Heard it on the Podcast - December 17, 2025

  

 

 

Did you miss a link we mentioned on the podcast? Here's a quick post we'll do every Wednesday to share any links or information from the podcast. We'll also keep a running post on the "Links from the Podcast" tab so you can refer back to any previous episode. 

17-DEC-2025

S5E51: Richard Webster: How to Write Your Own Magic (Part 2)

What does it really mean to “tell the Universe” what you want—and how is that different from wishful thinking? Drawing from Webster’s practical mysticism, we discuss intention as a living conversation, not a one-time request, and how clarity, belief, and emotional alignment shape what we attract.

Listen to the podcast:   HERE

Here are the links from this episode:

• Listen to Part 1 of Richard Webster: How to Write Your Own Magic
• Cultivate What Matters
• A brief announcement from us about Cultivate What Matters
• SMART Goals
• Insight Timer
• Om Mani Padme Hum - how to pronounce it

If you liked today's episode, you might like some of these episodes and blog posts:

• Listen to the Modern Musings Episode about SMART Goals
• Read our blog posts: 
• Amber: S.M.A.R.T. Goals for Everyone
• Christen: S.M.A.R.T. Start to the Year
• Cindy: Making S.M.A.R.T. Goals Happen: 5 Ways to Track Your Progress
• You can also check out our whole series called "Goals, Girl!" on YouTube and on our blog using the following tags:
• goal-setting
• goals
• goalsgirl 
• goalsgirlfriend 
• S.M.A.R.T. goals

Don't forget to visit our Facebook group, MMC Chat. Let us know what you think! 

Why You Should Stay Hydrated!

Many of us struggle to drink enough water. It has been something I strive for and even sometimes struggle with. I find that, just like the tide, I ebb and flow when it comes to drinking water. I will get on a kick and drink until I float away, and then something might trigger the pause, and I will slow down on my water consumption.

With the new moon coming on Tuesday, right now is the best time to set those new intentions. If you have been struggling, like most people, to get in enough fluids, set the intention to drink more water for your health. Determine exactly what your intention is, and set that intention with the new moon on Tuesday, June 28th. Your positive and creative energies are at their highest during the new moon. 

Great ways to set intentions:

• Vision boards
• Positive affirmations
• Smart goals
• Meditation
• Scripting

I mentioned last week that I have been busy this summer. We recently came back from a great family canoe trip. My parents have been canoeing down the Brazos River for several years now. Just last year, Travis, Reyna and I joined them for our first expedition. Although we had no idea what we were getting into, we were eager to go. I want to tell you about a terrifying experience that we had while on our canoe trip in 2021.

Now when I say that we were going on a canoe trip, I mean just that. We parked our cars and were shuttled off to a remote location where we were left with our gear, 3 canoes, and our own willpower to get 20 miles down the river safely. My dad is not the planner in the family, that would be my mom, so when we asked him what to bring, he said “I got everything, just bring your beer and camping gear.” So that's what we did. I’m not a beer drinker, so Travis brought a tiny cooler with some beer for himself. The goal was to go 10 - 12 miles down river, stopping somewhere about half the way for lunch and then making the last leg for that day to a good place to camp on the side of the river bank. We would reserve the last 8 - 10 miles for the following day. We had all of our gear in our canoes: tents, chairs, clothing, food, toilet paper…everything. 

The day was hot! The temperature was probably close to, if not, in the 100’s. Travis and I did not have the best clothing choices on. We thought, since it was going to be hot, that tank tops and shorts would be best to keep us cool. Despite our best efforts to keep sunscreen applied, we were both dried-out lobsters by lunch time. We got a little wet in the river to cool off. Reyna was having a blast digging up river rocks and swimming, but Travis was starting to look very worn out, and I was getting pretty worn out myself. The whole trip, we were paddling against the wind so it was very exhausting. 

