Setting My Personal Growth Goals for September
Want a sneak peek at my personal growth goals? Looking to see my goal setting routine in action? In this post I set my personal growth goals for September, and reflect on my performance in August: how I was successful and in which ways could I improve?
Can I start with a confession?
I am the world’s biggest nerd.
September is one of my favorite months because it means back to school season.
Am I in school? No. And that doesn’t stop me from stocking up on ALL of the school supplies while they’re on sale. This year, my son’s school is requesting cash for the teachers to buy their own school supplies, and I am FURIOUS! 😉 This means I have no legitimate excuse to go school supply shopping except admitting that I am a schoolsupplyaholic…
For me, September represents new journals and planners, new highlighters, and a new calendar. It symbolizes starting a new routine and setting new goals to finish the year off strong.
Would you agree? September is just the best for new beginnings!
If you’re looking to learn how I set goals, or are just curious about what I’m working on this month and how I made out last month, this post is for you.
This month I set my goals in a few different categories
- My physical health
- My mental health
- My learning & growing
- My family
- My business
- My side project
I’ll walk through each category and outline exactly what goals I set in August and how I made out in accomplishing my goals.
August Physical Health
- Complete 21 Day Fix Extreme workout program – 66% there
- Eat more ‘clean’ days than not – yes!
I made it through 2 of the 3 weeks in my workout program, and then got a cold. This resulted in me sleeping in more than usual, and then taking extra time to recover. I still moved my body almost every single day (by substituting with yoga and hiking), but I didn’t technically complete what I set out to do. I’m okay with it. I’ve done this program on repeat for the past 6 months and I was getting pretty bored.
17 out of the 31 days in August I was aligned with my eating plan! I’ve started a keto lifestyle, and have been loving it. Since the whole family is on board, it’s been relatively easy to avoid temptation. We’ve been indulging in good whole food and it’s helped curb the cravings. I am looking forward to continuing this next month because I feel so good when I eat right!
September Physical Health
- Create a customized workout regimen
- Run 10 kms
- Complete a month of cyclical keto meal plan
My intention for September is to curate my own workout regimen that doesn’t bore me to death and incorporates more of the things I love doing. I would like to have weight training, yoga, and trail running fit into my schedule.
I also intend to run 10kms in September. I’ve never run that far in my life, and for someone who only took up running 3 months ago, it’s a little ambitious. I’m definitely going outside of my comfort zone, but that’s what goals are for!
There were a few days in August that keto went out the window. Thinking through my September calendar, there is nothing scheduled that would prevent me from eating keto. My goal is to follow the keto meal plan for an entire month. Then I can have real cake on my birthday in October. Specifically, I want to ensure I eat
- No grain
- No added sugar
- No commercially farmed meat (except for what’s left in the freezer)
If you’re curious why, it’s not to lose weight. Although that is a fantastic bonus. I FEEL noticeably more focused, more patient, more energetic, and more alive when I eat healthy fats and avoid carbs. Plus, I want to take on the mental challenge of resisting temptation in a world that is full of it. I want to know whether I can actually go an entire month without eating my usual comfort foods.
August Mental Health
- Meditate for 100 minutes – yes!
I am a little surprised that I achieved this one! In total, over the course of the month, I meditated for 100 whole minutes! That’s so many minutes!
I’ve always had a hard time justifying “sitting there and not doing anything” but I’ve noticed the impact it makes on my patience and happiness, so I committed to it and followed through. Mind you, the quality of my meditation is not perfect. Most times I have a lot of thoughts, and some times I fall asleep. But I’ve nailed down sitting there with my eyes shut and am now excited to raise the bar for next month.
September Mental Health
- Meditate for 150 minutes
If I did 100 minutes I can do 150! That’s only 5 minutes a day for 30 days, or 10 minutes a day for 15 days, and that seems perfectly feasible. Now that I’ve gotten used to the frequency of sitting my butt down and breathing, I want to focus on the quality of my meditation. Let’s avoid falling asleep this month!
August Learning & Growth Goals
- Start a repository of improvement ideas – yes!
- Read 2 books – 50% there
Of all my accomplishments in August, I’m most excited about my new repository of improvement ideas. It sounds so fancy but really it’s just a bullet point list in my “notes” app on my phone.
