If you’ve been following the blog for a little while, you know I love a good list of goals from time to time. Not only do I give myself yearly goals, I also try and come up with “off season” goals and other random mini goal lists (I even have a goal list for the decor pieces I want in our home!). I like goal lists because I like concrete progress. This is actually a reason that transitioning from marathon training to weight lifting hasn’t been as smooth for me as I thought it would be! Training for a marathon meant every week I would run ten more minutes, or another mile longer. That was very specific, very obvious progress that I could see immediately from week to week. With weight lifting, the progress has come a lot slower, and it’s a lot harder to see results because they aren’t as concrete. Some days I can lift more than others for no apparent reason. It’s something I’m still working on figuring out!

Anyway, I decided to make this list this week because for whatever reason, I was feeling unsettled. I decided this meant I should work on a list of new goals and projects I’d love to work on! Working on a list of new ideas is a great way to get rid of that antsy feeling. As is wine, but I mean, list making is more productive, right?

Here’s what I came up with:

• Create more personal projects for myself that reignite my love for my craft. The film photo project that I mentioned at the end of this post is part of this! I’ve been obsessed with the look of film photography for as long as I can remember and just haven’t devoted the time and energy to it. Some of the other projects on my list are just fun things that have absolutely nothing to do with photography at all…like learning to bake and hand letter. The former, I’ve never been really great at, but we’ll see how it goes.
• Travel. I would say I’ve been really fortunate up to this point to be shooting weddings all along the East Coast. It’s so much fun to get to travel a ton, and we love having an excuse to visit friends and family because of “business”. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in booking destination weddings too! A new goal of mine is positioning myself for opportunities: on the West Coast (I’d love to shoot in Oregon, Washington State, California, Arizona, or in Las Vegas), somewhere (anywhere) tropical, Maine, Boston, Charleston, SC and also, Florida. Specifically St Petersburg/Ft Lauderdale! My sister is moving near there in the Fall, so you may see us adding a package specifically for Florida weddings! I haven’t yet decided what that looks like, but I know I will want to be in Florida with her as much as I can be!
• Re-examine my client experience. Over the past few years I’ve basically built upon the same foundation for client experience. I’m thinking it’s time to look at each piece of this and figure out why I do it, whether or not it’s really working, and if there’s something I could be doing better instead. I really think it’s good to never really get too complacent or settled in what you do…so this is going to be the perfect time for me to work on this!
• Create my own bridal guide. I would love to do this either online or in print. I feel like this may be more of an off season goal at this point, but I’m really excited about all the ideas I’ve been jotting down for this one.
• FINISH MY OFFICE!!! This has nothing to do with stepping up my game. It really has more to do with my overall comfort levels…haha. I am two or three pieces away from completing my re-do of this small room, and I’m just kind of ready to wrap it up already!
• Come up with some systems to eliminate bottlenecks in my business. I think it’s important to examine the areas where I’m struggling, accept that, and look for ways to streamline. My workflow is great, but there are a few things that I’m struggling with lately, including blogging, which was always one of my strengths before.
• Redefine my brand. If you asked me to describe what I mean by this, I’m not 100 percent sure. But I feel like branding for a personal business like mine (where I’m the face of the business essentially) branding is something that’s going to constantly evolve. Does that mean I think my website needs to change constantly? Not at all. I consider brand to be so much more than just my website…it’s everything from the gifts that I give, to how I present my images, to what I Instagram.

This was just a quick list I jotted down the other day, but I think it’s worth sharing because I know posting and sharing about the things you want to do is the best way to remain accountable. You can’t quit once it’s on the internet…because the internet is forever…am I right?? Is there anyone else out there that feels like I do about making lists?