About that June 2024 Recap….

You might have noticed that I’ve been AFK lately. I didn’t write a June 2024 recap or July Goals blog post because I haven’t sat down at a laptop to type. I haven’t really written anything lately. It’s hard to find time to blog when I feel so tired and drained, not to mention taking care of my little kids plus the neighbors’ kids. Sometimes, I pick up work shifts whenever I can, which doesn’t leave much time for anything else. My blog, however, is still alive, and I have no intention of abandoning it completely.

No Time for Blogging 💻

I am at a difficult point in my life where I have so much going on outside of blogging, yet I still struggle to figure out exactly what to focus on when I do have free time. Should I write for myself? Should I write blog posts for my readers? Or should I be working on my Redbubble designs? All of these things take time, and all of them are important.

My hobbies are like my children: Like children, hobbies require time and attention. If you don’t give your hobbies attention, the algorithm and loyal readers will punish you. Neglecting your hobbies leaves you with “nothing” to show for it. Even the Redbubble Gods are punishing me because I haven’t updated my shop, so the algorithm doesn’t work, and I get almost no visitors due to inactivity. Ironically, I am mostly active on Twitter/𝕏, yet my profile engagement is even more dead. Unless you pay for their “enhanced services,” the algorithm won’t reward you, and you’ll get little to no engagement on that platform either.

I need to redirect my attention on what matters: By that, I mean focusing on things that actually generate results. I want to spend less time on Twitter/𝕏 (which I use when I’m bored) and YouTube, and concentrate more on writing/blogging and Redbubble. I don’t believe Redbubble is dead; it will only truly work if I actively add new designs and promote them. I have yet to find another site to sell on if I were to expand. However, migrating elsewhere would also exhaust time and energy that I don’t have.

(っ◔◡◔)っ Here’s what I actually did in June because I need to wrap up that chapter before moving onto July.

June Recap 2024

Career Goals:

  • Bid for shifts. 7 shift baseline. A couple shifts were cancelled so I made those up by bidding on shifts. In the end, I still had 7 shifts and ended up breaking even
  • Catch up on emails if there are any I am pretty much caught up and to-date on emails.
  • Have 100 sticker designs in my #Redbubble shop I am currently at 98 sticker designs and am still working on reaching this goal. I added 1 new sticker design.
  • Promote stickers Twitter/𝕏 I didn’t do much promoting if at all because I haven’t been very active on Redbubble. If I were to put more time and energy into Redbubble, I would be posting more often. I plan on doing this in the upcoming months as an experiment to see if input really does equal output.

🌸 My Redbubble Shop: @sereneluna 🌸

♡ You can browse my designs here: http://shorturl.at/otvxQ

Personal Goals:

  • Publish 1-2 blog posts + monthly goals/recap blog posts On June 10, 2024, I published 1 new blog post about why I quit Duolingo and deleted the app and a fellow blogger wrote a guest post on July 8, 2024. You can catch up on these blog posts below ↓ and yes they are clickable links:
  1. Why I’m Quitting Duolingo
  2. Unmasking Your True Potential (Guest Post)
  • Log into #Medium at least once/week I log in every so often but I haven’t been active on the platform.
  • Keep tabs on doctor’s appointments/pending appointments I am still relying on my phone to keep track of things. My family has had a lot of appointments this summer.
  • Log into FB for the first time since 2017 I haven’t done this yet but still need to by August.
  • Pay any outstanding invoice(s) Done ✔️
  • Figure out our flight schedule(s) I have a one-way ticket and need to book my flight ticket home.

.ೃ࿔ ✈︎ *:・

Health Goals:

  • Aim for 10,000 steps/day Since upgrading my phone, it’s I haven’t been tracking steps. My old phone fit easily in my pocket whereas my new one is bulky. Unless I’m wearing my apple watch, I am not tracking steps. I know this is a problem.
  • Limit drinks to water, tea, and coffee I quit coffee! Yep, I quit coffee 100%. I stopped drinking orange pekoe at home but will occasionally buy steeped tea. It’s much less frequent than it was before. I drink water, coconut water, sparkling water, and diet soda.
  • Track hydration on Water Llama app My water intake really suffered because I stopped tracking but by the end of August, water is all I will be allowed to drink, so I better get used to drinking water.
  • Track steps on Pikmin Bloom app The app helps keep me motivated, and I still recommend this free app to anyone who likes to gamify fitness. You can read my review about this app here.

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ FINAL THOUGHTS ♥

I know this is an unconventional blog post and it’s somewhat disjointed, but I wanted to summarize my activities during June. July has been even more unusual, as I’ve strayed from my goals while working on unrelated tasks. Ideally, I want to refocus on the most meaningful activities and reduce time spent on less important matters. Of course, that’s easier said than done.

Finally, I am curious to know how you are doing with your goals and blogging schedule, and whether or not you accomplished what you were hoping to. Feel free to let me know in the comments section below ↓ Also, I would really appreciate it if you followed me on Twitter/𝕏 (@serene_hilz), that is, if you aren’t already a follower. It is harder than ever to grow on that platform but I really do enjoy using it to connect with like-minded bloggers.

