Happy New Year! Anyone else feel like 2018 lasted a day? Where does the time go? Every time we reach the dawn of a new year, I feel like the last one flew by. Last year was a very big year for the Medinas: we celebrated our first anniversary, we travelled to Europe for two weeks, went to Yosemite National Park, visited a few new cities, and decided it was time for me to go full time with photography! I am walking into 2019 a full fledge photographer and it feels so good y’all.
Back in November, I realized that I wanted to have a more concrete goal creation process for this year. I invested in Powersheets, by Cultivate What Matters, because I had heard wonderful things about them from fellow creative entrepreneurs. Quickly after receiving them in the mail, I got incredibly overwhelmed by how much work was going to go into this notebook. It was close to 200 pages, with the first 67 being all prep work and goal planning. WHAT?! I seriously had no idea what I was getting into.
After having completed those 67 pages, I am sooo glad I invested in Powersheets. It was a lot of work, but all the introspection and soul searching led me to create some big goals for this year. The next 100 pages will be a monthly and weekly tracking of my progress on those goals. My favorite thing about Cultivate What Matters as a company is they are a Christian business that celebrates progress, not perfection. I was able to ask a lot of myself this year, and honestly, if I only get halfway there on some of them, I would feel so accomplished! But hopefully, we knock them all out of the park in 2019.
A big part of the self-discovery process is picking your ‘word of the year.’ I chose the word intentional for 2019 because it is applicable to each area of my life. This year I want to be intentional in my marriage, with my friends, in how I spend my free time, in my faith and devotions, with how I run my business, in how I treat my amazing clients, with what I eat, with exercising, and in how I spend my money. So basically EVERYTHING.
The three areas I chose to focus on for 2019 are health, work, and recreation. I will be making more intentional choices about how I treat my body: what I put into it, what I expect of it, and how I view it. You will see some big changes coming in my work: a rebrand that is already underway, my client experience, and how I use social media. Finally, I will be making intentional efforts to spend my free time with people I love and less time in front of screens. Running your own business can easily lead to ignoring your friends and family and spending all your ‘free time’ checking emails, on social media, and preoccupied with work. I want to be intentional about drawing lines for myself, prioritizing areas that I want to see real change, and loving myself this year.
The practical action steps I am taking to achieve these goals include meal prepping, turning off the TV, surprising my clients, consistent exercise, spending money on experiences rather than possessions, making social plans on weeknights (gasp!), and enough other things to fill up a few more pages in my Powersheets. I am ready to conquer 2019 and I cannot wait to see what the next 365 days have in store for me.
I think reflection on the previous year and planning for the upcoming one are two important yearly rituals for anyone. Have you taken time to think about the good and the bad that happened in 2018? What do you hope 2019 looks like?
In the words of Hannah Montana, “life’s what you make it, so let’s make it rock!”
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