Book Review: Habit Changers by M.J. Ryan

I've heard good things about M.J. Ryan's books, but I hadn't ever read any of them. Well, I grabbed this book up and started reading! Habit Changers is a book full of mantras and advice to help you reach your goals in life. 

Ryan organized the book of mantras by categories such as acceptance, communication, prioritization, self-care, and so much more. Seriously, she thought of it all. And it really works let me tell you!  

Manda and I were excited when the book delivered, and we cracked it open to see what it was all about. We explored the whole book at first, but then we decided to pick a couple of mantras to focus on for a little while. 

The first one we chose was in the 'Happiness' category: "Change it, leave it, or accept it." This one really hit home for us, because there are some things we haven't been happy with in our lives. We kept repeating this mantra to ourselves, and it really has helped make a difference. We changed up and rearranged our whole house thanks to this mantra, and we have been so much happier with our living space as a result!

The second one we chose came from the 'Procrastination' section: "All you need is the first action." We are both so bad about procrastinating! Do you ever feel like you don't know what to do when you have a long to do list or large project looming over you?! This is us! But I can say this mantra really helped me. When I would start feeling anxious about something I had to do and trying to figure out all of the steps, I would remind myself that I only needed the first step.

I really enjoyed this book as not only does Ryan provide the mantras, but she shares stories of clients she has worked with (or personal stories of herself) and how these mantras have helped.

Have you read Habit Changers? If so, share your favorite mantra and/or how it helped you below in the comments! If not, I definitely recommend it! Let us know if you decide to check it out!

This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive compensation if you make a purchase using this link. 

For more information about the book and author click here.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.

Hello August: Let's Crush Some Goals

I honestly cannot believe it is August 1st! For us this marks the end of summer and the beginning of the school year. I can't believe how fast summer passed (or the past 7 months for that matter). I'm excited to take on the next five months though! New month, new vision, new goals! Let's do this!

August 2016 Goals

- Read more - We bought all 3 of us Kindle Fires on Prime Day. We also joined a group on GoodReads that does a group read as well as yearly, quarterly, and monthly challenges. We also want to spend more time doing some silent reading with Lil Man. He has worked really hard to complete his annual 100 book summer challenge, but we want to make sure he sees us reading too. 

- Get Organized & Stay Organized - This is a never ending goal for us. My ADD and anxiety battle each other on this front. I either 1)can't seem to focus long enough to get organized, 2) can't focus on it long enough for it to become a habit, or 3) come up with something too complicated for my ADD brain to stick to doing. Then when things are chaotic my anxiety kicks in and I have to dig myself out. I want to actually finish setting up our "command center" we started in January.

- Focus on School - For us and Lil Man, I want to make sure we're focused on school better than we were in the spring. It's time to buckle down. Lil Man is starting 5th grade this year and we're starting our 3rd semester for our Masters degree. 

- Learn to Sew - We got a sewing machine for Christmas a couple of years ago. I've always wanted to learn how to sew. Well we finally opened the box. Yes, we've had it for couple of years still sealed in the top of a closet. But now it's open and we picked up some scrap fabric, so it's time to get started. 

- Leave Work at Work - Ok, so this one is a hard one for me, but I'm really trying. I have too much other stuff to accomplish to keep working endlessly for someone else. 

- Be Consistent (with Our Side Gigs & Hobbies) - So I want to be more consistent in life overall, but especially in our side gigs and hobbies. I want to post on here more. I want to continue to build my R + F business. I also want us to continue to focus on growing our TpT store and that blog. We also just opened an Etsy store, and I'd like to maybe start a blog for that too. 

- Be More Social/Network More - This is both a personal goal and professional/side gig goal. We have no social life. It's work, school, and dance for us; so I want to spend more time with people we care about. I also want to spend more time networking with other bloggers, teacher-authors, and Etsy shop owners. 

- Screen-free Family Time - I want to make it a point to take time for some screen-free family time amidst our crazy schedules. 

Well there you have it. There's my August goals! Some of these goals will carry over into other months and some will become more specific as time goes on. 

What are your goals this month? 

Time Flies By...

I'm sitting here in the hotel room after a long day at the dance comp. I have some ADD tendencies going on tonight. I'm exhausted, but I can't sleep...guess I'll write the blog post I've been meaning to write for a while now.

It's hard to believe that it is already February 22nd (well 23rd now)! I'm excited and nervous about what this next year will [hopefully] means for us. I want so much to happen, but wow time is flying already! We're so excited for what this year has already brought us, and we can't wait to see what happens by this time next year.

I've set goals for us for the next 2 years...within the next 2 years I want for us both to be in full teaching positions (hopefully by August) then all the rest will come...wedding, baby, house, and SUV. Not in that order necessarily. We've been wanting to plan our wedding for quite some time (2.5 years to be exact), but it just hasn't been in the cards just yet. We have a date set, and we're really hoping to keep it! Baby...well let's face it, we're not getting any younger and neither is Lil Man. He's already 8! We've always known we wanted more kids, and we're ready to start the process to build our family. House...I love our apartment, and it's been great so far. Let's face it though, we really want to be in a house. We would like to buy a house if we can find one we really love, but we're ok with renting until we do. Plus adding on to the family would be so much less crowded in a house. We don't have enough room as it is in the apartment. SUV...so many reasons. First of all, I have just always wanted an SUV. Which is partly why my parents got me a hatchback for graduation back in 2008. With Lil Man's dance stuff, I've decided we need more room to pack! And with wanting to add a baby to the mix...my little two-door car just isn't going to cut it!

Speaking of time flying by...we haven't been doing so well keeping our vlogs updated. I promise we will get them updated soon! We have quite a few to get posted. There's our Twister Challenge, a visit from my wonderful sister and baby niece, snow days, our Chattanooga (dance comp) trip, and who knows what else. We've been staying extremely busy. Lil Man is always at the studio working hard. Manda is always at work, and she's getting ready to go out of town next week (ahhh!). I feel like I'm never home, and when I am I have no extra time. After school while Lil Man is at dance, I am tutoring privately and through the school system for extra money, working on our TpT store, planning a race event for the run club I coach at school, and working on an online class.

So please bear with us :) I promise we're still around, and we'll post vlogs soon!