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

June Goals | Summer 2024

Okay, so there wasn’t a May Goals blog post so I didn’t feel like it was necessary to write a May Goals recap, for obvious reasons. Now that it is June, it is a new month which for me, which also means new beginnings. I am in a sense, starting over. I will give you more context later on in the blog post. Oh, and in case you missed last month’s blog post, I will post a link down below:

Ⓗⓔⓛⓛⓞ Ⓢⓤⓜⓜⓔⓡ Ⓗⓔⓛⓛⓞ Ⓙⓤⓝⓔ

*˚*•̩̩͙ Who I Want to Become •̩̩͙*˚*

Remember how I started off strong at the beginning of January? Like any habit, we lose them if we don’t use them. Over time, I started slipping to the point where I abandoned the 75-Hard program completely. Despite that, I still lost some weight, but it wasn’t enough.

The hardest part was coming to terms with it instead of living in denial. I knew that I was disproportionate in my waist compared to the rest of my body, but I didn’t know by how much. I still mostly wear the same clothes, but they don’t fit comfortably. Then I took my tape measure because I had to get measurements for my dress, and well, it wasn’t pretty. I cried after coming face to face with reality. I don’t want to live in a fantasy world and I do consider myself a realist. I see things for how they are in present moment. So I came to terms with it, wiped away my tears, and started over yet again. I have until September to fit into one of the 3 beautiful dresses that I ordered online!

Here We Go Again (˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )

I guess you could say I am not doing the 75-Hard program as intended, but I do not care. I am here to lose my belly pooch and am hyper-focused on diet and exercise. I don’t want to read a non-fiction book or any book for that matter, so I am not going to. I still wanted to incorporate some kind of discipline/mental toughness task into my routine, so instead of 10 pages of reading a day, I have decided to do 30 minutes of creative work, whether that is blogging, journaling, or completing an intimidating task that I have been putting off for weeks. It could be a design for my #Redbubble shop since I haven’t worked on that hobby in several weeks, decluttering items and writing ads for them, or bracelet making. Whatever it is, it needs to be creative work and not some kind of chore or busy work. And this is on top of the goals I have for June 2024!

June Goals 2024

Career Goals:

  • I have 7 shifts this month. Bidding is optional.
  • Catch up on emails if there are any.
  • Have 100 sticker designs in my #Redbubble shop → 3 designs away from this goal
  • Promote my Spring & Summer stickers online → From $1.63 CAD (Ignore the $1.98 price)
➤ Click here to visit my Redbubble shop 🐈‍⬛💕

Personal Goals:

  • Publish 1-2 blog posts + monthly goals/recap blog posts
  • Log into #Medium at least once/week
  • Keep tabs on doctor’s appointments/pending appointments
  • Log into FB for the first time since 2017
  • Pay any outstanding invoice(s)
  • Figure out our flight schedule(s)

Health Goals:

  • Aim for 10,000 steps/day → leave the house at least once/day ☀️
  • Limit drinks to water, tea, and coffee
  • Intermittent fasting. No food after 7:00pm
  • Track hydration on Water Llama app
  • Track steps on Pikmin Bloom app
🌸 ℑ’𝔪 𝔟𝔢𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔳𝔲𝔩𝔫𝔢𝔯𝔞𝔟𝔩𝔢 𝔬𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰 𝔟𝔩𝔬𝔤, 𝔰𝔬 𝔞𝔩𝔩 ℑ 𝔞𝔰𝔨 𝔦𝔰 𝔱𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔶𝔬𝔲’𝔯𝔢 𝔨𝔦𝔫𝔡. 𝔑𝔬 𝔫𝔞𝔰𝔱𝔶 𝔢𝔪𝔞𝔦𝔩𝔰 𝔱𝔢𝔩𝔩𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔪𝔢 ℑ’𝔪 𝔞 𝔥𝔶𝔭𝔬𝔠𝔯𝔦𝔱𝔢 𝔬𝔯 𝔰𝔬𝔪𝔢𝔬𝔫𝔢 𝔴𝔥𝔬 𝔡𝔬𝔢𝔰𝔫’𝔱 𝔩𝔦𝔳𝔢 𝔲𝔭 𝔱𝔬 𝔱𝔥𝔢𝔦𝔯 𝔴𝔬𝔯𝔡, 𝔬𝔯 𝔴𝔥𝔞𝔱𝔢𝔳𝔢𝔯 𝔟𝔞𝔰𝔢𝔩𝔢𝔰𝔰 𝔞𝔠𝔠𝔲𝔰𝔞𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔰 𝔥𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔟𝔢𝔢𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔬𝔴𝔫 𝔞𝔱 𝔪𝔢 𝔦𝔫 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔭𝔞𝔰𝔱 𝔣𝔬𝔯 𝔟𝔢𝔦𝔫𝔤 𝔬𝔭𝔢𝔫 𝔞𝔟𝔬𝔲𝔱 𝔪𝔶 𝔰𝔱𝔯𝔲𝔤𝔤𝔩𝔢𝔰 🌸

