Category Archives: Goals

08.03.25
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August Goal List for Motivation & Fresh Starts

August is the month that whispers the end of summer and welcomes new beginnings.

Here are some goals we can add to our August planning!

📖 Read a book for leisure

🧹 Declutter for a new season

🧘🏾‍♀️ Stretch daily

🚶🏾‍♀️ Walk up to 2,000 steps each day

🌍 Learn a new language

👗 Refresh your wardrobe for fall

🍿 Enjoy a solo lunch or movie outing

💆🏾‍♀️ Commit to an evening self-care routine

📝 Journal your prayers to God daily

🎯 Set fresh fall goals & adjust old ones

🌱 Plant something meaningful

🥗 Eat healthy—intentionally

🌅 Go to bed early, rise with purpose

🔥 Have a backyard or living room camp-out

✨ (Leave space for a personal goal of your choice!)

💌 Send a handwritten note or card to a loved one

🎵 Start your day with worship music or gratitude

💜 Organize or refresh your creative space

💬 Speak affirmations over yourself daily

💰 Save a set amount each week ($5–$50 or more)

06.07.25
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One Goal, Three Laps, and God’s grace!

Today, I completed my first official 5K walk!

It was a long-time bucket list item, and I’m elated to say—to God be the glory—I finished it.

I’ve always loved walking, especially ramping up my efforts during the fall and summer months. I enjoy hitting the nearby trails, taking in the beauty of nature, and clearing my mind. Although walking is a part of my daily routine—thanks to using public transportation—I also walk to support my mental health and to keep my legs and feet moving, especially given some of the physical issues I occasionally experience.

As the weather started to warm up, I began walking the trail more intentionally—often with my sister, who graciously joined me on a few Saturday mornings and afternoons. What started as casual walks soon turned into preparation for accomplishing a goal I didn’t know was just around the corner.

I started researching upcoming 5K walks in Chicago, and then—unexpectedly—the opportunity came to me. Recently, while visiting one of my loved one’s churches, they announced an upcoming Community Health Fest and 5K walk/run. My sister, who was sitting a few rows behind me, had someone tap me on the shoulder to get my attention. She pointed out that this was my chance—and I jumped on it.

Today, the day of the walk, I arrived on time and picked up my packet, which included a t-shirt, number, and route instructions. I was nervous but excited. The pastor led a prayer before we began, and then we were off.

As I walked the first lap, I started feeling pain in my left leg. I believe it was a spasm, but I pushed through—and thankfully, it went away. During the second lap, my Achilles heels started acting up, as they sometimes do, but I kept going. I had stretched the night before and again that morning, doing my best not to overdo it.

Also, during that first lap, I accidentally followed someone who went the wrong way—and maybe they did on purpose, I’m not sure. I wasn’t confident about the route. I glanced at the paper instructions and debated whether I should go straight. The facilitator had mentioned before the 5K walk began to go past the school. Still, I continued following the person ahead of me. On the second lap, however, I saw the pastor—who had been in the lead the entire time (and somehow I caught up to him!)—take the correct route. So, I followed his lead. When I reached the next checkpoint, a 5K team member was there cheering me on. All the workers posted along the route, encouraging us along the way, gave me the boost I needed.

To make sure I completed the full 5K—roughly 6,000 to 7,000 steps—I did a third lap, just to be safe. And I did it correctly.

I finished exhausted but full of joy. It was fun, and I’m so proud that I accomplished this small but meaningful milestone.

03.18.24
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Get Your Life With This New Planner

Get your life with this new planner. Stay organized. Plan your week. Set your goals. Breathe and receive God’s plan to revive the areas of your life with CPR (CALM, PEACE, and a time of REFRESHING).

Available at Amazon Now!

Kindle and Paperback

CPR (Remain CALM, Seek PEACE, Get REFRESHED) Planner https://a.co/d/heYfNww

08.31.23
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Daily Habits That Improve My Quality of Life

What daily habit do you do that improves your quality of life?

