The new year is full of new years resolutions for most of us. Things that we hope we can do better, pounds to lose, and dreams that we have for the next 365 days. It’s hard to remember what goals we have unless we write them down, so I wanted to be sure to write this blog of dreams and goals for 2017. I know that if I share them, I’m more motivated to complete it, and it will make me hustle even harder when I have people behind me to push me them.

I figured I should break it down to some personal goals as well as business goals, and maybe some in between. It’s hard to not a have a few that transfer between them. We’ll start with the ones that matter most:

Personal Goals for 2017

• I know nearly everyone’s goal for the new year is to lost weight. About 6 months after I had Raylee, I changed the way I ate with the help of Whole30, and managed to lose about 30 pounds in 5 months. I have since reverted from all of that, but started another round of Whole30 on the 1st, and want to maintain that throughout most of the year. My goal isn’t to lose weight, though that will come, but to get back to where I was before I had Raylee again-healthier and in better shape. I know I can do it, I just have to do WAY more dishes. I also know how good I feel when I take out inflammation causing foods in my diet. Win-win. This is definitely a PERSONAL goal, and a hard one for me because I love me some cookies.
• I rarely get to see all of my sisters. I have 4 older sisters, and they are kind of spread out. One is here in Washington, one in Wyoming, and two are living in Utah. The last time we were all together was this summer during our Bear Lake Reunion. I want to make a point to make it down to see them at some point in the year, maybe even twice. It’s hard with our schedules, but I know it’s doable for us.
  
• I want to spend less time on social media, and more time playing with Raylee. I’m obsessed with my phone. I know it’s an issue. I know that I need to do better, and that’s one of my goals for the year. Less screen time. They say “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail” so I need to make a plan on just HOW I plan to cut this out. It’s such a strong habit at this point, that I need to do some thinking into this one. I’m up to hear what works for you guys!
• Pay off as many of my school loans as possible. I haven’t read Dave Ramsey. Mostly because I know what he says, and I know we live SO far from it that I may just get overwhelmed. I know that we should work towards paying off our bills instead of just creating more so that’s definitely been on my mind. I’d love to get my highest APR school loan paid off by the end of the year. Doable. Not easy, but doable.
• I want to do better reading my scriptures every day. I know if I spend 30 minutes a day reading them instead of playing on Instagram for hours, it will make things that much better.
• This one involves Justin a bit, but we want to get pregnant this year. This is kind of terrifying for me to admit because I have been sleeping all night since Raylee was 5 months old. Here’s to hoping for another nice baby, but maybe one that sleeps more than just 45 minutes at a time.
• Be even more adventurous this year! These a few waterfalls out there that me and Raylee didn’t get to make it to this year, and I want to find them all! 🙂
  

I’m sure I’m going to think of more as the year goes on, but these are the ones I could come up with while I was brainstorming the end of last year. Moving on the next important one:

Business Goals for 2017

These goals are a bit more scary for me. These are the ones that I feel like if I write down, there’s the chance they WON’T happen. I know you have to dream big, and reach for those dang stars, but it’s so scary when you think you might (dare I say it) fail. That made me think of a workout program that I did last year, “Live to Fail.” The idea of the ENTIRE program was to get yourself to that point that you couldn’t go any further, and maybe push JUST a bit more. When you push yourself to those levels are when you can really press those boundaries and reach those crazy audacious goals. These are a little crazy, a lot of fun, and pretty exciting.

• Shoot at least 12 weddings this year. Why 12? Last year I had a goal of 8 and only got 7. I was sad that I didn’t reach my goal, but I’ve been hustlin’ my heart out and hope I can reach this one this year!
• Shoot a destination wedding. This one is kind of a cheater goal. What do I mean by that? It means I have a destination wedding on the books for this month. I’ll be heading to Sisters, OR to shoot a snowy mountain lodge wedding and I can’t wait. It may not be what most people think of as a destination wedding with white sandy beaches, and sun, but me and humidity don’t get along. Like at all.
• I want to start mentoring other photographers. My goal is to find at least 3 photographers that want to be mentored. I think it would be rewarding and a ton of fun! If you are one of those people interested, definitely let me know! 🙂
• Get a wedding or styled shoot featured in a print magazine. I do my hardest to get each of my weddings featured on a wedding blog, and have been pretty successful with that this year. I want to up the ante this year and get SOMETHING published in print. It would be AMAZING!
• Outsource the things I don’t need to do. One of those things is album design. I can do it, but it drives me crazy more often than not. I outsourced my first album design at the end of last year and it was SO amazing to send it off and just have it DONE. So awesome! I’d love to outsource editing, but I feel like my workflow in that area is pretty slick, and i’m able to edit my weddings relatively quickly. If I get too busy this year, I definitely plan on sending that out too.
• Grow our Tuesday Together-Tricities group! We have so many amazing creative entrepreneurs in our area, and I know that many of them are good people that want the same thing as the rest of us. I know that the more we build that community in our area, the better we will be as a whole. #communityovercompetition I can’t wait to see what this year has in store for our little group!
• Make it up to Banff and shoot a couple there this summer. I NEED to do this.
• Lead a shoot, or another breakout session at Showit United! AH! Last year the teaching bug bit me and I have some AWESOME ideas for a shoot this year! 🙂 Can it be November already!?
  
• Focus more on my clients and serving them even better. I love getting to know these people, and I want them to really know that. They let me do something that I love, and because of that, I owe them so much! 🙂

PHEW! Some of those are scary, hairy, and a bit crazy. I can’t wait to check those off my list and make this year the best one YET! Heck, i’m almost 30, so if not now, when? Here’ s to another amazing year, and you guys keeping me accountable! 🙂