{Making a Plan for the New Year}

It’s a new year, and for me that means it’s time to create new goals for the year and power through them full steam ahead! I am 1000% a goal-getter! I always need something new and bigger to work towards in business AND life in general. I feel the most happiest when I have something new and exciting to work for. I just can’t sit still in life. Maybe this is where Liella gets her busyness from? Hmmm? Hahaha!

Anyways, today, I am thinking about what I want 2020 to look like for me, I’m writing down AND sharing my goals with you for several different reasons.

1. To stay organized with what I want to accomplish. I get excited about organization!! And by excited I mean, I’m living my best life when I organize something! It’s actually really hard for me to fully relax when something is not organized. Yup, I’m just a nerd like that!
2. Statistics show that if you write your goals down you are more likely to accomplish them! Woohoo!
3. And last, I am sharing them with you in hopes that you will keep me accountable. If you are interested, in any way, about what I do and you haven’t heard about it from me in awhile then, by all means, call me out on it and ask me how my goals are going!

So, let’s just dive in and get started!

Personal Goals

• Take More Images Of Our Family with My “Big Camera”: I want to have more images of us, not just in a formal, posed situation, but also in every day life. We have TONS and TONS on our phones but not much from my DSLR. I want to create high quality albums for my children (and myself) to look back on their childhood. These precious days will slip away from my memory eventually and having the albums to look back on will allow me to reminisce on all the fun we have.
• Travel More: This is always number one in my heart because I LOVE to travel. I want to see it all and do it all! My travel bucket list is a mile long haha! Not only traveling, but I also want to simply DO MORE as a family. Create exciting memories and traditions throughout the entire year is a major goal.

• Finish Our Basement: Believe it or not, this is a tough one for us! We have been working on it for over a year now and the motivation for both Joe and I is super low. I think we are just tired of building things! We (mostly Joe) have been building things for several years now and the burnout is real. Plus we are so busy with our careers and 3 little children that it’s hard to find time. BUT I know we could really use the extra space. Praying the impulse will resurface again and we can make good headway this year!
• Once a Month Date Night with Joe: This is something I feel so strongly about. I think it’s SO important for all marriages to find time to get away and spend QUALITY time just the two of you for a night, a couple hours or even a weekend. With kids, careers and schedules consuming our lives, it’s SO EASY to get caught up in a mundane routine. I love reconnecting with Joe and seeing why I fell in love with him in the first place. I think we accomplished this goal pretty well last year and I’m ready to do again this year!

• Less Social Media: Sometimes this is so hard for me. My business is heavily dependent on social media to reach, connect and continue to build relationships with people, but at the same time I mindlessly scroll when I’m bored or trying to avoid something I don’t want to do. Anyone else find themselves doing the same? I mean, sometimes the content is not even entertaining but there I am, scrolling, hoping to find something to occupy me. This year, I’m going to make a conscious effort to put my phone down and find more ways to reconnect with my family.
• Drink More Water: I am so bad at this! When I was pregnant and nursing it was SO EASY. I craved water all. the. time. Now that I am over that season of life I hardly ever drink water, it’s difficult and doesn’t taste the same to me anymore. But I am determined to get back at it because I want to reap all the benefits of it.

Business Goals

• Revamp My Senior Spokesmodel Team: This is a huge one for me and I plan to start right on it right away this year. I have so many exciting ideas for my seniors this year and I CAN NOT wait to get started putting a new spokesmodel plan together. I think my seniors will LOVE what I have prepared to offer! 😉 Just imagine, more stylized sessions for FREE, more cash bonuses and fun group activities!
  

  

• Be More of a Wedding Planning Resource for CBS Brides: I’m determined to learn more about local wedding vendors and their amazing services they offer and share through social media and blog posts as an invaluable resource for my brides. I’m also working on a TOP SECRET project as a gift to all #CBSbrides to make wedding planning just a bit more easier.
  

  

• A New Look for the Studio: Ok so that heading is a little misleading haha! I don’t plan to remodel the entire studio! But I do have ideas on what I want to improve, starting with updating my wood backgrounds and adding new displays. My displays are several years old (yikes!) and it’s time for an update!
• Being Featured in Top Wedding Publications Like The Knot, Style Me Pretty and Martha Stewart Weddings: This one is definitely more of a long term goal. It’s extremely difficult to get featured in these publications because they receive SEVERAL thousands of submissions daily. The hardest part is that these publications are looking for ahead of trend wedding styles that aren’t widely seen. They want weddings with over-the-top florals, unique details and stories. Shooting these weddings would be a dream!
• Being Featured in Top Senior Publications Like Modern Senior, Senior Muse, Senior Inspire, Senior Year Magazine and Seniorologie: These publications are not quite as difficult to be featured in as top wedding publications but still difficult on some level. Just like the top wedding publications, they receive thousands of submissions daily.
• Review My Goals at The End of the Year: I plan to blog about the progress of these goals at the end of the year, mostly for myself to look back and see where I’ve started, how far I have come and reassess where I’m headed. If you are a goal person, I strongly suggest for you to review your achievements against your goals and celebrate your wins! Especially the small ones! The wins that are almost “expected” of you. These wins are just as important as the big wins. Because if you don’t celebrate them, then you slowly strip yourself of motivation to keep moving forward. When you celebrate wins you start to be grateful even if it’s not the biggest goal you have ever achieved.

And there you have it folks! This is what I want my year to look like! I’m sure I’ll come up with more as the year progresses and I accomplish some of these goals. I’m not really a “New Year’s resolution” kind of person. I just like to set goals whenever I come upon them instead waiting for a new year to start.

When setting goals, whether something so big like top publication features, or something so small like drinking more water, there is always a bigger end goal in mind…and that is to be happy and fulfilled. We all want to feel satisfied and content with our lives no matter where our journey is taking us, but it’s always a good reminder to appreciate the path you are currently taking, no matter how long or hard it is. The road trip to your final destination is the MOST important part of the journey. That’s where you learn everything you need to know to appreciate the end results in the best way possible.

And for me, I’ll be enjoying the ride!