I will get straight to it. My daily habits that improve my quality of life are:

  • Making my bed every morning. It is a small discipline that makes a big impact. “If you make your bed every morning, you will have accomplished the first task of the day. It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another”–William McRaven
  • Pray or acknowledge God. Let me be honest. I am not always stopping to pray in the morning but better believe by the end of the day, I have sat down with God in my heart to say thank you, share my heart, pray for my self or someone else. And I am learning to listen more because prayer with God is a dialogue and not a bringing of a list of wants. Yes, come to Him with what you need and even discuss your wants. To clarify, bring to Him every content of your heart (everything including fears, disappointments, goals, etc.) but make sure you learn to listen to what is in His because He knows what is best for us. His purposes always come to pass and His plans always succeed. Moreover, prayer is about getting to know God and inviting Him into every area of your life.
  • Read the Word of God. I don’t care if it is the YouVersion scripture of the day or a random chapter or a chapter or three of a God-led lesson I am currently studying, I read His Word. Have I missed a day or two or three? Honestly, yes, but it makes so much of a difference when I sit down to read and hear His Word.
  • Another daily habit of mine is making a list of things I am grateful for. This puts things in perspective and lifts my spirit as I list all of the things I am grateful for, no matter how small they may seem.
  • This isn’t daily but I go over my goals list. I have always been goal oriented and like to reflect on and assess my goals and where I am in accomplishing them.
  • I also journal or work in my planner. This helps me to sort out my thoughts, plan and stay organized.
  • Lastly, I make a daily habit of choosing to get up and choose peace and to better myself. Thank God for His grace to be able to do so.
Let’s Take This One Day At A Time Planner Available at Amazon.
07.11.23
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Lunch At Aster Hall

Yesterday, I had lunch with my best friend at Aster Hall, an elegant mall located 900 North Michigan Ave in Downtown Chicago. We had an awesome time dining there, and using it’s aesthetics for videos and pictures as well as filling the place with our hearty laughs which we have every time I hang out with bestie.

We ordered and paid for our food from a touch screen and retrieved our food from its stations. This part of the process was simple. It got a bit confusing after locating the stations to retrieve our food. I had to keep asking the attendant, making sure patrons received their meals, where things were. I first asked where to retrieve my drink I ordered, then the plastic cup, and the eating utensils. He laughed a bit after the third question 😆.

The seating was great. We chose a booth near the big window facing another downtown building. There are also outlets near the booths and you can choose to work while you lunch.  Nice place to work or even play table games, I suppose are provided by Astor, as we saw some elderly  ladies playing a game (I forget what the game was lol).

Moreover, there were luxury shops at Aster Hall: Bloomingdales and other fancy shops. However, we did no shopping. We just wanted to try someplace new  for lunch, encourage one another, work in our planners and discuss our goals as well as  provide support and a listening ear as we both expressed we have had some rough patches in this season.

Grateful for my bestie, my bff, my sister! After lunch at Aster Hall we went to a Starbucks and plotted our next adventure over Frappuccinos.

02.08.23
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Watch “Unboxing @tannikanikeya7494 Lets take This one day at a time planner ! #planner #unboxing” on YouTube

My mentee just unboxed and reviewed my book. I am so humbled and honored!!!!! Go check it out (video link below) as well as subscribe to her YouTube and check out her jewelry, DesignzbyAriana-2.myshopify.com !!!!!!

Let’s Take This One Day At A Time Planner Available Now with Amazon.

12.14.22
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Let’s Take This One Day At A Time Planner

I am so proud to introduce my new book, Let’s Take This One Day At A Time Planner! Just in time for Christmas and the new year. And being released in a season where I have been going through a lot as well as feeling up and down. So, we pushing through and looking forward to a new year!

To continue with the theme of my book, Bring It To The Surface: Poetry & Journal, I want to further encourage others with a special planner. I discovered that healing is continuous and living must be intentional.

Take a look!

Let’s Take This One Day At A Time Planner helps you to be intentional in taking one day at a time. This planner helps you to not only plan your week and stay organized, but also continue your healing journey and growth by being intentional in five areas: prayer, goal setting, self-care, gratitude, and reflection.

Available on Amazon now!

08.15.22
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My DIY Project Boo-boo

Update as of August 15, 2022. Not too long ago, I noticed some scrapes on my wall that showed the old paint. And just recently, I got some more paint to fix the imperfections and started noticing other imperfections (they weren’t really imperfections, just me doing too much, lbs). The paint I used to paint my bathroom has been unavailable for awhile so I got what I thought was a paint close in color.

