effort: my sophomore year goals.

hello my loves! welcome to my mind & heart as i share my goals for the new school year. i’m going to be a junior & i’m excited for what this year will bring. i love setting goals—always have, always will—and my hope is this post will inspire you in your own journey of growth!

a quick explanation: i set my goals in categories, plus a theme. my junior year theme is effort. my goals mirror this theme as you will see below ♡ my categories are spiritual, social, physical, & intellectual. i also added an organizational one as well :)

starting with spiritual, my main priority for the last year & this year going forward is to do my personal scripture study first thing every single day. this really sets me up for a good day & helps me make time to strengthen my faith daily. the more i put into it, the more i get out of it!

madison central library

i’m going to do this at 5:30 each morning. this is because i do a zoom church class called seminary before school on weekdays. my goal is to treat it like fsy: to put in effort & take notes every day.

my social goal is to be more friendly, especially at school. i’m going to wave, say hi to people that i don’t usually talk to, and be brave and outgoing. i want to make solid friendships at school this year, but i’m not going to wait around to see if that happens, instead i’m going to chase after it with 100% of my social energy.

physical : there’s so many in this category :). my health is very important to me & i am going to work really hard to not overdo myself this year. so, the goals. first, meditate every day. this is something i’ve started this year, but lately i’m working to make it a daily habit. i love this two minute affirmations podcast episode, but i also want to work on my breathwork. it’s crazy how much focusing on your breath for a few minutes every day transforms your reaction to anything stressful.

something new i’ve been prioritizing is grounding (feet on the ground outside) & getting natural light (morning sun

shine) in my eyes before looking at my phone. i love how this helps me get outside right away. i’ll probably do a whole post about this, but basically this system is so so good for your body. it can help with sunburns, sleep (circadian rhythm), stress, and more. it is also so good to not look at your phone right away—otherwise you program your dopamine to rely on your phone (aka phone addiction). highly recommend! it just feels so good ◡̈

similarly, i’m going to turn my phone off @8 each night, and be in bed @ 830-9. this is insanely early & very idealistic haha but your girl needs her solid 8-9 hours (waking up at 530). getting off my phone early will help me get to bed on time, right? obviously this won’t happen every night with night events, football games & xc meets, etc. but hopefully it helps.

finally, i’ve been working to drink three waterbottles every day! most days i drink two, but shooting for about a gallon (ny waterbottle is 32 oz) helps me feel so much better. in a podcast i heard that drinking two glasses of water first thing in the morning can improve so many problems! so that’s a nice time to get a head start on my goal.

my bonus physical goals hahaha are to be active during the day, trying for 8-10k steps daily, as well as consistency in my workouts. i’m excited to get into a schedule with lifting & pilates each day! working out changes my mood so much it’s crazy.

you might be thinking yo that’s a whole ton of goals. and yes, it is. so just keep in mind that most of them are habits i’ve been working on all summer or even before then. part of goals for me is reminding myself to stay strong in my habits. also, i’ve incorporated them into my routines, which helps immensely! then i don’t have to think about them much. ◡̈

intellectual! this one is super simple, but it will be pretty demanding to keep up. it’s to put 100% effort into learning. not necessarily into every part of my classes, but into legit learning. it’s something i’ve been really bad at in the past—i just kinda float through my classes & remember pretty much nothing. welp. this is year is going to be different.

i’m going to put 100% effort into learning by taking notes in every class, studying, recording & relistening to important lectures, asking teachers for help to fully understand (esp for math), and set goals for each class (esp electives: art, music, spanish). of course, i’m not going to show up to school every day with 100% energy, but with i can, i want school to be about learning. @thisweeksgrace said “study not to get good grades but to learn” & i’m going to embody that this year.

organizational: more planning than last year ◡̈ specifically, time blocking! i’ve heard @rowenatsai & @theblissbean talk (watch their videos for tutorials & tips) about this for years, but for some reason i never tried it until a few weeks ago and dang idk why i waited so long!! highly rec trying it out! i’m def a newbie at it, but i love it so much! i’ve basically done it in my head, but having a visual clears so much stress out of mind ◡̈

i also love doing monthly & weekly recaps and goal setting. it’s then that i will review my annual & junior year goals, among other things. i will probably do a whole post about that :) i use my bullet journal to plan all of that!

and of course, morning & nighttime routines! i’ve outlined them step-by-step for myself so i know exactly how i’m going to do it. it’s flexible, & it will definitely take some time to get in the groove of it all, but i’m excited.

there you have it! and wow, that ended up being so much longer than i thought it would be :) as you can probably tell, i’m very passionate about these goals & i could write wayyy more about all of them :)

while there are a lot of goals, i’m not expecting myself to do anywhere close to perfect on any of them.

for me, goals are about effort, not expectations.

i (try to) give myself a lot of grace when it comes to goals. a lot of the time, i’m not opperating at 100% capacity, and it’s only fair to give myself mercy. there are non-negociable habits, like scripture study, prayer, how i treat others, & moving my body. the rest, depends on the day! obviously i want to do as much as i can, but at the end of the day, if i did my best, that’s enough. ♡

if you made it to the end, you are a real one! i hope you enjoyed this post! let me know if you have any similar goals, or just your intentions for this new school year (if you are in school).

sending my best wishes for each of you in your journey of growth & blooming ◡̈

xo, kate