August Goals

"What keeps me going is my goals"-Muhammad Ali

First of all, where did July go? Second, of all, I thought it was meant to be August...why is it raining as I'm writing this? Now I love the rain; I really do, and it's a nice welcome after spending a week in Turkey during July and ending up burnt to a crisp, but it'll be nice to have a few more sunny days before autumn draws in. Now I'm someone who loves to set myself goals, and I actually wrote a guest post this month over on itsallzara, where I briefly spoke about a couple of my current goals.

I'm always creating new goals for myself. Sometimes they're something small, such as remembering to drink enough water, and other times they're bigger, like trying to wake up earlier in the day (I'm certainly not a morning person). While I don't like getting up in the morning, I do like to be an organised person; I write everything I have planned into my agenda...even down to when I'm going to visit friends or family. I did at one point also use my agenda to track my blog posts...until I started doing it on a Word document instead. I'm someone that loves to be busy, but also enjoys days of just relaxing in bed...but despite this, I rarely actually make a to-do list, and instead I set goals of what I want to achieve.

Prepare for Blogtober

Last year I didn't even know Blogtober was a thing, nor do I think I would have been prepared to blog daily...I mean, I only got 2 posts up, let alone October, which isn't even one a week, let alone one every day. Since I failed to blog every day in May due to lack of preparation, I'm going to start writing posts ready for Blogtober, and probably Blogmas as well. I'm already excited for Christmas so I might start planning some posts ready to start writing in October.

Reach 20k page views

Obviously, page views aren't the be-all and end-all of blogging; however, it does feel amazing when you reach a goal you've been striving for. Since I started to take blogging more seriously, I've seen my page views improve dramatically, and it makes me extremely happy that has happened, and I'm under 2000 away from hitting 20k total views. I'm kind of got my fingers crossed that it happens by the end of August since that would be absolutely amazing.

Create a date jar

I love a good date night out..as well as having cosy evenings in together, but I thought it'd be a fun idea to create a date jar according to our budget. Not only is this a great way for us to always have a selection of ideas on hand but they'd also be appropriate for working on a budget, or having a splurge.

Take a trip to Brighton

Since I've been living back in Portsmouth for the summer, I've wanted to take a trip down to Brighton for the day. Despite living so close to Brighton, I've only ever actually visited the place twice, but I have fallen head over heels in love with the seaside town.

Plus I'm dying to do an outfit shoot in the bandstand, as well as down on Brighton Pier. Not to mention I want to try Boho Gelato since Zoe (aka Zoella) is always mentioning.

Listen to more podcasts

Since I'm trying to write more than one blog post a day, I've also been trying to cut down on the amount of Netflix and YouTube I watch, and instead I'm listening to podcasts while writing. While I have been listening to 'My Favourite Murder' for a while now, I'm trying to listen to more, and I've recently started listening to 'At Home With' and 'Lore ', but I'm always scrolling through to find new interesting podcasts to put on.

Improve my photography

I finally bit the bullet and bought myself a new camera, the Olympus E-PL7 with the 45mm lens to be exact, and I already feel like my photography has improved in my two latest posts.

I've also started to use Photoshop to edit my photographs and then just use VSCO to apply a filter if I want to, or if I'm editing on the go and don't have my laptop to hand. Now I just need to get back into using props within my photographs.

Wake up earlier

Whenever I do wake up early, I feel like I have so much more time and I don't have to rush as much to get stuff done, plus I get to enjoy breakfast at a normal time rather than it turning more into brunch. I've been trying to wake up slightly early at 9 am every day, and some days are more successful than others, but hopefully, it'll get easier once I'm back at university.

I love setting myself goals, and I feel like all of the ones I've set myself for August are easily achievable as long as I stay committed to them. I think I am going to add another item to my giveaway (which you can enter

here) if I hit 20k page views by the end of August.

What are the main goals you've set for yourself this month? Love you lots like jelly tots x

Photography

All photos within this post were taken by my myself on my Olympus Pen E-PL7 in unnatural lighting. They were edited on Photoshop CC2015 and VSCO.