How to focus on yourself when the world demands too much every day

I believe we all need space to grow in order to thrive. It’s easy to find yourself running around and spending all your energy on others but we need to focus time on ourselves to live our best lives and be happy. To grow as women and to find out who we are and what we love, this kind of self-care is so important.

Often the last person on the list for us to spend time on is ourselves.

• Do you feel that at the end of the day you have spent most of your energy on others with little left for yourself?
• Do you find that months and even years flit by quickly and you don’t seem to have achieved anything?

I have been so often felt like this. Running round after everyone else and putting my own happiness and growth at the bottom of the list. There was a time years ago when I stopped doing any of the things I liked doing. I just worked like crazy, came home, cooked food for everyone and went to sleep. Then got up the next day and did it all over again, and again and again… 

And guess what happened. Even though I couldn’t or wouldn’t stop, my body did it for me. It MADE me stop. I ended up with pneumonia and was forced to take time out. Lying in bed feeling pretty sorry for myself  I learnt a valuable lesson.

Take care of yourself or you can’t take care of others. As they say “Apply your own oxygen mask first” or you won’t be any use to anyone else.

So after the pneumonia episode I determined to focus on myself a little more and spend time every month carving out a little bit of me time and prioritising my own personal growth and goals. I needed to find a way to focus on my own needs and I found it… through Journaling.

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Journalling is a practical way of spending some time on your own personal growth and happiness.

But Even with the best intentions

It’s easy to let time slip away from you and for good intentions to fall by the wayside. Your time is incredibly valuable. Once time has gone you can’t get it back or earn more. You need to get the most out of the time you have.

Writing things down with pen and paper makes it real.

Goals set in stone are much easier to achieve. You can get so much more done when you have set an intention by actually writing it down with real pen and paper. 

Why I love Journaling

For years I have developed my life through journaling. My notebooks have been the way I have worked things through and set personal development goals. Journalling is brilliant as it allows you to do true inner work and heal yourself. It’s a true window into your soul.

It’s amazing what you discover about yourself when you sit down with your journal…

Now, I’m an artist and I love doodling and drawing. I really enjoy creating my own layouts and hand-drawn designs for my journal but I realise not everyone feels comfortable with drawing their own pages.

Setting up the pages can be a chore in itself and can put you off starting your journal.

I usually only share my journal page designs with family and friends but now I want to share them with you for free, so you can make a start on focussing on yourself for once.

This is a set of journal pages that I use all the time. I’ll run through how I use it, but please feel free to work out your own methods.

I love to take the time on the last day of the month to set my intentions for the month ahead.

That way I have a direction and aim.  

I print out the pages and sit down peacefully with a cup of tea.

Then I look back at the month just finished and assess how I did using the Month Achievements Overview sheet. 

Next, I decide what I want to learn or change in the month ahead using the Personal Growth Plan goals sheet.

The pages are colourable so I will spend a bit of time relaxing and colouring as I meditate on how I want to grow in the coming months. Coloring gives your mind valuable space to daydream and visualise the life you want.

Setting my personal growth aims like this with my planner has become a comforting monthly ritual and I feel it helps me to achieve my aims.

Your Main Goal.

I like to set the main goal for the month. Something I want to achieve over everything else. For me, this month it’s being able to sight-read the notes when playing my Trombone. This is a REALLY big and tricky target for me as I find sight-reading incredibly difficult so this is my overriding goal for the month which I will concentrate on the most. 

Again, writing it down makes it real and me accountable.

Your Month End Overview

At the end of the month, I love to sit down with my journal and look at what I have got done. The Month Achievements Overview sheet makes this easy. It gives me a lovely feeling of achievement. 

Then I can print out another set of planner pages and write down my goals for the next month. This way I feel like I am achieving my goals and moving forward.

FREE Colorable Monthly Personal Growth Planner Download

I’m giving away these planner pages to you for FREE.
You can download the PDF file below

A PDF file of the Lotus Personal Growth planner to print out at home [nothing will be shipped]

The file contains 2 different page sizes

• US Letter size {8.5”x11”} – This size is perfect for printing out to use in a binder
• A5 size {148 × 210 millimetres or 5.83 × 8.27} This size is perfect for using in Bullet Journals, Moleskine Journals etc.
• Printable pages Include:
• 4 beautifully designed and hand-illustrated pages.
• Cover Sheet with a motivational quote
• Personal Growth Plan Goals sheet
• Month Achievements Overview sheet
• Motivational quote colouring sheet
• Undated so you can print out a new set of sheets every month to continue to track your personal growth

Print out more pages for the next month and keep moving forward with your personal growth.