I'll realize that I don't really want to go in that direction.
So I've started to discover that being able to take a big black marker and scratch out a goal that I don't actually want is pretty powerful and affirming. It reminds me of Jim Rohn's teaching on "setting a better sail."
So often we're adding, adding, adding stuff into our lives and onto our plates, but to get to where life really works well, I think we have to learn how to edit and subtract.
I hope this printable helps you define what you want and from there begin the process of cutting out whatever doesn't align with that picture.
2 or 3 years ago, I stumbled upon PicMonkey - an easy-to-use graphic design / photo-editing tool. I was in the middle of babysitting my godbrother and while he was taking a nap, I tuned into a live webinar that Carrie, founder of the Female Entrepreneur Association, was hosting with Melanie Duncan. The webinar was about how + why to use Pinterest and when Melanie got to the part of how she actually creates the images for her Pinterest board, she introduced a tool that makes it super easy for her to do so - PICMONKEY!
I think that was the day when I actually wrote down, "I want to get paid to design pretty images for people on social media." Finding out about Picmonkey opened the door to that dream and now I have a nice, little freelance career on the side doing just that. :)
Now, in addition to using Picmonkey for myself and my clients, little by little I'm starting to teach people how to use it to create BEAUTIFUL images as well. I don't think many people know just how easy it is to create professional, original looking images using Picmonkey.
So, once a week, I'll be sharing a tip on how I use this tool and hopefully it helps you make your own beautiful images too. :)
Here is my creative process in creating this beautiful banner...
1
I opened up a custom canvas on Picmonkey and resized it to the size I need - 966 x 300
2
I got inspiration for the design by typing in "Paris, France" on Google (Pinterest works great too) and finding an image that caught my eye. It had a scrapbook look and feel that caught my eye. (see the screenshot of the image I found on google below)
3
I went todollarphotoclub.comand found a picture of Paris that I liked, downloaded it and opened it up on Picmonkey and laid it over my canvas.
4
Then I opened a printable that I created using Picmonkey and Google docs a couple weeks ago and placed it in the corner with a bit of canvas textured background behind the printable. (I got the canvas backround from www.creativemarket.com- it ties in with elements from my brand/blog)
5
Then piece by piece, I put together the text "Planning a trip to the city of love" using white rectangles and the font "American Typewriter". This part took a little bit of time because I wanted an off-kilter, scrapbook-y look and that meant using multiple boxes of text and tilting each one slightly.
6
Lastly I threw in some little hearts.
Hope this helps spark some more creative ideas for you.
As promised, I have the Hello March printable for you. The theme for this month is manifestation. What do you want to manifest this month?
Just by having clarity around what you want, you set in motion the process of making things happen.
I received this lovely email from Diana who filled out the Hello February printable last month that I think illustrates this point quite well:
Michelle,
I don't do this, but I had to share. I was turned onto SOS by a friend of mine, Amanda. I filled it out and after a day or so, forgot about it. I pulled it out today and read it over.
Whoa!! Wait a minute!! I did 90% of what I wrote down! How did that happen? I didn't reference every day. I didn't "work" on it. I just stumbled along the way I do and yet.... 90%!
Thanks Michelle! It seems there is much magic in words, more in writing, and when our subconscious gets hold of an idea logically organized and attractively presented it doesn't really matter what we perceive ourselves having done or not done, PROGRESS IS MADE!!!
I'm an OWLER for LIFE!!!!
Totally committed,
~Diana
How exciting is that? I hope Diana's experience inspires you to take the time to fill out this printable and see what happens with just a little bit of action + intention. Like these printables? What do you think the theme should be for April? Leave a comment and let me know. :)
Minimising is something I do all the time. It started when I was 13 and I've never looked back. Today, as I was reading Denise Duffield-Thomas' book, Get Rich Lucky B*, I came across this advice:
It's her formula for setting yourself up for financial abundance. It works. I've always found that whenever I want more of something, the first thing I have to do is declutter as much as I can - mentally, physically, digitally. The process of getting rid of stuff literally makes room for something new to come in.
So right after I read this, I decided to do another decluttering sweep. The result? A smaller book collection. I set aside about 50 books to give away, letting go of whatever I just never seem to get around to reading and probably won't read in the future.
Then I got a piece of paper and pen and went through all my stuff and took inventory! This is the first time I've done that. Here's the result:
93 books
15 journals / workbooks
7 binders
paperwork
32 items of makeup, brushes, skin care
65 pieces of clothing
5 pieces of jewellery
Electronics:
1 iPad
1 iPhone + case
1 Apple laptop
1 Nook
1 mini speaker
1 set of earphones
5 charging devices
Shoes:
1 pair of flats
1 pair of vibrams
1 pair of slippers
Other items:
cross
rosary
veil
Vera Bradley purse
wallet
1 pair of sunglasses
1 shopping sac
1 mirror
4 clothes boxes
1 shelf
2 hat boxes
2 office supply organisers
I'm glad I did this because as I get rid of more stuff, I'll be able to measure my progress. I want to replace and let go of more clothing, books, and trim down my paperwork more.