And because I painted not only the scrapes but other areas 😫, I immediately was like I messed up my beautiful wall after seeing the results. And I am not a professional painter. Plus, the first retouch to fix the imperfections I painted with a paint brush. I realized that if I used a roller to paint the majority of the wall when I first redid my bathroom last year, then maybe get another one and with that I can blend better. I have since then found some old gray paint and mixed the paint I just bought together a bit. I also bought the mini roller and tried to blend it as much as possible. So far it doesn’t look bad now and much of it has blended better. I am thinking about redoing the bathroom later this year. I may keep the color gray though I have not found the Calming Gray paint and it is unavailable with the brand I bought. So, I will find something close to it.

This is one of the photos before I used the roller to blend it more (I will show the end result soon). I learned that with painting there is really no retouching. You either buy the exact same paint and brand or just do the whole wall over. And two, leave stuff alone. It is not going to be perfect.

It blended much better. Thank God! See photos below.

See below post of when I first did my bathroom and how lovely it looked before some scrapes and overthinking caused me to repaint. 😆 It still looks lovely though.

————————————————–

I went in and made some additional changes to my bathroom and wanted to give a final update on it. Read below to see why I made the new additional changes and here is the final (I promise this is the final one 😆) final reveal.

Check out my DIY house project. I have been wanting to redecorate my bathroom for awhile now. I finally prepped, started and now finished my bathroom. I am no way an expert and this is my first time painting walls of this magnitude so I am grateful that it looks nice and I did a good job. Had the little one record me and he said he didn’t feel like he did his best but the video turned out ok. I am grateful that he recorded me and he did a good job despite the moments he kept filming the wall 😆.

I forgot to take before and after shots of my bathroom but this is an old photo of how it looked before during the past Christmas season. The walls had stains on them and just needed an update.

So, here we go! The final reveal! The hamper I bought wouldn’t let me be great and neither would the rugs so I will be replacing those. But I am happy with my paint job. The ceiling I admit was tedious to paint but I did my best. I guess you can say my bathroom is looking forward to Spring.

Check out the video of my progress before the finish. https://youtu.be/tAvuQXxRMlY

My DIY Video recorded by D.K.

Track: Krys Talk – Fly Away [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds.
Watch: https://youtu.be/LfDfb-87F_s
Free Download / Stream: http://ncs.io/flyaway

04.13.21
by

My DIY Project Update

I went in and made some additional changes to my bathroom and wanted to give a final update on it. Read below to see why I made the new additional changes and here is the final (I promise this is the final one 😆) final reveal.

Check out my DIY house project. I have been wanting to redecorate my bathroom for awhile now. I finally prepped, started and now finished my bathroom. I am no way an expert and this is my first time painting walls of this magnitude so I am grateful that it looks nice and I did a good job. Had the little one record me and he said he didn’t feel like he did his best but the video turned out ok. I am grateful that he recorded me and he did a good job despite the moments he kept filming the wall 😆.

I forgot to take before and after shots of my bathroom but this is an old photo of how it looked before during the past Christmas season. The walls had stains on them and just needed an update.

So, here we go! The final reveal! The hamper I bought wouldn’t let me be great and neither would the rugs so I will be replacing those. But I am happy with my paint job. The ceiling I admit was tedious to paint but I did my best. I guess you can say my bathroom is looking forward to Spring.

Check out the video of my progress before the finish. https://youtu.be/tAvuQXxRMlY

My DIY Video recorded by D.K.

Track: Krys Talk – Fly Away [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds.
Watch: https://youtu.be/LfDfb-87F_s
Free Download / Stream: http://ncs.io/flyaway

04.09.21
by

My DIY Project

Check out my DIY house project. I have been wanting to redecorate my bathroom for awhile now. I finally prepped, started and now finished my bathroom. I am no way an expert and this is my first time painting walls of this magnitude so I am grateful that it looks nice and I did a good job. Had the little one record me and he said he didn’t feel like he did his best but the video turned out ok. I am grateful that he recorded me and he did a good job despite the moments he kept filming the wall 😆.

I forgot to take before and after shots of my bathroom but this is an old photo of how it looked before during Christmas season. The walls had stains on them and just needed an update.

So, here we go! The final reveal! The hamper I bought wouldn’t let me be great and neither would the rugs so I will be replacing those. But I am happy with my paint job. The ceiling I admit was tedious to paint but I did my best. I guess you can say my bathroom is looking forward to Spring.

Check out the video of my progress before the finish. https://youtu.be/tAvuQXxRMlY

My DIY Video recorded by D.K.

Track: Krys Talk – Fly Away [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds.
Watch: https://youtu.be/LfDfb-87F_s
Free Download / Stream: http://ncs.io/flyaway