I was reading so many personal development books (18 so far this year!) but moving on too quickly to implement any of the recommendations in the book. My goal in August was to start keeping track of the things I wanted to do, even if I didn’t get them done right away. Then, each week, I would pick something new off my list and implement it. Some of the things I’ve accomplished through this method include
- Doing yoga twice a week
- Eating more omega 3s
- No longer purchasing commercially produced meat and sourcing grass fed/pastured/organic meat from the farmer’s market
- Building a standing desk to work from so that I don’t spend all day sitting
- Adopting intermittent fasting
- Drinking Bulletproof coffee
- Walking for 30 minutes every day
- Supplementing my gut bacteria with probiotics
- Sourcing the best vitamins and taking them religiously
Most of these suggestions came from Dave Asprey’s book Game Changers.
This is more than I’ve ever actually changed after reading a personal development book so I am absolutely loving this system and intend to continue using it.
September Learning & Growth Goals
- Add new ideas into my improvement idea repository
- Finish 2 books
- Set a budget
- Meet with our financial adviser
In September, I intend to add more ideas into my repository. I don’t have a set plan to implement a specific number next month, because of how many goals I’ve already set. I think that’s enough change for one month, but I’d like to keep building out my list.
I also intend to finish the 2 books that I had started (rereading) in August. You Are A Bad*ss by Jen Sincero, and Game Changers by Dave Asprey. I’m taking my time reading these so that the information actually soaks in. Come wintertime, I’ll be reading a book a week, but I know that in the fall there is a lot of nature that I want to be out in.
It’s also time for us to adjust our financial plan. I intend to set a budget for September, and meet with our financial adviser to ensure we are still on track for our financial goals. This is one of those things I tend to set and forget for a few months, so a quarterly review is important for me.
August Family Goals
- Take my son mountain biking – Nope
- Have 3 date nights with my husband – Yes!
- Have one girls’ day with my daughter – Yes!
I’m focusing on being really intentional with the time I spend with the family.
They are always my number one priority and that’s been a hard balance to find with all of the other things going on (being promoted at work, starting my own business, converting a school bus, etc.)
In August, my intention was to spend more one on one time with each family member.
Mountain biking with my son didn’t happen because of scheduling conflicts. The couple of days I managed to squeeze it into the calendar, the weather did not cooperate. However, I pivoted and focused more energy on making the time to read to my son every night before bed.
I think it still gets at the intention behind the goal even if the execution differed from the plan. And that’s an important piece to remember: it is okay to pivot your goals as you move into your reality. Things don’t always go as planned.
My husband and I managed to make time for 3 date nights. They were penciled into the calendar far, far in advance, and weren’t much fancier than a quiet night at home, but we focused on each other and it made a difference in the bickering level throughout the month.
I actually managed to have more than one girl’s day with my daughter and it was wonderful. She is 2.5 and growing so fast, I can’t keep up. I feel more grounded when I take the time to watch her grow. She is often overshadowed by her older, more competent brother, and I tend not to notice all of the cool things she can now do by herself. Spending time with just her has been very gratifying.
September Family Goals
- Go apple picking
- Visit a heritage village
- Explore one new hike
My number one goal in life is to build a treasure house of happy memories for my family. So creating adventures throughout our weekends is very important to me. Fall is also my favorite season and all of these things will fill our souls with happiness. I’m excited for this.
August Business Goals for Move Your Mountains
- Sell 1 time management course – nope!
- Launch the new website – almost!
- Complete one coaching call – yay!
For my business, I definitely overshot in August.
I thought I could focus on selling my time management course and rebuilding a completely new website from scratch and coaching a new client all in 4 weeks. Turns out, I could not.
Launching the website took way longer than the 2 weeks I had allocated for it. It was particularly challenging because WordPress and all of the tech-y stuff that goes along with it is entirely new to me. I got frustrated often but kept pushing through.
I’ve learned a lot and am so much farther than when I started, but it took me longer than I would have liked.
Here’s a sneak peek of it by the way
Going forward, I will allocate twice as much time as I think I need in this area, because tech-y stuff is not my forte. Oh well, you live and you learn.