The camping spots are not designated. The land edging up to the river is privately owned, so the only places to camp are on the sandbars. We paddled downstream and checked out several spots, looking for the flattest places to camp. I turned to look at Travis only to find that he was not paddling any longer, and looked very ill. He was clearly getting heat exhaustion. We had been pushing waters on him, but all the waters were in a cooler in another canoe, not easily accessible. It was clear that he was dehydrated. By the time we found a campsite, he was nauseous and was not able to keep the water down. It was horrible, he was of no help getting the tent set up and we couldn’t get him to drink. 

Once I got our tent set up, he climbed inside and practically passed out. He emerged just long enough to try and eat supper, but that upset his stomach. After about an hour of sitting with the family, he went back to bed with instructions to drink more water. We had no choice but to let him rest so that we could carry on the next day. That night, he was restless in his sleep. He kept trying to get out of the tent and wander off in the dark without shoes or a flashlight. I feared that he was delirious! Thankfully at some point in the night I was able to get him to finally go to sleep, and we finished off our canoe trip the next day.

This year, we made some changes to how we packed. I insisted that we have a cooler in each canoe, with drinks. We extended the trip by one more day, so that we could travel a shorter distance, and rest longer in between. Travis and I wore long sleeve shirts to protect our skin from getting burned, and we brought 4 large packs of water along with other refreshments. Before our trip, Travis made extra efforts to ensure that he was pre-hydrated; several weeks prior to the trip, he bumped up his daily water intake.

I thought it would be wise to set up a way to ensure that we all drank, and often. The first year that we went canoeing, Travis and I being novices, found our canoes mimicking bumper car behavior more than anything. Going into it this year I just knew that it would be the same as before, so I told everyone that we would drink anytime someone got their canoe turned the wrong direction. We drank a lot! Thankfully this year, the only thing that was dehydrated on our trip were my lips because they got a little windburned, but a couple of days with Vaseline on them, and they are smooth again!

The moral of my story: arriving at an outdoor activity on the brink of dehydration can be fatal. My husband was very lucky that his dehydration did not cause further damage. He is now the butt of the joke anytime we talk about the canoe trip of 2021, and he was scrutinized (very lovingly) if he had any drink left in his bottle, (and probably always will be). 

What measures do you take to ensure you are getting enough fluids? Have you or a loved one ever been severely dehydrated? I would love to hear what you have to say, be sure to stop by MMC Chat on Facebook to continue the conversation and be sure to check out the podcast on Wednesday where we each share our hydration tips. 

Photo by Cindy Murray

My Favorite Flavor

If you know me, you know I am a sucker for weird holidays. Did you know that March is “National Peanut Awareness” month? According to Peanut Allergy Facts, about four percent of teens and adults have peanut allergies. Peanuts have always had an important role in my life. Another little-known fact about me: My family, and by extension I mean “I”, owns a peanut farm.

My whole life, I have always said “my family” because I never felt part of that equation. I have always felt far removed from that scenario as it never seemed possible t that I would inherit the farm; the farm would never make it past my mom’s generation. Then, my mom died, and now I own half of a farm.

Going back generations, my family had always been farmers. My mom even grew up on the farm until my grandparents moved permanently to town when she was in college. That was when they allowed someone else to farm their land for a share of the profits. The farm grew other things besides peanuts depending on the season and who was in charge of farming it. Somehow, though, the farm was always there in the background. We visited it during crop seasons, and my grandparents dealt with the taxes. 

Growing up, I have many memories involving peanuts. Mid-fall, whenever the crop was harvested, my grandmother would receive bags of raw peanuts that she liked to shell herself. So, I would sit with my Maw Maw and shell peanuts; I began to hate peanuts.

As I mentioned in my last blog, I grew up poor. A staple in many less-fortunate households is peanut butter and white bread. Peanut butter is pretty sustainable and if you are hungry, it can be satisfying on the cheap. Aside from peanut butter sandwiches, we ate peanut butter and saltine crackers almost every day. To this day, my grandma still likes peanut butter and saltine crackers for an afternoon snack and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for dinner.

