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! :)

Goals

At midnight on New Year's Eve 2005, my best friend, Amy, and I sat outside of a mutual friend's house in her parent's Trailblazer. We had lost interest in what was going on inside the house (to this day neither of us remembers exactly what that was) and decided that we'd retreat to the car and talk.

(Because I like blogs better when they have pictures, I've strategically placed old photos of Amy and myself in between paragraphs of this story.)

Amy and I in high school - please note the sweet scrunchie on Amy's wrist.

In the car, we talked about the year 2005. I was finishing up getting my teaching certification and about to start student teaching. I had just started dating my future husband a few weeks into December, so you could say I had several new things going on as I started 2006 that were exciting but a little scary (I tend to over-analyze everything, making it all much more scary than it ever needs to be).

Chicago 2007 - one of my many trips there throughout the years.

Amy had had a very different 2005. She had graduated years prior with a degree in journalism and moved to Chicago to pursue a job. However, she was at one of those super annoying in between jobs and was really unhappy. She was ready to be done with it. Overall, she was ready for a fresh start.

Morocco 2008 - we took a two week trip with a group of women from Amy's office.

At some point in our conversation, we decided that this new year needed to be awesome for both of us - Amy especially - and we decided to do something about it. We vowed right then and there that we would each come up with 5 goals for the New Year that we would share with each other. Then, at the end of the year, we'd look back on them and see how we did.

Amy and I repelling in West Virginia circa 1998.

So after we both returned home, we emailed each other our 2006 goals. (For the life of me, I can't find the email that details what they were.) Then, at the end of 2006, we emailed again to see how we did.  If I remember correctly, Amy accomplished most - if not all - of hers that year. I, on the other hand, only accomplished one or two. But we kept it up. Every year for the past seven years, about a week before New Year's Eve, we email and remind each other to work on our goals. A few days later, we send another email, critiquing how we did with our own goals and declaring our goals for the coming year. Some years Amy does really well and some years I do really well (brag - this year I blew my goals out of the water). But no matter how the year went, we keep sending our goals to each other, just like we did back in the beginning of 2006.

Amy and me singing what appears to be a powerful duet in someone's basement in high school.

So here we are and it's 2012. A lot has changed since the first year we made our goals. Amy met her now fiancé. I got married. Amy served as my MOH. Amy asked me to be her MOH. Amy started her own photography business. I started this custom invitation business.

So this is kind of a different blog post. I just wanted to start off the year publicly declaring a few of the goals I have for this business in 2012. It has been extremely helpful to have Amy to share my goals with, and I find that sharing things on the blog gives me that extra push to get things done, too.

I have five goals this year, as per usual, and two of the five are Vivian Elle related. Last year, my goal was just to get this business up and running. Check and check. If all goes well, the following will happen by the end of 2012.

1. I will be marketing in two new places and participating in a bridal show.

Right now brides will find me on The Knot and Wedding Wire. I'd like to find at least two additional locations to post my business cards or even advertise with a local newspaper. I am also starting to scout out bridal shows (this would be the biggest overcoming of my fears move ever) to see what I would need to do to get in one of those.

2. I will have a part of my website that is dedicated to Christmas cards.

So far, my time has been taken up with wedding stuff, which I absolutely love. But I realized this past year that I really enjoy doing Christmas cards and I want to work on getting some designs up on my website that people could just pick from and order however many they need, just like you can from Minted or Kodak Gallery or Wal-mart. I plan to start working on those designs next week and have them up by September or October.

So that's it. I'm starting out 2012 with very specific goals and I even have an action plan for each of them. The problem is that life always gets in the way and a goal that should take a week or two to accomplish (if I really dedicate time to it) will end up taking months and months. But I'm going to make my best effort and I have Amy (and now my blog readers!) to hold me accountable, which has always worked on pretty well in the past.

So here's to a happy new year, (hopefully) accomplished goals, and really great friends.

Amy giving her maid of honor speech at our wedding in 2009.