Just a thought… For the jug to boil, it probably needs to be plugged in. 😅
The problem now is… I’m comfortably sitting down, working on the article… waiting for the jug to boil…
Now I have to get up… → Plug the jug (electric kettle) in… → Sit back down… → Wait for the jug to boil… → Forget about the jug that just boiled… → Reboil the jug… → Finally, make the cup of tea… → Sit back down… → Forget about the tea I just made…
THANK GOODNESS I put the thermal lid on.
Ahhhh… hot tea. Victory.
Goal Detective Wisdom:
This, friends, is how productivity actually works some days. It’s messy. It’s human. And sometimes, it takes four rounds with the jug before you get that one perfect cup.
Need help sorting your time before your tea goes cold again? Start with the [Time Finder Worksheet], free to download. (Just don’t forget where you saved it.)
You start off doing your best — maybe even with a plan in place — and then one small thing goes wrong. Then another. And another. Suddenly it feels like your whole day is falling apart, and you’re just trying to keep your head above water.
🚨 One Thing After Another…
It might go something like this:
You need a new phone — already stressful. Now you’ve got to figure out new settings and tech. Then your phone runs out of data. So you try to set up the Wi-Fi… but you can’t remember the password.
You go to the dairy to grab milk — and your bank card doesn’t work. It’s expired, and the new one hasn’t shown up yet.
You head to the bank to sort it out — but there’s no parking anywhere. You finally get a park, but the meter is ticketless and now requires your license plate number and payment.
It accepts coins or card — but your card’s expired… and do you even have enough coins?
You’re standing there, second-guessing everything, while the clock ticks and your stress climbs.
You finally get a new card, head back to pay for the milk… and it still doesn’t work. Luckily, someone offers a workaround. It goes through. But by now? You’re exhausted, overstimulated, and one step away from snapping.
😰 Recognising the Spiral
Anxiety doesn’t always announce itself with panic attacks or dramatic symptoms. Sometimes it creeps in through everyday frustrations — until your body is in full fight-or-flight mode, and you’re just trying to survive the next five minutes.
🧠 Signs You Might Be Spiralling:
You’re short-tempered, shaky, or disconnected
You freeze over small decisions
Your brain keeps skipping or looping
Everything feels urgent or impossible
🧰 What Helps?
Everyone’s different — but here are a few things that can break the loop:
Having a calm support person — even just someone to be present or help you think through the next step
A hot drink or comforting ritual — whatever helps you pause for a moment
Intentional breathing — slow inhales and longer exhales
A hot shower or a cold splash — to reset your nervous system
Stepping outside or walking — movement helps
Permission to drop something — one task, one pressure, one “should”
📩 Need help figuring out your next step? You’re welcome to fill out this free Goal Investigation Form.
It’s designed to help you reflect, reset, and get back on track — even if your brain feels scrambled. No pressure, no judgment. Just a way to sort through the chaos and get support if you need it.
🗣 Let’s Talk About It
What does anxiety look like for you when everything starts to pile up? What tools or routines have helped you get back to baseline?
You’re not alone if your day sometimes feels like a pressure cooker. Whether you’re managing anxiety long-term or just having a rough patch, there’s strength in how you keep showing up.
And if you ever want support mapping out better systems for days like this, I’ve got tools that help. No judgment. No pressure. Just simple structure when things feel like too much.
Since we are at the start of Quarter 2 for 2025 a lot of the recent posts have been about planning for this coming Q2. I have also given you a look into my life with my personal Life Assessment Reflection for Q2 20225.
Planning for the month ahead helps you stay on track with your quarterly focus. It allows you to break it up into smaller, manageable chunks. It also allows you to evaluate what is important to you. By pre-planning, you will be more prepared for the action steps you need to take, and you won’t be surprised by events.
Manifesting a loving partner involves a combination of self-awareness, positive thinking, and taking actionable steps. Here are some strategies to help you on your journey to attract the right person into your life.
I was in a car accident on 1 November 2024. This has affected all areas of my life, and I have had to not take on any new clients in my backup job as a domestic cleaner. I am not sad about not being able to take on new cleaning clients, but I am sad that it has finally set me back about two years.