I did launch the time management course on August 1st, and have had numerous people try it out for free and 1 person browse the trial, but I did not make a sale this month. The feedback I’ve received has been really positive, so I am not disappointed, but I know I need to focus more on marketing and sales to get this course off the ground. I will move this to be my focus for October, after the website rebuild has been launched.
I did take on a new coaching student and completed one consultation! It was phenomenal.
We instantly hit it off and she has been doing fantastic in making progress on her big goals.
I was inspired to see just how quickly one coaching call could accelerate momentum!
It made me really excited to make time for more students and see the potential impact they can collectively make when challenged into a higher version of themselves.
September Business Goals for Move Your Mountains
- Read 2 business books
- Launch the brand spankin’ new website
- Complete 1 coaching call
My main priority is getting the new website up and running so that you all can have a much better experience visiting the blog. Also, I’ve got a deadline to meet! While I’m doing this, I’d like to continue learning and increasing my skills as a life coach and social influencer, therefore I’m adding 2 books to my reading list in September (which books exactly is still to be decided).
Finally, my favorite part of all of this is working with real people to advance them toward their goals, so I am definitely making time for one coaching call this month. I plan to seriously increase this frequency in the near future, but for now I do what I can.
August Side Project Goals: Mountain Bound Bus
- Gutting the interior – 85% there
- Prepping the exterior for a paint job – 40% there
- Repairing the roof – 0% there
- Setting up an Instagram account – 100%! Yay!
If you haven’t heard yet, we bought a school bus and are converting it into a motorhome to take a 6 month trip across Canada in 2021.
Talk about a MASSIVE goal. It has long been on our hearts to travel the world and show the kiddos the depths of this beautiful country, but the process of finding, insuring, buying, and renovating the right school bus is INSANELY complex. I was so close to giving up guys, so close. Then I made ONE MORE CALL, and the whole reality shifted.
We now have a school bus in our driveway.
This one didn’t get as far as I would have liked, mainly due to the fact that my husband broke his hand and that really slowed us down for 2 weeks. We are going to make up for it in September by taking some time off from work to catch up on the build.
However, we did launch and Instagram account @mountainboundbus and it took off right away! We reached 100 followers in a matter of days and I couldn’t believe it.
If you’re interested in learning about the journey of converting a school bus and using it to travel the world with a family of 4 and a Bernese Mountain Dog, follow us! As a bonus, you’ll get to see a whole new side of me. As opposed to confident, competent, and totally put together Ana who lives in her little world of goal setting and dream building, you’ll see highly uncomfortable, entirely incompetent, didn’t even know what a prybar looked like Ana who is learning how to use skill saws and grinders and drills. It’s fun y’all.
September Side Project Goals: Mountain Bound Bus
- Finish gutting the interior, derustifying the floor, and laying down plywood (also stop making up words like derustifying)
- Repair the roof
- Paint the bus a light grey color
- Attract 200 Instagram followers
I believe this is doable, especially with the week that we are taking off of work to get this project moving. I am trying to be very reasonable in setting my expectations for this bus because I know that I have zero clue how all this works.
August was filled with a lot of new commitments, and quite frankly, overcommitments. I think it’s important to challenge yourself, but not to be unrealistic. I definitely tend to err on the side of unrealistic, and I’m okay with it. I know I won’t hit 100% of my goals in September, but they are all important to me, they all align with my life vision, and I know that if I hit 80% of them I will be better off than if I had set fewer goals that were easier to reach.
I hope this article has given you insight into how to set goals that challenge you and improve your life. If you’re curious about any of my goals, send me an email! I love to talk personal development with anyone who will listen!
I send out tips and tricks on being happier, more productive, and living a fulfilling life you love – plus lots of free templates for you to use in your goal setting practice!
And if you’re so lost that you don’t know what you want to do in September, let alone the rest of the year, and the rest of your life, nothing more would make me happy than working together to help you get past the indecision, procrastination, and perfectionism that is holding you back from shooting for your biggest dreams.
Schedule your free coaching session today! You’ve got nothing to lose, and everything to gain!
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- 5 Personal Development Books To Change Your Life
- 5 Strategies for Better Time Management
- The Key To Making Hard Decisions
What’s on your plan for September? Comment your number one priority below!
