2013 Goals

If you recall, last year I did a little post on my goals for 2012. Specifically goals for this little business of mine. Well, I found out something by doing that - sharing goals publicly is really helpful. 

You see, I only shared two of my goals from last year, even though I always make five. And you know how many I actually accomplished? 

That's right, people. Two. The two that I shared right here on this blog. 

I did so poorly with the other three goals that I gave myself a flat out 0% on two of them. One of them was to do yoga weekly. I literally did not do more than one minute of yoga the entire year. 

So this year I'm publicly declaring all five of my goals for 2013, in hopes that doing so helps me achieve them. Because it's a few months into the year now and I came up with these goals at the end of last year, I was able to look at them again and revise them as needed (which just meant I added another goal and merged two existing goals together). 

So here goes. 2013 goals, declared right here, right now. 

I joined Etsy in October. I was pleasantly surprised by my first few months and I want to continue doing better in 2013.

I'm really still just trying to figure everything out though. There are some things that have surprised me - in both good and bad ways - that I'm still adjusting to. But overall, I think it's worth continuing on for now. 

As far as new designs you can expect to see by the end of the year, here are some specifics:

1. Have 10 pre-designed wedding suites (I have 4 so far)
2. Have 10 pre-designed wall prints
3. Have 10 pre-designed Save the Dates that match the wedding suites

This is primarily a goal for my business, but a little positivity in anyone's life is always good, right? To be honest, it was pretty easy to stay positive last year. I don't know how it happened, but I was constantly receiving the answer "yes!" and I felt like I was being encouraged like crazy in my first year of business. It's not that this year hasn't gone well or I haven't been as encouraged, but 2013 has brought new and different challenges. And the newness of last year is wearing off and now I'm dealing with the actual ups and downs of having your own business. 

In addition, for the last several months I've been dealing with a lot of restlessness. I'm not sure what it is, but even if I have several things I should be doing, there's been this restless feeling in my heart. 

(Side note - my first thought when this happened was naturally MAYBE IT'S TIME TO PROCREATE! After much contemplation and a talk or two with my boo, we realized that it's just not the time for us. For right now, I have to deal with this restlessness without trying to fill it with a huge life-altering change.)

But because of feeling this way, early in the year I found myself dwelling on all of the wrong things. So my thoughts were like this:

Why didn't that bride email back/why did that bride cancel and never reschedule/why does it seem like things are starting off slow? 

instead of 

I have way more projects this year/I started off the year with zero debt/I'm more efficient/brides are saying yes/I still love what I do. 

It's much easier to focus on the negatives than the positives, so here's my action plan when I'm doing that:

When I'm starting to dwell on something negative, I immediately do one of two things:

1. think of something positive that's going on in the business
2. think of something I can do for someone else

This takes a bit of mental training, but it's what I've been doing this year, and it's been working so far. Positivity 2013!

In case you haven't been reading this blog for long, I was so honored this year to be selected by brides as one of the Best of the Knot 2013. I even have the plaque to prove it!

My goal is to be awarded this honor again next year, which means I need to keep focusing on my brides and making sure that their experience with me is the best it can be. 

Specifically, EXERCISE.

I got off track this winter. I need to bring it back around.

This goal is going really well so far. In fact, after nagging my husband for all of January and the better part of February, he joined the gym with me. Nagging works, my friends. Huzzah!

Having my husband go with me to the gym has made a world of difference. My membership started back up at the beginning of February (I put it on hold because I like to be outside as much as possible) and before Luke joined, I went once in a two week period. Since Luke has joined (about 15 days ago), we've gone nine times. It's hard to work it in during the week, but we're trying to be proactive and do the best we can.

I also signed up to run the Detroit Free Press Marathon this October. At this point, I'm just trying to get back into shape by running on the treadmill and lifting some (10 pound...please, hold your applause) weights, but when it gets nice I will start doing an actual training schedule outdoors. I've done two half marathons before, but never a full. I'm scared.

It struck me at the end of last year that I work really hard to make sure that my house is put together nicely, but I don't necessarily do the same for my own appearance. Now, I promise you that I don't go out looking like a frumpy hag all the time, but I could just do a little better when it comes to my fashion sense. This doesn't mean I'm going to go out and spend a ton of money on clothes this year, it just means that I'm going to put a little more thought into what I wear in public (because you know I'm still rocking the sweatpants and oversized t-shirt when I'm at home) and try to buy pieces that go really well together.

So that's it. Hopefully some over-sharing of my goals this year will help me achieve them and it was kind of therapeutic, to tell you the truth. Thanks for listening!

Later this week I have a super cute birthday invitation to share. And weddings are right around the corner...I'll be sharing some awesome invites and save the dates in the near future! :)