Looking Ahead to 2015

Please tell me I am not the only person who starts making goals and resolutions that then balloon into a million items that look totally insurmountable when listed together…  I mean, seriously, I was so amped to make my goals for 2015.  I’m a dreamer, making goals is what I do best!  (Acting on them… that’s another story.)

When I went to make my goals the other day, things kinda snowballed and I ended up on the ground with my head spinning in circles… and it’s not even 2015 yet!!!  I think it’s good to have lots of exciting goals and action items to get you there.  But, in order to have a practical list I think it’s necessary to pare down into manageable categories and not plan too much too far in advance (yes, I was trying to plan specific blog posts out until June….)

You all may have heard of the Year, Month, Week, Day goal setting method… it’s the idea that you first set your goals for the year, then at the beginning of each month you parse which goals you will accomplish for that period, at the beginning of each week you block out days to do specific action items toward those goals, and the night before you plan out your hours for the day ahead so that you accomplish those action items.

After all that crazy planning, I realized I need to slow down and parse out my Yearly Goals.  From there I can break them down one month, week, and day at a time.  Hopefully I will then be able to preserve my sanity 😉  And actually get some stuff done!  (I could dream and goal plan all day long…. acting out the goals tend to be where I have issues)

I broke my goals into three categories: personal, blogging, and home.  It’s kinda fun to see how all three categories goals interact to support the other areas of my life 🙂

PERSONAL

• Go to a concert – I already have one in mind, there’s a country music festival in July at the venue Jake and I got married at!
• Take a vacation – I’m hoping after the end of the first tax season Jake and I can take a little anniversary trip.  It’s been a while since we’ve done a trip just the two of us!
• Eat more veggies – this one is really for Jake, he thinks we should be eating more greens 😉
• Improve my photography – I already made strides today as I experimented in manual mode!

BLOGGING

• *Don’t overwhelm myself*  This is the category that ballooned into hundreds of items….. let’s keep this manageable.
• Create value-added content – 2014 was a great year for this blog, but I realized that I didn’t produce a ton of great ‘content’ so that is my first priority for 2015
• Re-position and lock in my niche – This blog has been lots of different categories, but I have finally decided on a direction (see next two items), the hard part is executing!
• ‘Renovating a home’ – part of my passion for this blog stems from my love of sharing our DIY progress, so for 2015 I want to focus on documenting our progress and sharing valuable tips, lessons, and inspiration
• ‘Building a blog’ – the second part of my new blog manifesto.  I love building (coding, designing, etc.) this blog as much as I do writing it, so I want to share what I’ve learned and am passionate about in order to be asset to my fellow home bloggers
• Collaboration (be social!) – I have such a hard time with this one (even in real life!), but a major goal in 2015 is to reach out and connect with more bloggers and create some sort of collaboration
• Learn Photoshop – As I’ve been learning site coding I’ve realized that graphic design is an area where I could use major improvement
• Build themes – Since completing this theme I want to focus on more marketable theme creation to support my ultimate goal of launching blogging web design services(!!)
• Attend 2+ Girl Develop It courses – just found out about this amazing resource and I am super excited!

HOME

• Do 2+ room reveals – I want to be able to call at least several rooms ‘done’
• Finish the flooring & painting – once these are done we will have a nice ‘base’ in many rooms to begin decorating
• Finish the half bath – because there needs to be a second toilet in this house… ’nuff said
• Complete the upstairs bathroom reno – this is a big project, but after the flooring, painting, and half bath, it’s our next big thing on the list
• Make evening progress – it’s hard to map out exactly what we will accomplish on the home this year (since we tend to plan on the fly), but whatever the project may be, I’d like 2015 to be a year where we use our time well in the evenings towards making progress on the house

In the end (after the catastrophe of the MONSTER goal list), I feel like these goals are a little disjointed.  But I don’t think I can delve any farther in at this time and retain my sanity… (Any other crazies out there like me??)  I will summarize some key phrases for the year, though:

Value-Added Content

Time Management and Efficiency

Reaching for the Stars

So with that said, cheers to 2015!!