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Monday, 10/31/22: Talking about planning for November and holiday shopping

Happy Monday!

And Happy Halloween!! It’s still a new week, which means it’s time for your next Monday motivation newsletter.

Read on below for some steps to a happier Monday, a short story and a roundup of positive thoughts to get your week started.

Three Steps to a Happier Monday

Each newsletter starts with three prompts to inspire gratitude and simple intention setting. Take a moment and jot down answers to these three questions. To give an example, I share my answers below.  

Step 1: What are three things I appreciated from the weekend? 

Step 2: What is one thing I can be excited about today?

Step 3: What is my intention for this week? 

GRATITUDE: I’m thankful for time to catch up with friends, a football-watching-filled Saturday and downtime on Sunday. 

TODAY: I’m most excited it’s Halloween! Planning to do a post-work walk to see the Lincoln Park trick-or-treaters 🙂

INTENTION: My intention this week is to reach out to one friend a day. 

Okay, your turn! And if you want to share your three steps, I am all ears. 🙂

Meaningful Musings: November Planning

Can you believe tomorrow is Nov. 1? Time is flying! And based on how other years have gone, I know time will only start going by faster. Before we know it, we’ll be in 2023.
 
But not yet 😊
 
Sometimes I don’t know what to do with the pre-Thanksgiving time in November. I’m usually a bit sad that October is over. Winter has officially arrived with frigid temps and much shorter days… I find myself waiting around for it to “officially” be the holiday season.
 
BUT there is beauty in the before of anything, too.
 
So, this year, I’m leaning into that.
 
I’m leaning into enjoying staying put before holiday travels, the full work weeks, the time and space to organize and prepare.
 
I can’t wait for the holidays, but I’m also excited for November itself. Especially after some of the planning I did this weekend… read on below for more!
 
November 2022 Reflection  
 
As I prepared for the month of November, I started by asking myself some reflection questions to identify some simple goals to focus on this month:

What do I love about the month of November? 

  • Thanksgiving and the kickoff to the holiday season. I love the low-key way in which my family celebrates Thanksgiving. I’ll be home in Florida for about a week, and I can’t wait to soak up time with the fam and take part in some of our traditions. 
  • My mom and my youngest brother’s birthday! Both my mom and brother have birthdays right around Thanksgiving (fun fact: the year my brother was born, he was born ON Thanksgiving!) I love that I’m able to celebrate them in-person because of being home for the holidays.
  • Routine. Even though I’ll be traveling at the end of the month for the holiday, I like that the beginning of the month is more structured and normal. 

Anything unique about this November? 

  • My mom is visiting Chicago at the beginning of the month (yay!), and I’ll be traveling home at the end of the month.
  • Just bought tickets to see the musical Wicked in a few weeks. One of my favorite musicals, but I think I was in high school the last time I saw it!
  • November will be a busy month for a couple of my projects at work. Definitely need to focus and make some progress during the workweeks of November.  

How do I want to feel at the end of November? 

  • I want to feel prepared and ready to enter the holiday season and truly enjoy it. 

November 2022 Goals

  • One act of kindness a day. Okay, I am REALLY excited about this. I love the focus on gratitude during the month of November, so using that as my inspiration, I want to challenge myself to do one small act of kindness a day. This could include a donation, holding the door open for someone, buying someone’s coffee, etc. Let’s do this!
  • Cleanout and organize my apartment. I want to do a full apartment cleanout for a couple reasons: 1) I need to transition my closet from warm to cold weather and 2) I want to clear some clutter before putting out my holiday decorations (this is totally ingrained in me because of my mom. Before we could decorate for Christmas, we had to help clean up the house first. Genius parenting!).
  • Drink more water. Whenever the weather starts to get colder, I find myself naturally drinking less water. Not good! My friend and co-worker just showed me this water bottle she got recently and loves (it has a hidden straw!!), so thinking about getting one for myself and using it as my motivator.
  • Save money for Christmas presents and make my Christmas shopping spreadsheet. Need to sit down and make my game plan. Especially before those Black Friday deals!
  • Pick out holiday books to read in December. During the holiday season, I love reading holiday-themed books and watching those cheesy holiday-themed shows and movies. So, I need to build my TBR list… do you have any recs of Christmas or holiday books you love?

On My Monday Radar

Sometimes we just aren’t ready to jump into our Monday to-do list right away. In case you want some content to procrastinate with, here is a roundup of a few positive things on my radar:  

That’s all for today! I hope you found something in today’s newsletter that sparked motivation, made you smile or inspired a positive Monday thought. Don’t underestimate the power of starting small… a fulfilling week starts with just one fulfilling day. You’ve got this! 

Let’s make it a great Monday!
Megan

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