Embark on the Life Assessment, a crucial step in the Create Your Dream Plan Action Life. This assessment, which I’ve shared my own version of, serves as the cornerstone for understanding your current life situation and setting your future goals.
I was in a car accident on 1 November 2024. This has affected all areas of my life, and I have had to not take on any new clients in my backup job as a domestic cleaner. I am not sad about not being able to take on new cleaning clients, but I am sad that it has finally set me back about two years.
In the early stages of recovery, I was inspired to start with my Crafty Monkey Creations product range of candles and reed diffusers. You can check them out at cmchgd.com; you can buy them if you live in NZ. This has made me realise that I must change how I do things. I need to sell only the products I already have in stock, not those I INTEND to sell. I do better if I pre-make the product and then sell it. There is too much pressure for me to pre-sell something and meet the demand.
Part of this is that I have a short attention span. I am creative and like to make something once or twice but then get bored or another project catches my eye.
I cycle through projects, which means making products in bulk to sell via the website or creating products that are set and forgotten. I also need to batch-write blog posts so you get one new post from me daily.
Finances: My finances have taken a hit due to the accident. I have not been able to work at all for a couple of weeks and have been working reduced hours since December. All of my savings have been used, and I have unfortunately had to go back full-time on the benefit.
Solution for finances: I need to bring home a Gross wage of $700, which will give me an in-hand amount of $547.49. This doesn’t improve my financial situation, but it gives me independence.
Job or occupation: As mentioned above, I am returning to Domestic Support part-time. I have started a home and body product range via Crafty Monkey Creations, but this is a slow build.
For my passion project, Holistic Goal Detectives LTD, I have started to write a book, Create Your Dream Plan Action Life – Take Your Dreams and Make Them a Reality. I realised I was forcing myself to make a course, and it just wasn’t feeling right for me at this time. Thus, I have gone back to basics and focusing on my writing. And I am committed to writing one blog post a day. Once I get back in the habit of writing daily, I will turn some of my posts into an audio podcast. I just (last night) found out that my web host has a section for setting up a podcast, so look out for that very soon. At this stage, my planners are the final part of Holistic Goal Detectives LTD. I started with The Quarterly Planner, which I updated for personal use. Next will be The Future Plan, which is still in development. I will also make the individual components available for purchase so that you can pick and choose the inserts you want to make the perfect planner for your needs.
The first financial goal for the Holistic Goal Detectives LTD group is $850 per week or $3700 per month.
Friends: I am happy with my interaction with my friend group. It would be nice to have a business friend to bounce ideas off, but that would require me to go to a networking event, so I am not interested in doing it at this stage.
Leisure: While recovering, I have had plenty of downtime. I am happy with the books I am reading and the streaming services I have. OHHHHH and I have started gardening. Rather than failing again at in-ground gardening, I have been trying container gardening and have had some success. It is very addicting, though, but in the long run, it will help with my health because I will eat more fresh fruit and vegetables than snacking on junk food.
Once I have some extra money
I would like to start going to the beach more often to walk the girls (dogs). The cost of extra petrol means I can only occasionally go to the beach at the moment, which is about a thirty-minute drive from home. It is a good way for me to de-stress and find peace.
I want to get a day back and hiking boots and start going on day hikes again. Furthermore, I would like to get a multi-day pack and relevant tools and equipment for several days of hiking. I would like to do more of the Te Aroha track and other Great Walks of New Zealand. It is an amazing way to see the country I live in.
To accompany the multi-day hikes, I would like to get a food dehydrator and dehydrate some of the fruit and vegetables that I grow on the land. I would also like to dehydrate my own meals for when I am hiking.
Once my fitness is better than what it is now, I would like to get a kayak.
Partner or relationship: I am still single; I have been working on myself. As much as I would like a partner, I need to get my financial situation sorted first. By that, I mean I need to get to my minimum wage first. That way, I can feel like I am an equal partner, not a lesser partner in the relationship. I don’t know; this is just how I feel. I miss having a best friend who is a companion, but he needs to be the right person. And if I see a red flag, I need to learn that means stop, not jump in anyway.
