Picking up from my last Life Lately update which you can find here.

Remember how I mentioned that I was worried that moving would stifle my opportunity to referee? Well, that’s proven to be only partly true. I’ve gotten some chances to referee, but most of them will come with much longer drives than before. I got the chance to referee Airborne 7s, my first 7s tournament of the season, and thankfully it was only half hour away. Tonight, though, I’ll be driving to Charlotte (3 hours) to get to RCTs where I’ll be part of the ref team again. Three hours of driving is a lot, but not too bad for the sport I love.

I’ve been trying to make more time during the day so I can work smarter not harder (cliche, I know). I’ve been going through some serious writer’s block, so I’ve decided to really commit to trying to write first thing in the morning. (I’ve even been using 750 Words to help push myself to “not break the chain”.)

I’ve also been working on my Powersheets. I’m really trying to be intentional with goal setting for the rest of the year. Q2 is over in two short weeks! This is the perfect opportunity to reevaluate goals and get pumped for the next half of the year!

My darling friend Devon sent me The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business and I have to say it has really revolutionized my life. It’s lit a fire inside of me again. You know those books that you really don’t want to put down? This is definitely one of them. I’m still about 80 pages from being done, but I have to say this is probably going to eternally be on my “Reading Recommendations” list.

Also, in an effort to start minimalizing (is that a word? decluttering? moving towards minimalism or whatever), I’ve started mailing books to friends when I finish them. This is good because 1. it gives me the chance to share knowledge with friends who I know would appreciate them, 2. helps me get rid of books that we don’t have room to store anymore, 3. gives me an incentive to keep finishing books (decluttering), and 4. it gives the books new life.

Now that I’m getting older (Tuesday is my birthday), I’m trying to take a minute to be present and enjoy where I am in life, as opposed to always rushing to whatever thing is next. Right now, I have so many of the things I’ve been wanting for so long. I want to enjoy them right now.

I read a blog post where the writer argued that planning your Instagram content was more important that writing blog posts. Instagram-me is 100% unaltered, unfiltered me. I usually don’t even proofread my captions before posting them, haha. No, but actually, I’m not going to do that and while I respect other bloggers might feel differently, I’m a little over inauthenticness. So here was me in a morning facemask.

This past Christmas I splurged on Essential Oil Kits for Christmas. Many months later, I finally finished my first bottle! On Rachel‘s recommendation, I’m going with Thieves next! My goal is again to help declutter without throwing things away that still have value, so I’m using them, but also appreciating them as I’m using them. I love my oils. Do you use oils?

PS. This week I sent out my first-ever Burke Does Newsletter and I have to say, it was pretty good. I strongly recommend subscribing in this form below.