Ahhh 2016, you have been quite amazing! You have taught me SO MUCH about myself personally and professionally. As I think back to this year as a whole, I found an overall theme: This whole year was about letting go and growing-in so many ways. I was able to get rid of a lot of physical AND mental clutter which made room for some pretty great things! I’ve been doing a lot of brains storming on where I want my business and my personal life to go over the next year…and the two words that I keep circling around to are Abundance + Gratitude..I’ll get to that later.
Last year I had some pretty lofty goals, one of which was to pay off our home and be 100% debt free. With a lot of planning-and I mean A LOT of planing and HARD HARD HARD work and mental muscle-we made that happen. Greg and I paid off our home in our 30’s but ONLY because we were so strict which gave me the habit of trying to plan EVERYTHING …and trust me, that tends to be a wee bit exhausting. So this year, I was on a mission to get rid of the need to do that. It took some practice but I think I’m finally getting the hang of it and I’m learning to finally let go!
I learned to let go of being perfect and planning out every.little.thing. Take this holiday for example: I would normally have the day(s) planned out as to when we would bake cookies, when we could take out annual trip to Overly’s, when we would go see Santa, etc. etc….but this year, I just let it happen…and you know what, we accomplished it all with much less stress. It feels more like “living in the moment” when you don’t have every thing planned out all the time. Heck, we even took a trip to NYC and had zero plans at all…just flew by the seat of our pants! It was so much fun.
This year I let go of some relationships not because they were necessarily unhealthy, but because they were exhausting and taking energy away from those other relationships I should be fostering. I didn’t have the energy to chase after relationships that didn’t put in the same amount of effort. I focused my energy on new relationships and I couldn’t be more grateful for those whom I’ve crossed paths with this past year.
I have let go of jobs that I didn’t want to photograph. I think I’m finally in a place in my career that I can pick and choose what types of jobs I want to take. It definitely didn’t happen overnight! There are some photographic jobs that make my heart sing and others that feel a bit more draining…this year I said NO to a lot of those and because of that I am even more motivated for next year. “No” will be a word I use often in 2017. I will be focusing on photographing jobs that fulfill my WHY and my heart! <3
We grew this year-in the literal sense- by one person. We expanded our family and welcomed a healthy baby boy and I got to become a Mom for the second time. He has brought us such joy. I finally feel as if our family is complete and I’m excited to watch our “children” (<–it’s weird to say that) grow.
We are growing a secondary business as we speak. Lots of hard work has been going on behind the scenes around here and I can’t wait to see where it is at this time next year. I’m so proud of Greg for his unwillingness to give up and his determination.
I’m watching my daughter grow into a beautiful young lady. She’s officially in the middle school with means a lot of the milestones of an elementary aged kid are over. We’re not dealing with playgrounds, crafts or homeroom parties anymore but instead boyfriends and school dances. I love that she’s empathetic, outgoing and has a killer sense of humor. I’m one proud Mamma!
My business has grown! This has been the best fiscal years I have had since starting all of those years ago. It’s so satisfying knowing that what started out as a hobby has turned into a way that I support my family for all of these years. I have put so much effort into the business over the years that it’s almost like my 3rd child. Watching your 3rd child reach a milestone just makes you so very proud. I have BIG goals for the business in 2017 and if past performance of achieving my goals has any indication on how it will go…I’m going to hit it out of the park.
I’ve been working on a very detailed list of lofty goals both personally and professionally for next year. Right now, I’m in the process of putting some verbs in those sentences and eventually I will share what those are…but right now, without going into much detail, we have a few things up our sleeves and I can’t wait to share them ……when the time is right! As I’ve been brain storming over the past several weeks, I’ve noticed a pattern. I am constantly coming across the two words: abundance and gratitude. As cheesy as this might sound, I want to come from a place of thankfulness in every step I take. I want to focus on solutions and not problems. I’m a firm believer in the law of attraction and what you visualize is what your materialize. I want to surround myself with visualizers, people who can find good in any situation and who think from a place of abundance and not scarcity. Who doesn’t want to be around a happy, appreciative, inspired person? I hope to be THAT for all of my friends, colleagues and clients this coming year.
2017 LET’S DO THIS!
