2018 into 2019: Review, Resolutions, and Goals {Mostly Personal, A Little Professional}

Whenever a new year begins, I try to think of a practical New Years Resolution.  Nothing too crazy.  Do I want to lose 40 pounds?  Totally. I’m doing things to work on that, like going to CycleBar almost every day (it’s become a bit of an obsession- seriously, you should come with me!). Am I going to make that my New Years Resolution?  Not necessarily.  That’s part of a bigger plan.  I want my New Years Resolution and my 2019 goals to be more focused on changing my outlook on life, the way that I do things.  At the end of this post, I’ll tell you more about it.

I need to be honest.  I’ve been procrastinating this blog post.  When I say procrastinating, I don’t just mean spending two hours on AirBnb planning my next trip (yes, I totally did that).  I mean that I spent 8 hours cleaning out my closet and my bedroom yesterday.  I’m not sure why I’ve been so weird about writing it, but it’s probably because 2018 was a little weird.  Not necessarily bad, just a year of growth, reflection, and adaptation.  So in order to move forward for 2019, I’m going to take you back.  Way back.  Let’s reflect together.

2018: A Review (and a little of 2017 and 2016, too!)

In 2018, my resolution was to be present.  Here’s the blog post that I wrote about it.  I’m not sure that I totally accomplished that.  My husband gave me a 6 out of 10 (which I’m calling not bad, because I could’ve been SO MUCH worse!).  I did a few things to make life better.  I started putting my kids to bed again (Chris & I rotate kids every night).  For a while there, we were eating dinner at the table, with no phones allowed (we may have resigned back to the couch, but we’re still all eating together!).  I didn’t work late nights at my desk hardly ever (I’m talking, counting on one hand how many times that happened).

Chris and I spent more time together with date nights and date days.  We went on a family vacation.  I even took the last two weeks of the year off (which is completely unheard of for me!).  We made a point to do a little more as a family, even if it was just a few little hour long adventures here and there.  My kids love going on photo adventures, so there’s a LOT of photos of that (don’t worry, I won’t share them all).  Here’s a tiny snippet into the year of family fun:

Past Resolutions – And How I Did

In 2017, my resolution was to “live a more simple life” and declutter things.  I did that a little bit with our garage, but I kind of gave up.  I’m SO bad at getting rid of things.  Part of the reason that I went nuts on my room yesterday to try to clean it was because I’ve KNOWN that this is something that I want to do for a while, and I keep putting it off.  Do you know what?  Today, I only had 30 minutes to shower and get ready – and I totally did it.  I didn’t have to sift through a mountain of clothes to find something that fits.  I didn’t have to find the match to my shoes.  We got rid of SO much stuff (10 bags of donations and 8 bags of trash).  Can you imagine how much easier life would’ve been over the last two years if I did this way back in 2017?  I procrastinated, I put it off.  It’s shenanigans – you shouldn’t do that to yourself!

In 2016, my goal was organization – to get organized in business, in life.  I’m giving myself a gold star on that one – I totally did that.  I added 17Hats as a form of organization for bookkeeping and invoicing and I hired an accountant.  Streamlining things became huge for Misty Saves the Day.  I feel like organization is always just a work in progress, though.  There’s always a way to be better.

2019: My Resolution

It always feels so important and daunting, declaring your resolution to the world.  I do it for a lot of reasons, though.  The biggest one is accountability: I want to put out into the world that I’m going to do something – and I want you guys to make me live up to that.  In 2019, my resolution is going to be to live up to my potential.

I want to self-motivate.  Living up to your potential should mean that other people don’t have to give you advice or tell you what to do.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m still going to ask for input.  I don’t think I’m ever going to be able to shy away from that; however, I want to do things without being prompted.  If I’m being totally honest – someone else used the term “living up to your potential” the other day, and it kind of just stuck with me.  I literally couldn’t even come up with a good resolution myself.  I kept going back and forth on what I wanted this to be the year of.

This isn’t just work-related (as most of my resolutions aren’t centered around work, but are centered around self-awareness and becoming a better person).  I want to live up to my potential as a mom, as a wife, as a friend, as a business owner – and as a person.  It’s really important to just be good for myself, too.  You can’t be good for others if you don’t take time for yourself, your passions, your general pursuit of happiness.  It’s important for me to note that I have to practice what I preach.  If my goal is to live up to my potential – it’s because I urge all of you, my clients, to do that all the time.  Why am I not doing that myself?

What’s That Look Like?

There’s a few things that I’m already planning for 2019 that are centered around that – like a solo trip in the fall to the mountains to take photos of the leaves and the stars and all the pretty things.  I don’t want to be so reliant on other people for validation.  I’ve got to learn how to spend time with myself.  It’s easy to get caught up in your thoughts and in your dreams, but I want to get caught up in the things that set my soul on fire.

If taking two weeks off has taught me anything, it’s just how important it is to take time for yourself.  I was a better parent these past two weeks than I’ve been in a while.  We all spent time together.  We watched movies, we baked cookies, we went on photo adventures.  Yes, work gives me joy.  I love doing what I do, but, like a friend always tells me, you have to work to live, not live to work.

Work Goals

I haven’t officially done a 2018 work recap yet.  I haven’t decided how I want to do it – I can show you a little of the behind-the-scenes (or a lot of it – there IS a lot!).  Sharing some of my photos from second shooting weddings could be fun – as well as sharing some of my great reviews from the year.  All of that is to come.  For now, here’s what I’ve got for you.

I said that I was going to launch some new packages at the beginning of 2019 – and I am.  They aren’t fully fleshed out yet, and I want everything to be perfect when I do.  Give me a couple of weeks and you’ll see them.  What I know they’ll include, though, is what drives me, what makes me passionate.  I want to streamline the process of Misty Saves the Day.  While I CAN do a lot of things, I tend to do a little bit of everything, when I’d rather be focused on certain aspects of the business.

I know, I know, that’s super vague.  When it comes down to it, just know that I want to make 2019 a year of growth for Misty Saves the Day, through a redefined mission and outlook on the company.  I want to make sure that I’m giving the best of what I have to my clients.  Don’t worry, I’m still doing social media management.  I’m still second shooting weddings.  I’ve just got a few other tricks up my sleeve that are coming that I can’t wait to share with you.

Thank You

I had to end this blog post with a thank you.  Thank you for being on this journey with me – whether you’re a casual follower of Misty Saves the Day, a client, a friend, family – whatever your role is in my life, you’ve made an impact, I promise.   It means the world to have so many people in my corner, growing with me and cheering me on.  Thanks for the love, the encouragement, and the constant support.