For those of you who missed the last blog post that Sara and I shared. We are doing something a little different on some of our blog posts, where we both write.
Sara’s thoughts will be in this text
And Alex will be in this text
We hope you guys enjoy this type of blogging. Let us know what you think in the comments!
So here we go
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So we’re a month into the new year already. Did January fly by for anyone else?
The new year has been a time of new goals, better planning, and being even more conscious of our workflow. We’ve been refining almost every area of our lives and business. #MarieKondo might be having an effect on our household. =)
One goal Sara and I have both been working on, and wanted to share with you guys, is reading… Yes, reading. I have never been a reader!!! Ever. I think the last book I read was Lord of the Flies in high school. And let’s be honest, I probably just read the cliff notes.
I think mine was nursing school textbooks which explains my fast reading skills. All the info as quickly as possible! Where my nurses at?!
But reading has been something I always told myself I just didn’t have time for. Really I meant – I’m going to have to skip on those two episodes of New Girl before bed, but I knew this year I wanted to find time to read more. Right as I was about to pick out my first book our business coach Idea Lust sent us a book that fit right into our other new year goals. Refining, planning and being conscious of our time. A self-help book called Miracle Morning. This book is all about setting your day up for success before you even eat breakfast. A bold order in our household since we usually use Jax as our alarm clock – only giving me a few minutes to get dressed and grab Jax before the day is started.
Maybe I’ll save a review of the book for another post but my mornings have been so much nicer since implementing a few of his steps. The biggest one – getting up earlier. Getting up before everyone else does. Having some time to myself and being able to start my day without chaos. Now, I’m still working and, you guessed it, refining but I’m already feeling less stressed each day.
So, I wanted to share a little bit of inspiration for some of you who maybe share the same goal but not sure how to implement reading in your day.
Set achievable goals for reading: Maybe it’s just read a chapter a night. That’s my goal and I’ve almost knocked out my book in two weeks. Setting this small goal gave me the option of still sneaking in that episode of New Girl before bed 😉 Now I find myself reading until I cant hold my eyes open.
You don’t have to absorb everything: My friend Abby Grace gave me this advice, which I’m going to paraphrase. Read for the fun or read for the education; however, this doesn’t mean that you’re going to have to stand in front of the class and give a book report. You don’t have to memorize or even remember 75% of the book. Just read! Some of the info will stick and some won’t. Thats ok. Here’s what I do. As I’m reading I dog ear the page and underline parts I want to remember or refer back to. It’s ok not remembering everything.
Oh, I thought you were lazy & completely didn’t want to unfold the last chapter you left off on. Who knew my husband was so organized! Sure do love that man!
Read appropriate books at appropriate times: For me, I can’t read business books in bed. They make my mind race and I cant sleep after reading them. My plan is to find inspirational books, relationship books, self-help books that make me feel good before bed. If there’s a business book that I want to read, I’ll read that in the morning, when I can actually do something with those ideas that start flowing.
I got hooked on YOU – you know the Netflix series, or Lifetime series that was apparently a book before it’s new fame! Alex isn’t into the fiction but man oh man that kind of book before bed is great but reading about some creeper to start your morning isn’t ideal haha. So, I’m the perfect example of Business in the morning and Fiction in the evening!
That’s all I have for now. I’m sure I’ll report back and do some feed back on my books I read! But if you’re thinking about adding reading to your list, do it! It’s not as hard as you think. You got this!