After I moved out, I didn’t eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches because they reminded me of my childhood and poverty. Then things changed. Three years ago, I had a life-changing surgery that altered the way that I eat and taste food (watch for a blog post in the near future). If you ask me to name my favorite thing to eat, my answer now will be peanut butter (or any kind of nut butter, really). Why? Quite simply, my taste buds changed, or adapted, since I started my weight-loss journey. Despite my earlier disdain, I am obsessed with the flavor. It no longer represents poverty but protein, and protein is life-sustaining. Nuts and nut butter were among the few things my stomach could tolerate post-surgery, and I enjoyed a bite of peanut butter as a “sweet escape” if I wanted something to curb my cravings.

It’s funny how we tend to avoid certain things that remind us of our childhood. It’s not like peanuts held a particular trauma for me. I may have simply not enjoyed the taste. I’m thankful now that I can look back at unshelled peanuts and be reminded of my Maw Maw but I will always buy them shelled in the store.

My favorite ways to eat nut butter:

• Perfect Bars™: Perfect Bar™  is an organic, gluten-free, high-protein bars made out of nut butter. They offer many different flavors at your local grocery store, but my favorite will always be the dark chocolate chip.
• Spread on a keto waffle: One of my favorite things to make is a Birch Bender’s® keto waffle. You can buy waffle mix or ready-made frozen waffles. I like to pair my waffle with Fix and Fogg Everything Butter®.
• Keto Peanut Butter Balls: I use this recipe from Beaming Baker, and I like to use Swerve®, sweetener, and 365 Organic Creamy Peanut Butter®.
• Keto Fat Bombs: I recommend this recipe from That Low Carb Life using Swerve® and Lily’s® baking chips.
• As a dip with Cauliflower Pretzels: My favorite cauliflower pretzels are From the Ground Up®.
• Keto Peanut Butter Pie: I found this recipe from All Day I Dream About Food using the same keto ingredients mentioned above.
• Keto PBJ: My favorite keto bread is Chompie’s®, and my favorite sugar-free jam is Good Good®.
• Smoothie King Keto Champ Coffee™: I love a good protein shake and this smoothie features almond butter.
• Premier Protein™  Chocolate Peanut Butter Shake: I can’t leave this out because protein shakes are a part of my everyday life now.

I also want to give a small-business shout-out to Spread Happiness Nut Butters and their keto-butter products as well as Ten Berries and their low-sugar jams. I first ran across these businesses at the Denton Community Market a few years ago when I moved back to the area.

I want to hear from my readers. Do you like peanut butter? What are some of your favorite peanut recipes? E-mail me at modernmusingsmmc@gmail.com and share your recipes with me.

As an Amazon Affiliate, Modern Musings earns from qualifying purchases.

SEE ⇢ THINK ⇢ BELIEVE ⇢ DO ⇢ BE

With all the talk last week about bad luck and superstitions, this week’s topic of manifesting is a welcome change. When I read Christen’s blog about positive affirmations last Thursday, my first comment to her was, “I don’t do that,” a phrase often used by my granddaughter in answer to something she doesn’t want to do. I laughingly told Christen that I’m always afraid to say some affirmations out loud (or even think them) for fear of jinxing myself or tempting fate…you know, say something positive and then knock on wood to make sure it stays true. Wow, I am superstitious, aren’t I? The funny thing is, I do believe in positive affirmations, just not in the same way that Christen does.

Last month, we talked about vision boards as a method of visualizing the things we want, and that is the start of a technique I have dubbed, “See Think Believe Do Be”. The idea started when I was working on my vision board for One Little Word. We make a vision board every year for this project, and I usually go about it the same way, as demonstrated on the blog linked above. But this year, we had a guest instructor “Lu” lead us through a few alternative ways to approach the vision board, and one of them reminded me of a positive affirmation technique I’ve practiced many times through my morning “mindfulness” ritual.

Visualize the life you want to have. Plan out the perfect day. See yourself doing the things you want to do. Feeling the feelings you want to feel. Imagine yourself being the person you want to be and living the life you want to live.

