October 2023: Paying Attention To Small Progress

October is gone and with that, I feel a little sad! October is one of my favourite months. It’s spooky season, PSL season, and always full of fun activities (plus the weather is still pretty nice). 

I managed to do some typical fall things this past month! We always make a trip to the pumpkin patch, although we don’t usually go down to the actual patch. The local pumpkin patch we go to has a nice little area where they lay out all the pumpkins by size and it’s nice and clean haha. They also have some cute photo areas which is my fav! Got my yearly pumpkin pic with Nick!

October was also a big month this year because I got married! Early in the month, I got to walk down the aisle and say “I do” in front of all my friends and family. It was a wonderful day. Everything went as planned which is amazing!! I was so nervous though just being in front of so many people 😅 I was so picky about the songs that would play during the ceremony and I don’t even remember hearing them because I was so nervous haha! Had so much fun though – will be a day I never forget!

I also saw Taylor Swift’s Eras Concert movie this past month. It was everything I expected and more. I really hope I can get tickets to her actual concert. There are rumors going around that she might be coming to Vancouver so I am crossing my fingers because I wasn’t able to get tickets to the Toronto shows (for those who don’t know Canada well, Vancouver and Toronto are on opposites sides of the country – about a 6 hour flight – but the only Canadian stop on her tour so far so everyone tried to get those tickets lol). Hoping that people who have already seen her let the rest of us get tickets haha unlikely I’m sure though!

Anyway, enough rambling from me. Let’s jump into the October wrap-up. Starting with my overall life progress that I’ve been seeing lately 🙂 

Disclaimer: Links included in this post might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you! Thank you for supporting my blog!

Paying attention to progress this month

The law of attraction has been working overtime lately for me! I have been really focusing on making progress with my goals. I’ve been putting in the work but I’ve also been paying attention to the little changes the work has made. I swear the more I pay attention to the little signs of progress the more they happen!

I have to be honest – I am so impressed with myself and the hard work I’ve been doing. Hopefully you feel the same way about yourself because when you feel proud of yourself it gives you some next-level kind of motivation to keep going. Progress is addicting!

The most obvious progress I’ve seen is my health. I started my fitness journey in the hopes I would lose some weight and don’t get me wrong, I still want that (it’s my own personal goal, not everyone needs to workout to lose weight obviously), however, I’ve seen a lot more change in me than just weight. If I’m being 100% honest, I’ve hardly lost any weight lol but the other changes have kept me going. 

My heart health feels better, my breathing is better, my cardio and stamina in day-to-day life is better, my anxiety has decreased, and surprisingly, I’ve started to love working out. It’s something that I just do now. It’s not even a second thought. I’ve finally trained my brain to just know that I’m doing a workout instead of asking myself if I should workout today. 

Those changes are so big! But if I was just focusing on the scale I would have given up so many times. The scale is not changing much and I wish it would… but I’m so happy and proud of myself for sticking with this lifestyle because I made huge progress in my inner health and wellbeing. 

So this is a sign for you – if you are not seeing any progress with your goals, look harder. I promise you, if you are actually doing the work there is some progress! Do weekly check-ins with yourself, track habits, take pictures, and so on. It doesn’t matter what your goal is, tracking and reviewing is the best way to notice your progress!! 

Since I’ve been able to make this lifestyle switch it’s time to add on a new goal: healthy eating! The next part of my journey 🙂 

Goal progress

Lets jump into the super honest details of my goal progress in October!

Blog views: I saw some good progress this month. My blog page views jumped to 5k! I think it was primarily due to the season. I wrote a blog post about not so spooky Halloween movies and each year it seems to get more and more popular. It really blew up on my Pinterest which ended up getting me many more views here. We will see if that progress sticks over the next month. My next milestone goal is 10k!

Instagram: no real changes over there. Still lingering with the same number of followers. However, some progress I’ve seen over there is my story views and engagement. I changed up the type of posts I’m putting out and it seems like I’m getting more engagement but no change in followers. 

Email list: still seeing steady progress with the email list which I’m happy about! 283 subscribers now! I gained about 25 subscribers since last month. I created 2 new freebies which I definitely need to do a better job of promoting. 

Workouts: I’ve been doing good with my workouts. I’ve noticed a difference in my mindset this past month – I believe I have achieved my goal of making fitness my lifestyle. I really look forward to working out now and while there are still days I miss or weekends that get super busy, I like the way my body feels when I work out and I try my best to make it a priority. 

Reading: 33/60 books for the year. I don’t think I’m going to make my reading goal this year lol which is okay! 2022 I did sooo much reading so I increased my goal but this year has been more focused on my blog and my health (which are great things). But still, 3 books a month is awesome and I’ve had some great reads this year. 

Favourites from October

Favourite meal: I made homemade soup this month and it was SO GOOD. It was Italian sausage tortellini soup – here’s the recipe. 

Favourite show watched: A new season of Loki came out and we binge-watched it so fast! 

Best Amazon purchase: Under bed fabric storage containers. I have had a plastic rolling under bed container which has been great but the handles broke off because I stuffed it way too full lol so it was time for a replacement. Also, I needed a way to store my wedding dress because we dont have much closet space in our place so this was the perfect solution! It was a pack of 2 storage containers and it was a great price.

Favourite book: Homecoming by Kate Morton was so good. A captivating family drama/mystery told in the past and present. I loved the mystery aspect and was surprised quite a few times by the twists. Overall was a great read.

Favourite new article of clothing: I did a little clothing haul this month as a wedding gift to me. I picked up this cute corduroy dress that I’m obsessed with. 

Favourite Insta post: the post about self-care when you feel anxious because I have had my fair share of anxiety.

Top 3 blog posts from October:

• The Best Books To Read During Cozy Season
• How I Created A Consistent At-Home Exercise Routine With YouTube Workouts
• How To Wake Up Earlier And Actually Enjoy It

What I’m working on lately

I am working on this blog! I really want to put out more content. Right now I’m publishing a post a week and I would love to up that to two a week or even an extra post twice a month. My ultimate goal in life is to to grow this blog into my job and create other side businesses with this blog (workbooks and apparel has always been a passion of mine). So, I am working on creating more content that is still good quality and something you guys want to read. 

I am always open to content ideas. If there is something specific you like to read (book lists, challenges, interviews, etc.) then let me know so I can do more of them. If there is a topic you’d like to know more about also let me know. 

I created this blog in the hopes of helping other women be the best version of themselves and to live a life they love. So I want my content to inspire, motivate, educate or just give you a little smile every now and then. 

Expectations for November

I have big plans for November for the blog, my habits, and my mindset!

Normally I try to not have too high of expectations for any particular month or year, however, I just feel that November is going to be productive for me.

So here are some things I am expecting for November:

• a positive mindset
• new habits that I’ll add to my habit tracker
• more time for writing blog posts
• connecting with other bloggers
• healthier eating
• lots of movement
• growth on the blog and Pinterest
• overall happy vibes

I like the term “intentions” but I also like the idea of having expectations for myself. I expect these things will happen. That is something I will hold myself accountable for! Some things are a tad out of my control of course but many aren’t so I will try my absolute best to follow through 🙂

Something I’ve learned lately is that discipline is not easy but it gets easier with practice. Holding yourself accountable to the things you say you are going to do is not always easy but with practice you build confidence that makes it easier!

If you tend to not follow through with your goals or even simple things you tell yourself you are going to do start doing small things on a daily basis (like putting the dishes away when you said you would) and then add more things as you feel more confident in yourself. Start EXPECTING follow through from yourself. You can do it!

What was a highlight from October for you?