After a long, dark January, the sun is finally shining here in Indiana! It's a great day to get the fresh start of a new month and to celebrate all things goals.
In reflecting on January, I had some good starts, some near misses, some celebrations, and some failures. Here's a recap:
- My business, Monarch Strategies LLC, had the best month it has had yet thanks to two large projects that had major portions completed in January and signing on two new projects this month with another one in the works.
- Thanks to one of those projects, I get to work with two new colleagues I'm enjoying very much.
- I held a quarterly retreat for my I Wanna Be Me When I Grow Up online community. I still don't have a clear vision for the community aside from being a place to host courses.
- Speaking of courses, I didn't get much work done on either of my existing courses this month - which was a huge goal missed. I'm finding it hard to focus on that work.
- In terms of my personal and business, family and household 24 for 24 lists, I took action (and faltered a bit) on the following things:
- I didn't review my lists on the 24th of the month so am adding a task to my task list to do that AND am revising it to be between the 24th and the first day of the next month so that I can write this type of review post each month.
- My housemate and I watched church services every Sunday this month in our quest to find a church together.
- My niece made inquiries about renting a pontoon boat for our family vacation to Michigan in July.
- In my effort to continue to kick cancer's ass, I:
- had my 3rd chemo treatment - I'm half done with chemo!
- had a follow-up visit with the radiation oncologist to get more questions answered so I can make a decision about doing radiation treatment after chemo. I've decided to do it and am now trying to prepare mentally and physically.
- had a call with the nutritionist to talk about nutrition during radiation
- I sent several cards, and averaged one a week even though I didn't send one each week.
- I held a financial date with myself and for the business.
- Kept both my reading streak and my Duolingo streaks going in January
- Had two almost perfect publishing weeks on Hive. I forgot about UTC time so I've got to continue to refine my publishing process to make that a reality.
- Worked on my monthly theme of finances for my Happiness Project.
- Tried a couple of new recipes this month. I made homemade Greek Yogurt and a delicious tarragon sauce to go over chicken and rice. I also made a hash out of edamame, corn, onions, and bacon. It was quite tasty. That wasn't a recipe, nor was the tarragon sauce - those were just me playing around in the kitchen
- I started a python coding class on LinkedIn Learning and haven't been back to it since the day I started it.
- I've done some journaling and some handwriting of the Bible but nowhere near how much I said I would. Here's to taking those back up again this month.
- I sent exactly 20 soft reach outs this month for my business.
- I have a content schedule and am trying to use it, but I wouldn't call it a social media schedule. I did start a new "Teaching Tips Thursday" feature on my business blog and I've posted every Thursday so far this year.
- One of my new client projects will likely lead to a lot of content I can use in my mid-level career coaching program I want to build out.
- I read several Harvard Business Review articles this month and even developed some content off of one of them.
- I do think I was more engaged on Hive this past month than I was at the end of 2023.
- I couldn't make the next women of PKM meeting but did complete my homework assignments from the first meeting and those were met positively and I have next steps
- I've already promoted the work of at least two other small businesses this month.
- I had a good visit with my dad and sister before my dad took off on his cruise to the Panama Canal with my brother and sister-in-law. He had a great time on the cruise.
- My best friend and I booked our next "big" trip which is a Tulip Time river cruise through the Netherlands and Belgium. I'm super excited about it.
So with my personal review out of the way, it's now time to do my Hive Power Up, courtesy of 
I've still not figured out how to buy Hive here in America so remains an ongoing challenge. I'm going to keep trying to figure out how to make this happen. I thought I could do it directly through PeakD but the exchange they use said I was ineligible to use that exchange. So, I'll keep trying to figure this out. If you've got suggestions, please let me know. I feel like I'm going to need a lot of hand holding on this project.
Looking forward to February and participating in the Dreemport and Creative Work Hour challenge this month and seeing what else this Leap Year February holds for me. I find it interesting that in the shortest month of the year, I have two chemo sessions but at least that means I'll be 83% done with chemo!
What are you looking forward to in February?