The Last Thursday of the Month
If you’re anything like me, you reached a point in this pandemic where the future just seemed like an endless void. Full honesty: For the first time in my entire life I missed my credit card bill for t.w.o. months and had to pay interest (only $1.14, thank God, but still, if know how much I care about intentional finances, you know.)
Wanna know why I missed the payment? Every day since March 13th has felt exactly the same! I simply forgot what day and month we were in.
So I started a new(ish) habit. I decided the last Thursday of every month will look totally different, acting like a trigger for me to wake up & realize time is passing. It’s the perfect time to unwind from the last few weeks and prep for the next!
Here’s the super simple formula for my final Thursday. All you’ll need is your planner & journal!
H E A L T H
Weigh in. (Technically I do this daily on my intuitive eating app, but today’s the only number I write down for myself.)
Plan new meals & schedule the sporadically throughout the next month. Keeping new dishes in the rotation keeps life more fun.
Schedule my exercise. Just like any habit, we need to push ourselves occasionally or switch things up, so I do this by strategically planning my exercise week by week.
M O N E Y
Pay my bills. Ever since that mishap early this year, I refuse to let it happen again! So the last Thursday is when I pay off the credit card fully and check in on all my other bills.
Make sure my personal & business budgets are up to date and accurately reflect my spending.
Set money goals for the next month like how much additional debt I want to pay off or how much I want to spend on a needed project.
G O A L S
Check in on how much progress I made on my goals last month. Is there anything I’ve totally finished? Anything I need a new strategy for?
Next, I create new monthly goals for upcoming month and break them down into weekly or daily habits.
F O R E C A S T
Refresh on my future goals too! (Typically these goals are 3 years out.) Today when I visited my 2021 goals, I realized I’ve completed a few of them and eliminated a few too. So it felt like a good day to really dream and decide what I want to accomplish by 2023? Who do I want to be when I turn 30-Fun? I’ll be writing a blog about this soon, so stay tuned!
P E R S O N A L
Through journaling, I check in with myself. What are my overarching feelings about last month? What can I bring into September with me and what do I need to leave behind? How is it with my soul? What do I need?
Recently I heard someone ask “What would a leader do today?” So I apply that to the next month: what would a leader do in September? How would a leader show up? Where would a leader grow?
Then I practiced The Examen.
C E L E B R A T E
Treat myself to a yummy lunch! Some celebrations need to be spontaneous and sometimes we need something scheduled to look forward to. Today was a Southwest Chicken Salad from Chickfila with avocado lime dressing and a large sweet tea. Subbing spicy chicken for regular nuggets, of course.
Plan something fun in the next 30 days! Today I planned a movie date night with my husband and a (safe) day trip to see a friend and her new puppy!
There’s nothing overly complex about any of the above, but dang, it has made a difference in how I close out one season and prepare myself for the next. I found today’s prompts especially helpful as I gear up for fall in Kentucky—it’s my favorite season and I’ll be damned if I let the “Covid Slump” take that away from me too!
What about you? Did you relate to any of the suggestions above? How do you smoothly transition from month to month?