This is the “See” of my technique. When you write or draw out your vision, do it with as much detail as you can imagine. Really describe all of it. Really SEE it. Be specific. KNOW what you want. I wrote out a detailed schedule of how I wanted a typical work day to go, starting from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed. I added in all the things I wanted to do, and as I was writing it out, I closed my eyes and imagined what it looked like and how I felt. There were no negatives…this was my perfect workday.

I’ve found that once you can actually see the future you’d like to manifest, it tends to stay with you. It’s not some vague notion of being successful at work, or losing lots of weight…it’s the ideal image of what you want emblazoned on your brain. It makes it something tangible. Something real. You start to think about that life and really want it. And then, when, through the course of your day, you are faced with choices – decisions that will affect the outcome of that vision – you tend to think back on that idea, and it helps you to make the better choice. This is the “Think” part of the technique.

Since creating that daily schedule, I’ve found that I’m a lot more productive in my day. I’ve got a plan. I’m getting things done. I’m thinking about my goals all the time. That vision is an ever-constant reminder of my end game, and I’m constantly weighing choices and options to see whether they fit with my overall plan. Some people call this “alignment” with your “higher good”. I call it the “Believe” part of my technique because this is when I really start to believe that my goals are possible.

Once I start to believe that I can have this life I envision, then I start finding ways to make it happen. I find that I am constantly checking that alignment against what I’m doing, I start breaking those goals down into smaller steps and then start ticking them off, one by one. I’m not rushing to finish…I’m just working the plan, taking the steps, doing the work. Little by little, I’m making progress. This is the “Do”.

If you look at my technique and you see that “Be” is the last step, you might think it’s the end, but it’s not. Be actually comes into play from the very beginning; from the minute you start to visualize the life you want you start to become that person. And that’s really what manifesting is all about. If you can dream it, you can be it, and at each step of the process, you are actually doing the things that someone who “is” does. BE that person. LIVE that life. If you can imagine that life, if you can see that life, then you can live that life. All that is left is to do the things that make that life a reality. A person who is healthy has a healthy exercise routine, so be that healthy person - get up and exercise. A person who is successful at their career has certain objectives they need to meet, so be that successful person – line up those tasks or quotas and figure out what it will take to meet or exceed it, then just do it. 

See⇢Think⇢Believe⇢Do⇢Be

It all starts with see. You can think it, and you can believe it, but you have to do it to be.

As Henry Ford once said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.”

Let’s talk some more about visualizing our perfect day or our perfect life. I’d love it if you would share your thoughts here in the comments, or on our MMC Chat Facebook Group.

5 Ways to Manifest Your Best Life

Hi there, and welcome back! Since we have been heavily focusing on goals and planning, I thought we should discuss manifesting. I love this topic, as it is something that I have been deeply interested in for many years. In fact, I can truly say that I have manifested something in my life – you may have remembered in the podcast that I mentioned I manifested my husband, a dog, at least two vacations, and a whole slew of other things. This has become the secret tool that I use for achieving my goals. I turn my dreams into reality by manifesting them. 

It all started when I decided that I wanted to check out podcasts. Podcasts had already been around for quite a long while, but I had never explored them. I had always been a music girl, and I have always preferred to listen to music rather than talk radio when driving. I had started listening to NPR some, but then my driving times changed, and I thought I would seek out something else instead. In looking for podcasts to listen to, I came across a couple of bloggers talking about manifesting, and one of them had mentioned making her vision board for the year. I was hooked. It sounded like a crafty project to help me achieve my goals! After scouring the web, YouTube, and various podcasts for anything vision board-related, I came across a few other methods for manifesting. I also stumbled across a few other podcasters that have inspired me, and I want to share what I have learned to date. 

We touched a little bit on manifesting earlier this year when we were discussing vision boards, but today I want you to know that anyone can manifest without ever having to get out the craft supplies. Here are some other ways to manifest - most of them only require pen and paper, or even just your thoughts. You can pick and choose what works for you, and you can change things up, but I think it is important to see all of the options and their benefits. I know that some of this has already been mentioned recently, but the reason that it is all resurfacing is due to the correlation with many of our Goals Girl segments.