Health: Alright, let’s get into it; having to write this section out has held me up writing this post. But here goes. On 1 November 2024, I was driving to Auckland from Whangarei (about 2.5 to 3 hours to get to my aunt’s place from my home). I was driving at the speed limit of just under a few days before I had been given a speeding ticket. I was going straight on the highway, and as I came to the intersection at the Ruakaka turnoff, a car pulled out in front of me. I tried breaking, to no avail. After impact, I tried to get as far off the road as possible.
The impact was on the passenger side bonnet and door. Thankfully, Fluffy, my small white dog, was in her car seat, and I think that cushioned her impact, and she was unhurt. The airbag punched me in the face, but thankfully, I didn’t get bruises on my face. I also suffered from a whiplash from the seat belt and the impact. My injuries were cracked ribs and bent bone in my neck, and I injured my back in new places. I am so very thankful that my injuries were not any more serious. Oh, I did have an MRI after I was ambulance to the hospital. I think it is an MRI, the one where you have to remove all of your jewellery, and you are put horizontally into the machine that takes images of your insides.
Today as I write this, it is Friday, 4 April 2025; my ongoing injuries are my ribs still hurt from time to time, only a mild niggle. My back is excruciating; sometimes, walking is very painful.
I have this week made an appointment with the doctor to see if I can get a pain management plan in place. Because I need some help.
Also, I went from 73kgs to 82kgs.
Exercise: Yeah, exercise. Hmm. My chosen form of exercise is walking. But for a while there, I couldn’t even do that. It was a struggle to walk maybe 50 steps of where my driveway meets the shared driveway. Since “getting better”, I have done a few walks but haven’t done as much as I should. For free exercise, I can walk along the road. There are two problems: I hate walking along the rural road, and my shared driveway is long and narrow. Okay, three points; the third is if my land was shaven, I mean weedeated, then I could do laps on my property. Sadly, it is overgrown with brambles, and I cannot use my weedeater.
Living conditions: Around the time of my accident, I was getting some work done on the lifestyle property:
I got my tiny house turned around, and wastewater/septic sinkhole holes were dug
a flushing toilet was installed and upgraded from a camp toilet
10,000-liter water upgraded from 1,000 litres
To help with all of this, I got some groundwork done.
What’sWhat’s next:
A proper house water pump
A vegetable garden that provides 80% of my vegetables from now on
I need a shed for my laundry to get a proper automatic washing machine with enough space to dry the laundry in winter. And space to operate Crafty Monkey Creations until I can get a building made for my office/crafts/Crafty Monke Creations
Then, a bedroom pod for when my youngest visits on the weekend.
Feeling relaxed: I am a little tense right now because of everything that is going on. I will feel better once I reach my minimum financial goal.
Feeling in control: For the most part, I am in control of my life. I can’t control when people buy from me, but I can do some marketing and advertising to increase awareness, which will organically increase sales.
Manifesting a loving partner involves a combination of self-awareness, positive thinking, and taking actionable steps. Here are some strategies to help you on your journey to attract the right person into your life:
1. **Clarify Your Intentions**: Take some time to think about what you truly want in a partner. Write down the qualities, values, and characteristics you are looking for in a relationship.
2. **Practice Self-Love**: Understand that the relationship you have with yourself sets the tone for the relationships you attract. Engage in activities that make you feel good, and practice self-care regularly.
3. **Visualize Your Ideal Relationship**: Spend a few minutes each day visualizing yourself in a loving relationship. Picture yourself with your ideal partner, experiencing joy, support, and connection.
4. **Use Affirmations**: Incorporate positive affirmations into your daily routine. For example, repeat affirmations like “I am worthy of love” and “I attract healthy, loving relationships.” This helps to reprogram your subconscious mind.
5. **Release Limiting Beliefs**: Identify any beliefs or fears you have about love and relationships that may be holding you back. Challenge those beliefs and work on letting them go.
6. **Stay Open and Engaged**: Be open to meeting new people and stepping out of your comfort zone. Attend social events, engage in activities you love, and be willing to connect with others.
7. **Be Authentic**: Show up as your true self in every interaction. Authenticity will attract a partner who appreciates you for who you really are.
8. **Set Boundaries**: Know your needs and respect them. This will ensure that you attract someone who also honors your desires and standards.
9. **Practice Gratitude**: Be grateful for the love and connections you currently have in your life. Gratitude attracts more positive experiences and sets a loving tone.
