Four out of twelve months is now officially done! Time really pass by so fast and I have this feeling that maybe I can’t keep up! Though I’m trying so hard to achieve my monthly goals, I still can’t help to get rid this anxious feeling building up inside of me. Well I’m pretty sure that this feeling is pretty common with everyone right now since we are still dealing with the pandemic.
News about it are still everywhere and it makes us feel restless since we’d been familiar with the effects of it in our lives. Some are trying to cope up with it while the rest are still find it hard to welcome this new lifestyle.
Now to go back in my own monthly goals status, let’s have a quick run through of the plans I failed last month.
- SAVINGS: Local Bank FAILED!
- EXPLORE QATAR 2021 FAILED!
For this month, I planned to focus more on my content for my social media accounts and not the followers. This is for me to get rid of the bad habits on focusing on gaining followers without taking care of anything I posted. I also believe that the initial step to grow followers is to have a quality post in any of my social media accounts. This is for me to gain their interest and curiosity for them them to stay tuned on my next post.
Now here’s a quick run through of my goals for this year!
- Financial Goals
“It’s not how much you make each month that matters — it’s how much you save along with the flexibility and time outside work that you have.”
― Francis Shenstone, The Explorer’s Mindset: Unlock Health Happiness and Success the Fun Way
Since last month I had a lot of emergency expenses wherein almost 52% of my salary was spent for it, I made it sure that I’ll squeeze my budget by spending less this month of April. This is for me to be back on my track so I can properly manage my allotted amount for each of my savings.
- Investment Fund- SUCCESS!
Saving for my future has been my top priority since I started working. As much as possible, I wanted to push myself right now to save so I can start my own dream business.
As of now I just need to save for eight more years so I can start to have my benefits from it. It may still look long but what I just do is not to focus on the time but the benefits it will give me in the end.
Now, for me to secure the amount intended for my investment, I planned to save a one time amount that can cover one year of payment. In this way, I won’t feel worried if any financial challenges will come up since I’m ready.
In my previous blog, the amount I need to save monthly is P8,833 or Qar665. But for me to save from the delivery charge, I’ll plan to down for the month of July 2021 which will be good for one year payment.
At first, I planned to push myself to save for two years payment which I mentioned in “MARCH Goals Review!”, I wanted to take it slowly but surely since I have other savings that I need to consider. Anyhow, I’ll still make sure that this allotted savings will always be secured and ready so I can consistently pay for my investment.
- BUSINESS FUND SUCCESS!
Anywhere in the world, house rental has been part of an in demand business. The growing population makes it all possible since acquiring your own property nowadays is pretty much an headache for minimum wage earners.
It has been one of the top business choice that I’d been thinking since before. The only catch of this business is the initial payment for you to have one. It requires a large amount depending on the space and house unit you want to purchase. Although there’s an option for me to acquire in foreclosed properties, I still need to thoroughly review and consider a lot of things before purchasing it.
Now since I’m still in the process of saving for it, as of this April, it has been four successful months already! I think that’s one of the reason I am so into it is I’m too excited to have my own property. Even though it still didn’t happen yet, just by imagining it, I always feel so happy and excited.
Hopefully I’ll be able to purchase soon a home where I can call it mine.
- EMERGENCY FUND SUCCESS!
Like what I stated in my blogs about financial management, I’ll repeatedly emphasized the importance of having emergency fund. From the name itself, it will help you in so many ways in terms of securing your finances in any emergency you’ll face.
This diagram is my guide as I achieved the amount for my Emergency Fund. Though It took me 3-5 months to obtain the target amount, it made me feel more confident knowing I’m now ready.
If you wanted to know how I achieved my emergency fund, you can check my previous blog below!
Sharing is Caring: How I Achieved my P60K Emergency Fund in Three Months!
“The goal of an emergency fund is to bail you from going to jail while your savings account is about buying you more options. The role of investing is to give you more time freedom.”
― David Angway
- JOINT ACCOUNT SUCCESS!
Last month, I’d mentioned that I settled the amount intended for one year in my joint account. Because of that I can now focus in my other savings which is for my business and investment. Hopefully I’ll be able to settle also the amount intended for my investment so I can be secured as early as possible.
- LOCAL BANK SUCCESS!
Since I’d spent a lot of money for emergency expenses last month, I made it sure that I’ll spend less this April for me to recover from it.
Now the table below is my savings and expenses for this month of April.
As you can see, I really did my best to spend less for this month. Gladly I was able to achieve it by means of using my available sources right now. I also realized that I can minimized my expenses up to this amount so I planned to do it consistently now.
I’d been into to savings since before and it literally stop me on buying even the things I need. I’m guilty that I’m restricting myself knowing I also deserve something. Now I make sure that even though I need to save, I will not let myself be put in the last priority. I realized that I need to consider myself as well in anything I do especially that this year I decided to take care of my health.