Positive affirmations

Positive affirmations are the simplest form of manifesting. I remember back in the 80s and 90s people would wear their walkman or Discman and listen to recordings of positive affirmations. I didn’t understand what it was until I was made aware of the wretched things that I said to myself. Once I was aware of how I treated myself internally, I vowed to change my habitual self-bashing and move to kindness and self-love. Unfortunately, self-love does not occur overnight. It is something that is learned over time. I knew I needed to start with changing my inner dialogue, but I needed assistance with verbiage as it was not natural to speak kindly to myself. That is where positive affirmation recordings come in handy. If you are like me and do not know how to change your behavior, I recommend this method. Submerge yourself in positive phrases, and you will become more familiar with the dialogue so that you can course-correct yourself when you start treating yourself unkindly. I mentioned positive affirmations in one of my recent posts when talking about having a bad luck mindset. These are great samples to get your day started better!

Vision Boards

If you missed my post on vision boards I highly recommend you check it out. Amber, Cindy, and I have different approaches to vision boards and you will find a helpful how-to tutorial in our video on YouTube. 

Spell Work

Any type of ritual that you create with meaning can be used for manifesting purposes. Do you add cream to your coffee? Try stirring your cup clockwise (to bring in positivity) and say today is going to be sweet! Be mindful to do this with gusto and not out of lackluster habit, as spell work should be done with genuine and focused intent. I would love to circle back on this conversation another time!

Scripting

Grab a pen and paper! I like to use a dedicated journal, but you don’t have to get fancy with it. Sit down and write a letter to yourself. The letter should be written from “future you” to “present time you''. Your letter will outline how great your life is, and how you achieved the dreams that you are currently working on in the present day. Go into great detail explaining how you managed to overcome any obstacles with ease to achieve your dream, secure the promotion, or land on both feet after hardship. But don’t mention the actual struggles– you don’t want to manifest any negativity in your life. I was recently inspired to go back and read some of my earlier scriptings. I started from the beginning and was amazed at some of the things that came to fruition –things that I had not even put into action or given much thought at that time – they were just merely hopes and dreams. I will have to revisit them again, as they gave me warm feelings and hope.

Visualizing

So for visualizing, you can do the above practice, but without the pen and paper. I recommend taking the effort to quiet the room, get comfortable, and close your eyes so that you can imagine your dreams and goals with minimal distraction. You don’t have to be a wordsmith to create visualizations. Imagination and some creativity are all that is needed for them to develop. The trick is to get into the details. Imagine how you feel, emotionally and physically. Be sure to explore all 5 of your senses and ask yourself questions like “what would your typical day be like, what would you do, who would you spend time with?” This process is daydreaming and meditation at the same time. I call it daydreaming for grownups. It’s ok if your mind wanders, just stop and refocus your thoughts until you are satisfied with the outcome. 

For many of us, we feel that there is an aspect of our lives that can be better. We understand that our thoughts turn to actions that impact others around us. The fuel that we inject into the world can be positive or negative energy, and we each decide what kind we send out into the world. Do you want to live in the ways of the past, or in the New Earth? Is there a type of manifesting practice that I have left off? Do you have any tips or tricks you have found successful? I would love for you to share by continuing the conversation in the comments or on our MMC chat on Facebook.

Finding Love After Quarantine

Online dating is the act of searching for a romantic partner on the internet through either an app or a website. In 2022, according to Pew Research, one in three adults in America have used online dating at least once in their lifetime to find a partner. Online dating has become the second most popular way to find a significant other, largely in part, to the rise in dating apps and the ability to simply swipe left or right.

Matchmaking using technology is not as new as it seems. According to the article “Love at First Swipe: The Evolution of Online Dating,” the first computer-based matching service was invented in 1965 by two Harvard students looking for love. It started with a 75-question survey and a $3 fee for applicants. Over 90,000 people signed up for the service and the concept of computer-based matchmaking was born. Since then, using technology to meet people has only become more common. According to the article, 70 percent of Americans use some form of social media, and one-quarter of the country is online most of the day.