10. **Stay Patient and Trust the Process**: Understand that manifesting love takes time. Trust that the universe will bring the right person into your life at the right moment.
11. **Take Action**: Don’t just wait passively for love to come to you. Take proactive steps like dating, joining groups, or trying out new activities where you can meet new people.
12 By focusing on your intentions and taking consistent steps, you will be in a better position to manifest a loving partner into your life. Stay positive and keep the faith!
The Q2 2025 Quarterly Plan is a comprehensive guide that will help you navigate the next 91 days with clarity and purpose. It’s your roadmap to personal growth and success.
This post will explain how I plan for a new quarter. You must have reviewed the previous quarter. You can find how I do this in the last post, “Preparing for Q2 2025.”
What do you want to achieve in Q2?
You will first need to work out what you want to achieve in the next 91 days. This will become the focus of Q2 2025. To help you with this step, look at the monthly reviews you did with yesterday’s post. There was a section for the tasks that you didn’t complete. Now is the time to evaluate whether they still need to be completed. If so, transfer them to this quarter.
Choose a life area to focus on this quarter. After you have done the Life Assessment, you may discover a life area that is important to you but that you aren’t satisfied with its current state. This assessment is a crucial part of your personal growth journey, helping you to identify areas that need your attention and nurturing.
Action Steps for Q2 2025
Once you know what you are focusing on, it is time to start plotting the Action Steps you need to take to achieve your quarter goal. In your notebook (or use the Task Tracker in the Quarterly Planner), head up a page and Task Tracker or Action Steps. See the image below for an example. Have one for the quarter and then one for the individual months.
On the Q2 2025 Task Tracker, list all the tasks you can think of to action your focus for the quarter. At this stage, do a brain dump.
Then, go through and choose the most important three tasks and transfer them to the relevant month Task Tracker. If nothing else, these are the three tasks you need to complete this quarter.
What does success look like for you this quarter?
Now that you know what you are focusing on and the three most important action steps, it is time to describe what success looks like for you this quarter. This paragraph needs to be measurable, or you may consider it a milestone.
Are the focus and action steps helping to move you closer to your future goal? What will your life look like in three months? How will you know you have succeeded with what you set out to achieve? Visualise your success; let it inspire and motivate you to keep pushing forward.
There are only six days left in March and Quarter 1 of 2025. Where has the time gone? That means one Quarter is ending, and 1 quarter is about to start. By now, you have most likely forgotten what you had set out to achieve in the past 90ish days. At the very least, you may have drifted off course. It’s time to review what was accomplished, what wasn’t, what worked, and what you would do differently. And to prepare for the next 91 days.
(c) 2025 Goal Detective Cindy (Hargreaves). Cindy’s actual planner.
Q1 2025 Review and reset
Before you can set the focus for Q2 2025, you need to review the focus and actions from the previous Quarter. This will give you an idea of what you need to focus on next and help form the basis of the next quarterly plan.
You will need a notebook to Create Your Dream Plan, Action Life plan, or buy the PDF Printable of the Q2 2025 Quarterly Planner.
What was the focus for Q1?
At the start of the Quarter, what did you set out to achieve that Quarter, the focus? If you use a notebook, head up a page with Q1 2025 Focus. Yes, for this section, we are focusing on the Quarter that has just begun. Summerise the focus for the Quarter.
What worked?
On a new page in your notebook, head it with “What worked.” Think back over the last three months and consider what action steps you have taken. Out of those steps, what worked?
In the coming Quarter, as you go, you will note down what worked in the Q2 2025 section.
For example, for my other business, Crafty Monkey Creations, I recently launched a shop using Shopify (that has been a big win). I have recently started an action step to create a purchase order for the stock I need to make. This helps because then I can easily input the stock values into my Makers Calculator spreadsheet to determine the quantities of the raw materials I need for the restock.
What did not work? And What would you do differently?
This section on “What did not work” doesn’t mean you failed; it just means you tried something and it wasn’t the right action for you. This section ties in with the next section, “What would you do differently?” Both of these help you, on reflection, work out what is right for you, your goals, and what you are trying to achieve right now.