“Do not save what is left after spending; instead spend what is left after saving.”
― Warren Buffett
2. Personal Goals
“Be you, love you. All ways, always.”
― Alexandra Elle
One of the thing that I am really proud of during this month is when I started to add in my usual daily routine our workout plan. It was on the last week of March when we decided to have it, but now we’re doing it consistently! Can you imagine that it’s already been a month since we started it?
Not only that, I’m also happy that I started my first Diploma Training Online. It was really hard at first to squeeze it in my whole schedule but I was able to make time for it during my Day Off.
I never realized that I’ll be able to be so productive like this compare to before. It was an amazing feeling right now and I can’t help to be more inspired and motivated to know more what I can do.
I know some of us still feel skeptical on working on something that we wanted to achieve. I’d been there so I wanted to share some of the few tips I did for me to be more productive. Stated below are proven tested and effective based on my own experienced.
- Make a list of your goals you need to achieve. (If you are new to this, you can start on planning short term goals so it will be easy for you.)
- After identifying your goals, categorized it based on your priorities.
- Make a timeline for each goals.
- Now, for you to make sure that you’re working on it everyday, add it to your daily schedule. (Examples: 30 Min. workout, 10 Min Meditation before sleeping, Waking up one hour earlier than your alarm, etc.)
- It will be very hard at first but the key for you to do it is the consistency. Push yourself to do it so that you’ll be accustomed to your new routine.
- Doing it together with someone will give you a motivation, so you can ask your friends if they’re also interested to do the same.
- Have a tracker of your growth so you can check your current progress. It will not only serves as your record but it will also help you to be more inspired to continue it.
- Reward yourself. This is one of the effective way to keep yourself in track, so give yourself a little bit of treat once you achieve your goals.
How I hope that everyone will do the same like what I did. The only hard part is the beginning so once you surpass it, everything will be very easy for you. Trust me and it will be worth it.
Now let’s go back to my Personal goals progress.
- Diploma in Events Management -ON PROCESS!
As of April 2021, I’d finished a total of three online training certificates and three modules of Diploma in Events Management.
- Food Safety and Hygiene in the Catering Industry
- Hospitality Management – Health and Safety in Food Service – Revised
- ISO 22000:2018 – Elements of Food Safety Management System (FSMS)
Now, I planned to do one module for each week so it will be easy for me to review and consistently work on it. That’s four modules out of ten so I still need to work on six more for me to officially finish everything.
Once I’m done with this Diploma, I planned to purchase the certificate so I can compile it together with the rest of my certifiactes.
- Workout Plan Progress -SUCCESS!
In my last month blog, I stated that we started to have a work out routine following this plan below.
- 30 Minutes Zumba (Exercise To Lose Weight FAST || Zumba Class)
- 10 Minutes (Plank, Mountain Climbers, Squats, Abs Excercise)
- 10 Minutes Jogging
- 10 Minutes Yoga
Now for us to have a tracker for it we did a daily record so that we’ll know our progress and status. The sheet is consist of the date, start time, end time, total minutes of workout, type of workout and current weight record.
We placed it in our workout area so it will be easily for anyone of us to use it every time we’ll do our own workouts. Other than this record, we also made a workout calendar that we needs to follow.
For us not to feel bored from the usual workout plan we had before, we changed it into to two category which we can do alternately.
1st Workout plan (Hard Exercise)
- 🔥 HOT 🔥 Reduction Of Belly Fat Quickly | 27 Mins Aerobic Dance Workout | Zumba Class
- 1 minute plank
- 10 MINUTE FAT BURNING MORNING ROUTINE | Do this every day | Rowan Row
- FULL BODY HOLIDAY WORKOUT | No Equipment | Rowan Row
2nd Workout Plan (Soft Exercise)
- 🔥 HOT 🔥 Reduction Of Belly Fat Quickly | 27 Mins Aerobic Dance Workout | Zumba Class
- 1 minute plank
- 10 Minutes Meditation
By doing this workout alternately, we were able to push ourselves to become consistent. As we continue doing this as well, we realized a lot of other things that we can add in this self care routine.
The meditation which we just added recently made a big impact on us and it helped us in so many ways. Since we’re doing this routine after our work hours, the mediation help us to feel more relaxed and get away from the stress.
We also discovered that we started to have a better sleep by doing 10 minutes meditation.
“Brilliant things happen in calm minds. Be calm. You’re brilliant.”
- Meal Plan Progress -SUCCESS!
Who who would have thought that I can settle for a three table spoon rice in the whole day? Nobody will believe that but it’s a fact. After doing it for almost a month, I’m already accustomed in eating small portions and consuming more vegetables/fruits.
It was really hard at first and I usually feel hungry every now and then but gladly I was able to get used to it. What I just do as well is to consume more water as much as I can. I also did a tracker of my water consumption so that I can make sure that I’m taking more than usual.