In 2020, my ex-husband and I separated after a seven-year relationship; we eventually divorced almost a year after we first separated. I hadn’t entered the dating scene in almost a decade, and I was absolutely terrified. Dating post-quarantine was hard. It wasn’t safe to go to social functions to meet someone, so many naturally turned to online dating, even if they had never experienced it before. Fortunately, I had, and I freely admit it. I met my ex-husband, randomly, on a website called Plenty of Fish. I had recently moved back to my hometown of Vernon, Texas, in early 2014 after twelve years away, and didn’t know anyone in the area anymore other than family.

After divorce, I was a little wary of dating again because I had only had bad experiences, but I was willing to put myself out there. I went through all the stages of an anxiety attack. Was I too old to date? Am I too set in my ways to start over? Do I even have time to date?

I joined Facebook Date (which launched in 2019 but didn’t become popular until 2020). After only meeting scammers, I put the app aside and decided to take a break from dating. During that time, I randomly matched with Jason, my current boyfriend. However, I told him that I wasn’t interested in dating, but we could be friends and we added each other on Snapchat. After that, we talked a few times a week and developed a friendship. Several months later, he asked me out on a date, but I was still wary of online dating. I eventually said yes to a date and I’m glad I did. Next week we are going to celebrate our six-month anniversary. 

My takeaway:

• In 2022 we should all be cautious over meeting someone online. 

• Always talk and get to know someone first and then agree to meet in person. 

• You are never too old to start over. I started my life over at 36 from scratch and I feel like I’m a better person for it. 

• Don’t let anxiety get to you. 

• You are enough, and if you are still looking, don’t force it because it will naturally happen.

A note of caution: Since the pandemic, online dating scams have been on the rise. If you are online dating, be wary of scammers. The scammers that I have met during my time online dating usually pretend to be in the military looking for a connection overseas or a businessperson that travels a lot. These people are charming and full of compliments. They are also usually way younger or way older. If you pay attention to the way they write, you can usually tell a scammer by their grammar. Their grammar is near perfect but there are often unusual changes in tenses. According to the article “Heartbreakers, dream fakers, money takers: Romance scams are rising,” romance scams have increased 197% in 2020 compared to 2019 which has resulted in millions of dollars lost. 

I want to hear from our readers: What are your experiences dating online? Has anyone had to recently start over in the dating game? What is your advice? Let’s continue the conversation on our Facebook Group!

Visual Inspiration to Drive Your Goals

Hey Friends! This week we are talking about Vision Boards. I’m sure you’ve heard of them because everyone seems to be talking about them this time of year, but really, they are nothing new. Designers have been using “Mood Boards” and “Design Boards” for decades to help clients and team members visualize what the designer has in mind. These kinds of vision boards often have sketches, paint chips, fabric swatches, and magazine or catalog clippings that bring the concept to life. Law Enforcement also uses a type of vision board that you’ve probably seen on television.  They will use maps with pinned locations, newspaper articles, mugshot photos, and even scraps of evidence pinned to a bulletin board. Laying out all the pieces in this visual manner often helps the investigators see patterns that they might have missed when looking at documents and files in a stack. 

Modern Vision Boards really aren't that much different. Visual references and reminders are a powerful tool for developing habits and routines, increasing memory retention, and so much more. Even when we don’t consciously think about what we are seeing, our subconscious brain registers those visual cues and emotional responses. That’s why it’s very important to surround ourselves with positive inspiration and visual aids to help us along our journey to achieve our goals. By setting intention in everything we do, including what we see in our everyday environment, we are laying the best and most solid foundation for the path to our best life.

Today, I’m sharing with you a little video that Amber, Christen, and I made to share our vision board creation process. Please bear with us…as you can see, we are not videographers, but we’re learning!

I hope you enjoyed our video, and more importantly, I hope it inspires you to create a vision board of your own. It’s super easy, but it can add up to great results! I hope you’ll share yours on our Facebook group, MMC Chat.