Q1 Monthly Review
We will zero in on January, February, and March of 2025. This will let you look closer and highlight various aspects in more detail. For each month, make notes on the following, just like you did for the quarterly review:
Monthly focus
What did you achieve this month?
What do you still have to do?
What did you do instead of or as an extra activity towards your goal?
Having the quarterly review recorded helps you plan your actions for the next Quarter. It also helps you with the end-of-year review and setting your goals for the next year.
In the next blog post, we will look at setting the plan for Q2 2025.
It’s been a while since I’ve updated all you Goal Investigators. Tomorrow’s blog post will be a personal growth journey update, focusing on Goal Detective Cindy in March 2025.
(c) 2025 Goal Detective Cindy. Image and Graphics designed by Cindy Hargreaves. My laptop wallpaper.
I was coasting for the first three months of this year without a clear plan. But that’s all changed. The other day, I took a significant step towards success by creating a custom wallpaper for my laptop (above). I also designed a wallpaper for my phone and its cover screen, ensuring that all my devices reflect my goals and aspirations.
Then, today, I had a personal revelation. I updated the Quarterly Planner (the month’s section) from 2024 to 2025, and with a bit of struggle, I printed it out. Tomorrow, I will do the weekly planner section of the Quarterly Planner. Then, the next day, the whole Quarterly Planner will be for Q3, and the following day will be for Q4 2025 because I have worked out that I need the entire thing printed out and in my planner. It has only taken me a year and a half to realise this. For some people, they work best with only the current quarter. We are all different.
These are the blog posts for the rest of March 2025:
Today, I walked along the road with the girls (Fluffy and Buddy). Recording the walk on my smartwatch, the Fitbit Inspire 3, was a conscious decision, a sign of my commitment to this journey. The Fitbit Inspire 3 has been a great companion, providing accurate data and motivating me to push my limits. As I am just getting back into walking, the timing was decent. I aim to shave 12 minutes off this time, a goal that motivates me as I plan to walk in the mornings. With only about 45 minutes for a walk, I am determined to make the most of it.
The stats from my walk:
Duration: 57m 15s
Distance: 5.57km
Zone minutes: 22
Average pace: 12’31″/km
Steps: 6,499
Energy burned: 387 cal
Heart rate average: 111 bpm
If I can walk 6,000 steps in the morning with the girls, I won’t feel as bad for leaving them home when I go to work. We are over halfway to reaching the ultimate goal of 10,000 steps daily.
The good and the bad thing about walking from my place is the last section is all uphill. The road has a gentle incline, and my driveway is long, steep, and windy. I’m not too fond of it, but I love it simultaneously. I wouldn’t say I like it because it hurts the legs and tests my lung capacity, but I love it because it works the legs and increases lung capacity. At least by having the step driveway incline last, I finish with that big push, and I HAVE to walk up the driveway; otherwise, I am not getting home to sit down and drink flavoured water.
I would still like to take the girls for a beach walk a couple of times a week because that is my happy place (walking on the beach, not swimming in the water). This is one of the activities that brings me joy. The other fitness activity I need to start doing regularly is HITT workouts three days a week. I have feeble upper arm strength and recently bought a portable home gym exercise system. But that is separate from this.
This is a great example of how tracking your goals helps you to achieve them. The graph in black is my daily steps when I didn’t have a smart watch tracking my steps. The light background is from this week, after receiving a fitbit inspire 3. My daily goal step is 6,000 steps average. Until this week I was averaging 2,940. Also with the lesser steps I have put on 10kgs in the last 12 months. (3 kgs over weight according to my height) I have been more sad/depressed Haven’t been as motivated to do… anything.
Since Buying the fitbit inspire 3 I have increased my daily steps and expect the first day when it didn’t arrive till halfway through the day. In fact I have hit 6,000 steps or more daily. Therefore it is time to raise the daily goal to 7,000 steps daily. The ultimate goal for this stage in my fitness journey is 10,000 steps. Once I get to 10,000 daily I will look into getting a Hiking backpack and add weights to it. I would like to get my own gear. And do more long distance camping. For long distance hiking I need daily steps (about four hours) of 30,000 steps. On average get my speed up to 4 km walked per hour. And build my strength to carry a 20kg pack for that long. You get to see some beautiful scenery by travelling the earth by foot.