Is minimalism something that you're interested in? If you find yourself lacking clarity around your goals or you just feel stuck, I highly recommend just getting rid of stuff. I don't even keep stuff for sentimental value. When I die, I can't take it with me anyway, so I'd rather focus on accumulating experiences instead of stuff. And the less stuff I own, the more experiences I'm freed up to have...
Back when I was a waitress (at 18 years old, so almost 7 years ago), there was really only one thing on the menu that I really liked. The smoked salmon salad. So today, for the first time, I decided to make my own version of it.
Here is my recipe:
1. In a bowl, combine about a quarter of white cabbage sliced into thin strips, a little bit of chopped chives, and a little bit of sliced red onion and cucumber.
2. Add the juice of half a lemon, salt, pepper, and a spoonful of mayonnaise.
3. Stir it all up, scoop some into a serving bowl, and top it off with some smoked salmon.
I just ate mine and it's DELICIOUS. :)
If you like this recipe, please pin it on Pinterest!
I first stumbled on Dr. Who in my first (and only) semester in college, but it was the episode with the lethal mannequins and I was just like, "...what?" Haha.
I believe that was Dr. 9 and I didn't keep watching it. But then later I started to get into Dr. 10 and 11 and then I really started to understand the appeal of Dr. Who.
I loved that whole vibe of how even though going off to explore new worlds could mean danger and getting into really scary situations, the Doctor and his companions would take the risk anyway.
It reminds me of a Seth Godin quote: "This might not work. Let's do it!"
8 months ago, I shared this Hello Month Printable and people loved it so much that I had the idea to do one every month under a different theme. For this printable, the theme is "Fearless February!" :)
Some of the prompts on the Hello Month Printable will stay roughly the same every month, like identifying what your goals are and what you're grateful for, and some will fall under whatever the theme happens to be. As you can see, in honour of Fearless February, there is a section that prompts you to identify the fears that you are going to face this month.
I'm really excited about creating this for you on a monthly basis. I've been really thinking about what kind of free printable I can deliver to you consistently (because I know you love them!) and I think this is it! What do you think?
If you like this printable, please share it on Pinterest. Thank you.
Since Carrie made this video of my little New Year's Printable a little over a week ago, it has been downloaded over 2000 times! It's been amazing hearing how much this has been helping people. It seems to put a refreshing twist on the practice of setting New Year Resolutions and I'm glad to hear it.
I am so grateful to Carrie for sharing this with the Female Entrepreneur Association. I've been honoured to work with her for quite a while now. I first stumbled across her amazing site when she launched This Girl Means Business magazine and someone shared it on Facebook. I was hooked.
I showed my mom the magazine and said, "If I were to design a magazine, it would look exactly like this!" I loved how it presented personal and business development in a feminine, beautiful way. I knew immediately that I wanted to be a part of whatever Carrie Green was doing.
Shortly after, I made a dream board and I cut out a little piece of a map of London out of a magazine and glued it on. Carrie lives in England, so that little piece of a map represented my dream to be a part of FEA to me.
I reached out to Carrie asking if I could contribute to the magazine. She said YES! And so I submitted a little book review on "Write it Down, Make it Happen" and it got included on the Michael Gerber issue. I was so thrilled.
I kept reaching out, looking for any way to help, give value, be a part of it all. In addition to letting me write for the magazine, Carrie made me the editor of the How She Did It stories on the website. It was amazing being able to read story after story of women who bought their lives back by building their own businesses. Knowing that I could play a role in sharing their stories with others was a shining light in my life.
Today, I still get to be an editor and writer for the Female Entrepreneur Association as well as the social media manager. I still can't believe I get to create something and, with the click of a mouse, instantly share it with thousands and thousands of female entrepreneurs around the world.
I come from an entrepreneurial family so business and personal development has always been my life. Relying on myself and my own abilities to take care of myself instead of on a boss has always been my normal and I don't take it for granted.
There's alot at stake right now. People are looking for hope and for answers. People stuck in traditional ways of making money are working SO hard and it's not for themselves and I think that for many people, this reality is hurting them inside.
When I see an entrepreneur, I want to tell that person: "I KNOW you and I'm proud of you. Don't ever give up." I believe that for every person who makes the decision to become an entrepreneur and stay committed no matter what people say, someone else is watching and building their own belief in the entrepreneurial way of life.
I look forward to the day when owning your own business is common place. And I just LOVE how more and more people are figuring out how to make money with their natural strengths and interests. It's such an amazing, beautiful way to live the one life you have. We need to open our eyes and remember that every single day and help other people believe it too.
Every time I write a post or create something, I can feel that bigger picture. I know that something as simple as a quote in a person's Facebook feed can give them the strength to hang onto their dream a little tighter as they go against the grain and fight that much more.
So, Happy New Year! And if you're new to the idea of being an entrepreneur and you're reading this, I want you to know that anything is possible for you if you would just let yourself BELIEVE in your dreams enough to ACT on them every day, EVEN IF all you can see is the very next step in front of you and nothing more. For me, the very next step in my dream to be a part of FEA was cutting out that little piece of a map of London and sticking it where I would see it every day.
So dig deep and bring your dreams to the surface. You have no limits. Anything is possible. I should know. :)
If you're not already a part of the Female Entrepreneur Association, you have to be. It has changed my life for the better and I KNOW it can do the same for you.
