2018 GOAL SETTING PART ONE

       If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you may have noticed some posts here and there in regards to Lara Casey’s Books Make It Happen and Cultivate (which I am currently reading through). Lara Casey is also the creator of Powersheets. “What are Powersheets, Tierney?” you may ask. They are a goal-setting planner. After reading Make It Happen, this past summer I knew I wanted to be more intentional in how I lived my life. So often, I would set your canned “New Year’s Resolutions” and have already forgotten them by February. Back in the summer, I just realized I was sick of letting life happen to me. I wanted to create the life that I craved. I wanted to be intentional in my decision making. So as a tool to make that happen, I purchased my first set of Powersheets back in October. The Powersheets helped me to uncover my goals for the upcoming, and even though it’s kind of scary to verbalize these goals, I want to share them in a two part series. By sharing them out loud, it gives me a sense of accountability. I know at the end of 2018 I may not have completed every goal, but progress on these goals is far better then perfection.

1. Pay Off Student Loans

     When Christopher and I first got married, we hit his student loans hard and made excellent progress, but due to moving and just life changes in general we haven’t stayed as focused on these as we would have liked to. We both desire to go into 2019 with these loans completely paid off. This is hard. It requires much planning on our end. It requires saying no to the convenience of fast food and dedication to meal planning. It requires being content with the things God has already blessed us with. It is definitely one of the tougher goals we are striving for, but I know it will give us the greatest return.

2. Cultivate a Healthy Lifestyle

      Over the past year,  I have not made my health or well being a priority at all. Back when I was working my 9-5, commuting two hours a day, and running my business in between it was just very difficult to find the time to focus on my health and fitness. There just weren’t enough hours in the day. Unhealthy fast food was convenient and there was no time to exercise. Even after quitting my 9-5 to pursue photography full time, it was still difficult to find the time. I tend to be a bit of a workaholic, so even with working from home, my health can definitely still get neglected.

3. Love Christopher Better

       A lot of the reasoning behind my goals comes from lack of time in the past year from working full time while trying to also run my business. This is also one of those goals. I want us to have more date nights and experiences together this year. Life is short, and although we don’t have children yet, I know that, that day probably isn’t far away so I want to make the most of the time we have alone together now.

4. Be More Proactive in the Numbers Side of My Business

  For creative business owners, the creative side comes quite naturally. The business side, not so much. I get bored in the numbers and those minute details. They’re neither fun nor interesting to me, but in order to run a successful business, I need to be more involved with that side of business.

5. I Want to Double the Amount of Photography Business I Had in 2017

     I am so pleased with how my business did in 2017. It was booming enough for me to be able to pursue my passion full time. My hope though, is to double that amount of business in 2018 mostly because of goal numero uno. Plus, I’d like to be able to travel some with Christopher 🙂

   I plan to achieve this goal by finishing some business courses I started in 2017 and in other ways that I will mention on the next 2018 goal setting blog post 🙂