This is How I’m Preparing to Thrive This Summer
There is nothing like growing up as a kid with a teacher as your parent. I remember sitting in last period, moments before summer vacation, anxiously counting down the last minutes of the day. I waited all year for this moment and it was finally here. At last, all the hard work was over. The anxiety-filled pop-quizzes and exams were coming to a momentary end. I was going to exchange homework time to do whatever I wanted to do…so I thought.
You see, when you have a teacher for your mom, your summer days are slightly different. While I did have moments of childhood debauchery and late summer nights, the summer wasn’t a season of idleness, it was a season of preparation.
I had my fair share of play, but my mother believed that summer was a time of preparation for the next school year. That means that I spent my summer learning, so I basically went to school all year around. Now while we didn’t have intense classroom sessions, my mother made sure that I was learning and preparing just as much as I was playing.
I spent my summer reading books on the list from my library’s Summer Reading Program, and the fact that they used free Pizza Hut as an incentive gave me all the more reason to finish every book on the list (little did they know that I was a bibliophile). So I spent those summers reading, giving my grandparents book reports, doing math drills, and prepping for the school year to come.
Now was I annoyed that most kids spent the majority of their summers sleeping in and playing? Of course, I was! But when I look back on those summers, my mom was teaching me something that I wouldn’t understand until now: discipline and preparation in all seasons.
While I do believe that summer is a time for refreshment and rest, I also believe that it’s a time to prep and cultivate — a time to intentionally prepare for the season ahead while cultivating where you are right now. It’s a time to reassess and redirect. The year may be half over, but there’s still time to make the most out of the seasons ahead. Here’s how I’m prepping for an intentional summer.
Cultivating my faith
If you’ve been following my PowerSheets progress, I shared at the beginning of the year that one of my goals is to be deeply rooted in my faith and my church. A big part of that looks like me cultivating my prayer life. I've noticed that I’ve gotten into a prayer rut where I’ve been praying surface level prayers — prayers lacking faith and depth. I admittedly haven’t been putting much intention here, so to rev up my progress I’m using my Val Marie Prayer Journal and the newest Cultivate Prayer Write the Word Journal and Cultivate Faith Sticker Book.
This newest Write the Word release is all about forming a connection with the Source Himself-God through Scripture specifically chosen to illuminate prayer. I’m understanding more and more that prayer is a weapon, and in order to create a War Room atmosphere in my life, I need to focus on cultivating my faith in prayer.
Cultivating my health
To be honest, my health journey has been an up and down rollercoaster. I’ve temporarily paused my appointments with my naturopath due to some personal reasons, plus I’ve been so busy with wedding planning and growing my business. Admittedly, my health has been placed on the back burner. But my wedding, approaching in the fall, has been a steady reminder and motivation for me to re-prioritize my health. It’s not so much about losing weight or looking great in a wedding dress (although let’s be real, that’s important too). It’s more about eliminating the bacteria, healing my leaky gut, and feeling confident again. So to help me get back on track, I’m preparing with Cultivate’s Wellness Goal Guide.
This goal guide covers more than just fitness. It’s there to help you uncover your unique wellness goals and then take action steps to cultivate your fitness, nutrition, and self-care. Self-care is also an area that I need to tend to. I often let busy get the best of me, but I realize that in order to continue to serve those who matter to me (including you), I have to put my health and self-care first sometimes.
Cultivating my goals
When I get busy, I usually become overwhelmed, and when I become overwhelmed, sometimes I neglect my goals. Can you relate? There’s no need to have a guilt party here. I know that I can’t do all things and do them well, so I’m choosing to cultivate a few goals in this season, choosing grace over guilt and progress over perfection along the way. That’s why I love my PowerSheets.
It’s an intentional goal-setting planner for all seasons of life. The PowerSheets feature a monthly goal setting page called the Tending List that helps you break down your big picture into realistic and attainable goals (there may be a video about this coming next month to Life Designer University 😉). Broken down into monthly, weekly, and daily goals, the Tending List helps you turn your vision into reality. They have been a total game changer in my life and business, and guess what! They are back in stock! You can grab a six month, undated set here to cultivate your goals for the rest of the year, but hurry they more than likely will sell out quick.
While I do plan on enjoying rest and recreation this summer, I know that by intentionally prepping now, I’ll be in a better position to make the most out of the summer. If I practice the discipline to prepare and plant now, I’ll be reaping the abundance of my harvest later.
Are you ready to prepare to thrive this summer? Cultivate What Matters summer products launch today. Click the button below to grab these intentional tools and prepare to thrive this summer today!
Are you taking any steps to prep for the summer? Share them with me in the comments below!
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