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ FINAL THOUGHTS ♥

There are a few appointments that I need to book this summer, but I didn’t include them in my general list of goals. I have them written down on my phone, and I plan to complete them close to September. Both my husband and I need to travel to Ontario, but at different times, so I don’t know what’s happening yet. Overall, I think my goals are reasonable and not too extreme. I know I’m strict about my diet, but I have limited time to accomplish what needs to get done. And when you’re under pressure, you find a way to get it done. My next weigh-in is tomorrow. Wish me luck! 🙏💕

I am curious to know what your goals are for the month of June. Feel free to let me know in the comments section below ↓ Also, I would really appreciate it if you followed me on Twitter (@serene_hilz), that is, if you aren’t already a follower. Trying to grow on Twitter/𝕏 is hard and I’m constantly having to weed out those pesky bots and fake accounts—it’s so annoying! If you’re a real person, you don’t have to worry about me removing you. I can spot those bot accounts from a mile away, so you can trust me on that.

(っ◔◡◔)っ You can find all of my links and socials here!👉 https://linktr.ee/sereneluna

Thanks for stopping by! ♥

June Goals | Summer 2023

Oh my goodness, it feels like time is flying by so quickly and it’s already June! I feel like I just blinked and now the calendar has changed to Summer 2023. It’s been abnormally warm here in Alberta with temperatures higher than normal for this time of year. On top of that, we didn’t get any snow during the month of May which is highly unusual. In the past, snowfall was still a common occurrence during the month of May, but this year that wasn’t the case. Thus, the warm weather is likely here to stay for some time. That being said, the wildfires in northern Alberta are causing smokey skies, which makes it hard to enjoy the nice weather.

That’s my life offline; online is a different story. These days, I’m having a blast creating anime-style artwork using a cool AI generator I discovered on #Twitter, which has forced me to learn and understand the basics of how Discord works. When I’m not tweeting anime art, I post poetry, blog posts, Medium articles (Good Lord, am I still going on about this?) and pics of my cat. Unfortunately, my cat is ill so any prayers would be appreciated. You can follow me via the following link:

♡ Quick Link: https://mobile.twitter.com/serene_hilz

🅷🅴🅻🅻🅾 🆂🆄🅼🅼🅴🆁 🅷🅴🅻🅻🅾 🅹🆄🅽🅴

I Just Had an Aha Moment and It’s Wild!

In fact, it’s so wild that I am making a major pivot and wholeheartedly embracing the entrepreneurial life….yikes! But let me explain. After giving it a lot of thought, my biggest realization is that no matter how much I enjoy writing for passive income Medium, writing for the sole purpose of earning money isn’t enjoyable for me. Honestly, I have no desire to become a freelancer, do affiliate marketing, write product reviews (I am naturally inclined to live a minimalistic lifestyle), copywrite, create eBooks, and so on – it’s undeniable that success in these fields is deeply rooted in blogging and networking. Sorry, but I won’t compromise my happiness for the sake of earning a few more cups of coffee.

This deep realization has caused me to pause and truly ask myself the question: what am I truly passionate about? The answer came to me in an unexpected way last week. It was almost as if it had been there all along, buried deep within my subconsciousness, and was just waiting for the right moment to present itself. My childhood experiences have had a lasting impact on me, and many of my interests today stem from things that I enjoyed as a child. Although I had many hobbies as a kid, writing wasn’t one of them.

Now I am going off on a tangent, so I digress. Here are my upcoming goals for the month of June:

JUNE GOALS 2023

Career Goals:

  • Plot shift availability for the rest of June to August
  • Catch up on work emails + look for upcoming MLL courses
  • Start working on a side hustle → add at least 5 items to my catalogue

Personal Goals:

  • Publish 1-2 blog posts + monthly recap
  • Find my Posh habit-tracking planner I need to start using it
  • Keep tabs on doctor’s appointments/pending appointments
  • Daily Duolingo practice 🇩🇪
Photo by Miesha Maiden on Pexels.com

Health Goals:

  • Track steps on Pikmin Bloom app → advance to Level 45 🌸
  • Track water intake on Water Llama app
  • No buying junk food from Walmart, Dollarama, etc.

(っ◔◡◔)っ ♥ FINAL THOUGHTS ♥

After careful consideration, I decided to include my new side-hustle under Career Goals even though there is a lot of overlap between this and my Personal Goals. It is quite possible that in the near future, I may need to create an entirely new category specifically for my side-hustle goals depending on how things go. After all, I have a history of beginning new projects only to eventually lose interest and abandon them.

Even though I am not focusing all of my energy on Medium this month, I am still actively engaged on the platform, and will continue to check in regularly. If I do end up writing anything, it is highly unlikely that articles will be written specifically for Medium; instead, they may be published on my blog first and then shared on Medium.

Thanks for stopping by! ♥