So, I am blogging this post a little later than most, but I’m okay with that! I wanted to wait until a few weeks into the new year before I shared all of my goals + resolutions for 2015, because I knew I would think of more goals as the year began to progress! The start of every new year is full of so much promise and excitement. It promises a fresh start, a new chance to accomplish your goals and the opportunity to be better than ever. However, I want this year to be about GROWING instead of CHANGING. I want to better the things that I’m already doing and improve in areas that I’m already working on instead of trying to completely change the way I do things or change who I am. My year kickstarted with the Creative at Heart Conference  and it made me even more inspired + encouraged for this year than I would have been already! It made me want to tackle the new year from a different perspective. I want this year to be all about loving the people around me, serving my clients and using my business to glorify the amazing God who gave it to me. I want everything I do to reflect genuine love and appreciation for this job that I am so blessed to have, and I want to spend the entire new year celebrating all of the little things.

This year, I have broken my goals into two categories: personal goals + business goals. At last week’s Pursuit 31 meet-up, we chatted all about our goals for the new year + practical ways to make them happen (we did this at Creative at Heart, too!!) So, here are my goals + resolutions for 2015:

BUSINESS GOALS:

1. BLOGGING: This one is a pretty simple goal, but something that I have realized can make my business reach a whole new level! I want to blog every week, at least 2-3 times a week, and make sure that I blog EVERY Tuesday + Thursday! (Hold me to it, guys!)

2. SERVING MY CLIENTS: I always try my best to serve my clients to the best of my ability, but I want to continue doing this throughout 2015. I also have been working behind-the-scenes to improve my client service through pre-session preparation, questionnaires, client gifts and more! I have a few other new things up my sleeve for my brides + seniors this year!!

3. TURNAROUND TIMES: This is something that I am ALWAYS trying to improve on, whether it’s a new year or not! Editing all of my images is the most time-consuming part of being a photographer, but I still want to continue cutting down the time that I take editing each session so that I can deliver them to my clients sooner.

PERSONAL GOALS: 

1. SCHEDULE + ORGANIZATION: Whew, this one has always been my biggest weakness. I am AWFUL at time-management and staying organized, but I am trying so hard to get better at keeping everything in order! In 2015, I want to try my best to keep my life organized (both from a business + personal perspective) and work hard to set a schedule + business hours for myself. I want to set “work days” that I spend at the studio, but I also want to set “time off” that I spend with loved ones and make sure that I keep that time OFF instead of filling it with emails + editing when I should be loving on my friends + family.

2. BEING HEALTHY: I know everyone who read that just rolled their eyes, because this is obviously the most common resolution of them all! But, I’m serious! Since I almost always stay busy or on the road, I eat junk + fast food WAY too often. I want to work on feeding my body better foods + staying more active just to keep my body healthy!

3. CONNECTING IN REAL LIFE: This may sound really silly…but I need to work on connecting more in real life + putting my phone AWAY for quality time with the people who I love. When social media is such a huge part of the business world and texting is the most popular form of communication, it’s hard to put your phone away and have REAL conversation instead. So, I want to be better at putting the phone away and LEAVING it away when I should be putting all of my attention into the people around me.

REACH-FOR-THE-STARS GOALS:

So, I was actually about to hit “publish” without adding this list to the post…but I decided that I should just do it. This list is full of the BIG goals + dreams that I have for my business that may not happen this year, or even ever! These are those goals that you dream about and work for…but you never know if they will become a reality. So, these are a little scary to share, because they’re a little “out there” and they may not be realistic right now…but these are the goals that I want to achieve at some point in my life.

1. SELL OUT A WORKSHOP: Oh, guys…this is something that makes me so excited to think about! Some day, I want to sell out one of my workshops! Even if it takes 3 months to happen…I just want to have every seat full at a workshop and I think I might actually cry for a full day if it happened!

2. SPEAK AT A CONFERENCE: This is something that probably won’t happen for a few years…but I want SO badly to speak at a conference or workshop for photographers! I would love to speak on pursing your dreams at a young age, because I took the road less traveled when it comes to college and the “normal teenage life”, and that was SO hard to do and it is something so close to my heart. I want to encourage others to take a leap of faith and follow their dreams, even if everyone thinks you’re crazy!

3. TRAVEL THE WORLD: This sounds so cliché and silly…but I want to travel. I want to do it in so many ways…but I just want to explore this amazing world that God created and see all of its hidden beauty. I would absolutely LOVE to shoot destination weddings, but I would also love to travel to places like Italy, Greece and Spain just for pleasure, and shoot styled projects to fuel my heart the whole time I’m there!!

I feel like sharing your goals + resolutions is great way to make them “stick” and to be held accountable for them!! So, that’s exactly what I did! I’ll hopefully be sharing about these goals as I work towards achieving them and I will be doing another post at the end of 2015 to recap the progress of these goals + resolutions! YAY! And a huge thanks to The Photography Smiths for these head shots, they sure do know how to make a girl feel beautiful (even with mono!!)