Making S.M.A.R.T. Goals Happen: 5 Ways to Track Your Progress

All this week, we’ve been talking about SMART goals and how to make the most of them. We’ve talked about setting goals, making sure they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic/relevant, and timely. One thing we have not talked about is how to measure, or track, those goals.

There are many different ways to track your goals. One of the easiest is to keep a simple list and check off each step as you complete it.  This is a great method for tracking the number of days you got 8 hours of sleep or that you went for a walk every day. But what if you want to get more specific? What if you want to make it more creative or fun? That’s where bullet journals (also called BUJO’s) can come into play.

The most popular form of BUJO is a notebook with graph lines or a dot grid. In these types of journals, the user draws their own trackers and charts. These can be a lot of fun for creative types because you can make them as simple or as fanciful as you like. I thought it would be fun to share 5 different trackers to help you with your SMART goals. You can draw these yourself into any notebook, or you can create them on your computer to print out and add to a 3-ring binder.

Daily Task List

This little tracker is one I made to help me manage my daily tasks. I used an 8.5” x 11” dot-grid paper made for the BIG Happy Planner and cut it down to the size I needed.  After penning in the list items, I laminated it and punched the disc holes again, so it works as a dashboard in my planner. The lamination allows me to use a dry-erase pen on it to check off everything I complete each day. I also did the backside, so my list is visible whether it’s flipped to the right or the left in my planner. You can easily make this planner yourself using your own supplies. I’ve linked what I used at the bottom of this post.

Reading List

I made this fun page to document the books I’ve read (or started reading) this year. The fun thing about a page like this is that you can put as many or as few “books” on the shelves as you need and you can color it or leave it black and white. I like to use either my colored pencils or watercolors on mine. Again, I used the 8.5” x 11” dot grid from Happy Planner, since most of my BUJO pages go into my BIG Happy Planner.

When I’m making trackers like this, I usually draw them lightly with a pencil first, then go over my design in pen before erasing the pencil marks.  I wrote in the names of every book I started and colored in the ones I actually finished. I will keep adding to this throughout 2022 (or until I fill it). The plants and other accessories on the page can also be colored, or used to track something else…it’s entirely up to you.

I’ve linked my preferred supplies below. 

Work Week Tracker

This versatile tracker is laid out to document or track 20 facts or details like tasks associated with work/school days or something similar. You can also add more hexagons or make them larger or smaller to accommodate whatever number of data you need to track. You could even make 365 little hexes to track something for an entire year. I haven’t decided what to do with mine yet.

Household Projects List

This is more of a list than a tracker, but I included it to show you that, oftentimes, they can be the same thing. By simply changing the bullet points into checkboxes or blanks, any list can become a tracker. A small blank could be a spot for a date, or a box could be a space for a checkmark when the task is completed.

Monthly Task List

This task list is probably one of the most complex I’ve ever used. It took me several months to perfect the design and get the order of everything exactly right. I use this tracker every week to log all my household and business-related tasks as well as a few personal goals (please don’t judge me by my failure to clean out my fridge all month!). 

I draw this one by hand onto the opening page for each month in my BIG Happy Planner. The page is pre-printed with some dot-grid, lines, and graphics.  I just use correction tape to “white-out” any parts I need to cover and then draw over it with my pencil/pen as if it wasn’t there. 

As you can see, I have used several different sections and styles on this same page, and I love having all my trackers in one central location.

There are also lots of ready-made worksheets, goal planning workbooks like PowerSheets®, and stickers and add-on pages for the various brands of planner notebooks.  Whatever style you like, we’d love for you to share your SMART goals with us over in the Facebook group. Let’s set some goals and carry on the conversation with some mutual support for one another! I’ve even posted a BONUS tracker idea in the group for you!

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Here are some of the products I use to make my trackers:

• Tombow Mono Eraser
• Fudenosuke Hard Tip Brush Pen
• Bic Velocity HB#2 Mechanical Pencil
• Bic White-Out Mini Correction Tape
• Happy Planner Dot Grid Paper

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