Happy New Year! I hope your first 4 days of 2016 have been great. I have been soaking up the last few days of 100% freedom before I go back to work with my 1st graders tomorrow. I love them to pieces, but it has been nice to fully dedicate my whole day to my business. I’m sure once I get back in the groove, it’ll be like I never had a break (or I’ll be wishing for one haha 😛 ).
On New Years Eve, Aaron & I got to enjoy the whole day together (seriously, when does that happen!?), so we drove to an outlet mall 30minutes from our house for a little bit of a “treat yo-self” afternoon (does anyone get my Parks & Rec reference?) On the drive, Aaron & I talked about our goals for 2016. I was very specific with my goals this year which I think has been really helpful. Plus, I didn’t overload myself with more than I knew I could realistically accomplish. So with that, here are my goals are for 2016.
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health
I feel so cliche having this on my list, but it really is important to me & this year I’ve come up with an effective way to make it doable.
Church of the Highlands (the church we attend) is doing a 21 Days of Prayer + Fasting to kick of the year. Today was day #2 (I’ll write more on all of this later this week). During this time, I’ve chosen to fast sweets, processed foods, & carbs. Basically, I can only eat anything natural (fruits, veggies, nuts, etc). I’m planning on continuing this style of eating (with the occasional treat of course 😉 ) throughout the year. Along with working out at least 2 times every week.
business
This is going to be a BIG year for SMS Photography, & I’m really excited about all of it.
For starters, I’ve gone from strictly “shoot & burn” (taking photos, editing some & then delivering edits + all originals to my clients for little pay) to In Person Sales [IPS], that means I’ll be selling prints, photo books AND offering all the edited images on a custom USB drive, but for what I’m actually worth. Ask Aaron, I am horrible at charging what I’m worth. I seem to settle, make deals, give discounts, & do a butt-load of work with little profit to show for it. This isn’t me being selfish by any means – this is me knowing what I’m worth & not letting people take advantage of me & my art.
With that said, my goal is to be more confident in my work & pricing. + have at least 1 session booked every weekend with at least 2 weddings a month.
personal
I am committing this year to God – so, before I do anything else, I am going to start off every morning with spending time with my Dad (a.k.a – GOD). So far, it’s been great & it is so helpful that Church of the Highlands kicks off every year with 21 days of prayer + fasting (like I said, I’ll share more later this week 😉 ). When I put God first – in my day + in my life – I see more of him & I am more at peace when struggles come my way. Life in general just flows better.
A couple more things I’d like to pursue this year is to be more open about how I feel about stuff rather than bottling it inside or keeping quiet. I also am striving to be more positive. Unfortunately, my immediate reaction is often a negative one, so I’m aiming to switch that around this year & have more continuous joy!
And last but certainly not least, I want to blog more. In my perfect world, I would blog every day, have hundreds of readers and dozens of comments after each post. I’d love to be able to post my blog links & not feel like I’m annoying people or filling up their feed with my life (which they might care less about – especially daily updates). All of this, + a couple other insecurities, has kept me from blogging more often. So this year, I’m just not gonna care. If I want to post every day, I’m going to. If you don’t like it, too bad.
This is the year of the Shaver Crew!
This is the year of Sarah!
QUESTION::
I’d love to hear a few of your goals for 2016! What is one of your personal goals this year? Do you have any professional goals this year?