Like what I did in our workout, consistency helped me to achieve it!
- Explore Qatar 2021 -FAILED!
Another month of failing this target! This is one of the plans that I was really looking forward this year but sadly it keeps failing due to the pandemic. I know I’m not in control of the situation right now so prevention is way better than cure especially in this period.
I just pray that everything will be ok and will be back to normal so that everyone can have a chance to discover this beautiful world.
Nevertheless, I still have eight more months to do it! May we all pray together for the end of this tough challenge that we’re all facing.
- Weight Results -SUCCESS!
From almost 56 kg up to 48 kg, who would have imagine that I’ll achieve it? it was a long process of working it out and be consistent before I achieve this weight. Now the workout plans that started last March helped me a lot to push through with it.
It was really hard at first due to the excuses and so called lack of time, but now I realized that everything that you’re hoping for should not just be as a mere hope. You should work on it and never ever give up.
“If you have a dream, don’t just sit there. Gather courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality.”
― Dr Roopleen
3. Social Media Goals
For this month, I planned to focus more in my content rather than anything else. I believe that it will be a slow process for me to have a good results, so now what I can only do is to do better in gathering ideas for my posts. I will also consider the timeframes of each posts and the consistency of updates so that I can make sure that I’m more active in this coming month.
- WORDPRESS Insights
For this month April, I succeeded on posting a total of eight blogs which reached my monthly target. You can check the blogs I made for this month below:
- MARCH Goals Review- Life Journey
- You can Never be Someone Else– Live to Inspire
- If Tomorrow Never Comes– Unspoken Poetry
- Turning Point Memories of my Life- Life Journey
- Tips to Survive in Hospitality Industry (For Beginers)– Live to Inspire
- Will I ever makes my dream come true?– Unspoken Poetry
- Choose to have a GRWOTH MINDSET– Live to Inspire
- I can and I will!– Unspoken Poetry
With these blogs I was able to gain few followers and feedbacks. though it’s few, I feel more inspired to write more knowing there are some who still reads it. I know this will be a long process and I need to have more patience. I know the future me will thank me for doing this and I hope by that time, this blog touch a lot of hearts already.
“Patience is necessary, and one cannot reap immediately where one has sown.”– Soren Kierkegaard
- INSTAGRAM Insights
In this month of April, I posted only five pictures which was lower than the last month post. Now for this coming month, I plan to make it sure that I’ll post at least nine so I can be more active.
Other than pictures, I also posted reels of my workout and some of it reached 900+ views. Now I think that it’s one of the effective way for my profile to be known so I planned to work on it as well.
You can check my posts here by clicking this link <leapearl_14>.
- FACEBOOK Insights
My facebook account is one of the platform that I usually share my blogs. It’s one of the factors of my growing views here in wordpress, and at the same time the increase of my followers in facebook.
As of April 24, I have a total of 1,185 followers which is greater than the last month which is around 1,700+. Now since I mainly share blogs in my facebook profile, I planned to post my pictures and some inspiring photos which can help me to attract more visitors and viewers.
Now the only catch is I need to push myself to be consistent on this. I hope that I’ll be able to work on it in this month!
- PINTEREST Insights
Other than facebook, I also share my blog titles here in pinterest. I learned in oneof the blogs I read before that one of the effective way to promote something is to share it to your other social media platforms. Indeed that blog said is true!
By means of sharing it here in my pinterest account, I was able to gain more followers and viewers and at the same time reach more people in different parts of the world. From Asia, Europe, America, Africa, I’d been gaining views from all over the world just by sharing it here.
You can check my pinterest account here <Lea Pearl Manongdo>
SUMMARY
Hello month of April, you came fast and now will officially leave us. The days you’d given to us are all filled with learnings, joy and happy experiences that we will surely never forget.
You made us believe the power of consistency and now we’re slowly achieving our goals to be a better version of ourselves.
As I wrap up this month, I would like to thank God for this memorable period in our life. The pandemic is still here but we were able to live with it by choosing to be productive. A lot of challenges happened but we choose to come out stronger in the end.
The anxiety that continuously lingering in my mind is still there but I know eventually I’ll be able to survive from it.
The sleepless night that I’m still in, I know I’ll overcome it.
The worries that continuously consumes me, I know I’ll soon divert it to positive ones,
Because It will be a long process of healing and I want to face it courageously than to run.
So for the rest of us who still find it hard to continue what they started and still looking for the next thing to do, there will always be another chance for all of us. Let’s welcome the next month full of excitement knowing that we can still able to work on the things that we’re hoping for.
Let us not give up and continue to inspire each other. This journey that we are in, let’s all be fearless and face it with a smile.
“Don’t be afraid of your fears. They’re not there to scare you. They’re there to let you know that something is worth it.”
― C. JoyBell C.
Thank you for reading! See you on my next blog!
