When I was younger I always set goals for myself. I knew where I was to go to school, what I wanted to study, the job I would love to get all my goals where my checklist to success. It worked well, when an obstacle came up I would just figure out the best way to solve the problem, and I was back on track again and continued to see the light at the end of the tunnel. After my parents and sister passed away, setting goals seemed to be pointless, I could not see anything but darkness. The planner in me gave up, why plan when something unexpected could just come up and derail your plans. It was hard enough to get up every morning and put one foot in front of the other. I was dealing with so much, including a serious illness so goals were the last thing on my mind.
Then thanks to a friend I attended a Vision Board Workshop, I got a chance to talk about my passions, beliefs and obstacles. I was encouraged to reflect on my vision and what my year should look like and the fog began to lift. I placed things on my vision board that I thought I would never achieve yet seeing it there gave me hope, and to my surprise some of it did happen.
I haven’t set goals out for myself and the blog lately, so I want to go into 2019 with some goals set up and something to work on all year. First step with to get creative and work on my Vision Board.
Vision Board
Vision Boards are nice but they won’t work unless you truly believe in them. You need to understand the meaning and purpose behind a vision board and create a positive mindset. If you think you can just slap a bunch of pictures onto a poster board and call it a day then you’ve got it all wrong. If you think you can just cut and paste down pictures of things that you want in life, and you will magically receive them because they’re on the board, you’ve also got it all wrong. You should be choosing the pictures and words for the vision board intentionally, and understand that you have to put in work in order for the vision board to work. The vision board is not magic on it’s own, but with the correct mindset, and ambition, the results can be magical. You might want to start with a few categories and create imaginary for each category. A vision board can be digital and physical.
Before you begin on the new year you must prepare by looking on the past. If you create a vision board last year or have a planner pull it out. I still love to use a planner their is something about the feel of it that makes think. It is good idea to build off the accomplishments you had from the past year, when your are creating your goals for the upcoming year. This will help you create measurable goals, and continue to grow in certain areas of your life.
The next step is to create a board that shows the areas of your life you want to improve and grown. Develop goals for each life area and reflect on the steps you need to take in order to reach those goals. This process helps to ensure that you pay attention to all areas of your life as opposed to only focusing on the one that may stand out to you the most in the moment. This is important because all areas work together and contribute to your overall wellness and satisfaction with your life. If one area is particularly suffering, it can negatively affect other areas of your life and your overall balance.
The bucket list is for the fun stuff! Think about places you want to travel to, new things you want to experience, fun things you want to do, new food you want to try, anything that comes to mind! Your bucket list is like the icing on the cake of the new year. Things to do to add some spice and excitement to the year, and switch things up from your regular routine.
It’s really important to create a peaceful space, and cultivate a positive mindset before putting your vision board together. You don’t want any negative vibes to interfere with your process because you’re going to need all the positive vibes you can get! The vision board is all about manifesting positive energy into your life, so start this project off on the right foot. Create a calm environment, light your favorite candle, put on your favorite music. You need to feel relaxed, motivated and inspired. However, this may not work for everyone, like me, I do my best creatively while I am watching the ball game and screaming at the television. This is me relaxing. I never said I was traditional, but it has worked all my life, so why change now.
This is the part you’ve been waiting for right? It’s time to gather all of your pictures and words for your vision board!
Vision Board Checklist
- Gather Magazines and Books
- Colored Pens, Pencils, and Markers
- Scissors and Glue Stick
- Construction Paper
- Glue-Glittered Glue
- Poster Board or Bulletin Board
- Stickers and other Embellishments
- Also you have a favorite picture of yourself.
If you’re creating your vision board digitally, just save all of your images into a designated folder on your desktop so that they’re all easy to find when you start putting them all together. If you’re using a poster board or bulletin board, you can copy and paste the images you find onto a word document, and then print them all out at once.
After you’ve found all your images it’s time to let the creative vibes flow. Place your images on your vision board whichever way looks right to you! Just make sure you make it something that you’ll be happy to see every day.
Creating the vision board, was the easy part. Now that you have done that, it is time to get to work. The board should guide you and send positive thoughts into the universe. Hang your vision board where you will see it often.
Look at your vision board to remind you everyday what you are working towards and keep you focused.
Visualize your dream life and send positive thoughts about it and what you need to do to make it a reality.
I get discouraged a lot so it is important when you do it is import to look at your vision board when you are feeling negative and think of ways to turn it around. They are times when it is okay to feel confused and frustrated, it how you deal with it that matters. Don’t give up, the word that I always use for myself is Resilient. I could dwell on the negative or turn the page.
Goal Setting
When I started blogging, I really was not sure what I was doing. I was a sports writer, and my therapist wanted to journal, which did not fit with my personality. I wanted a way to help others and express myself so blogging seemed to fit the bill.
I was use to creating goals for school and for work it was mandatory, but setting those goals are different than doing them for your business.
I’m a list-maker. It makes my heart happy. And I truly believe that writing down my goals makes me more likely to accomplish them. I am little nervous about sharing my goals with everyone, but hopefully putting it out there will help the universe bring them to me.
Goal 1- My motto this year will be work hard, laugh more, and play often
This is new for me. During the past couple of years, I have felt very guilty for laughing and playing. I always have in the back of my mind the fact that my younger sister is not hear to laugh and have fun. This year, I am giving myself permission to finally try and laugh and play and to believe that she would want it that way. I know many times I am at events, and look happy, but I have always her in my mind and wishing she could be with me. This year, I want to have less guilt and enjoy life.
Goal 2- Create a new Pitch Letter and Media Kit
I had not done this in a few years and felt that I need to update them and give my media kit a clean new look, and also show my growth in social media. I am proud to say that this goal has been accomplished already.
Goal 3-Disney
Last year, I got my first opportunity to attend a Disney event, so I am putting it back out there into the universe. I’d love to get more sponsored Disney collaborations in 2019. Disney Social Media Moms and Disney collaborations have absolutely changed my life in such a positive way. I was able to work with Marshall Weinbaum and some great women who have remained my friends and keep encouraging me.
Goal 4-Attending more conferences and Press Junkets
I really want to attend more conferences and I want more opportunities to travel to other press junkets and network with other bloggers, see new stuff, and learn more about blogging. I know where I want to be. The goal is to get there.
Goal 5- Strengthen my relations with Brands
Last year, I got the privilege to work with several brands that I admire and love. I made connections that inspired me to be more creative at home. I’d love to expand my brand partners, so that I showcase myself at home and on the road.
Goal 6-Make Sure I am Posting Every Week
This is the year that I focus more energy on writing personal posts. I want to write posts about what I’m laughing at, what recipes I’m trying and just other stuff. I going to write more about my community activities and how they have changed my life.
Goal 7- Take Better Photos
Work on my photography. Here I do not mean only photos, but the visual of my blog overall. I have done basically zero work on my infographics and I need to work on that a lot more. , I hope to make better decisions on collaborations, brand campaigns I sign on to and events I choose to attend. I need to politely say no to things that I foresee will take too much out of me or are not valuing me as a creative/blogger.
Goal 8-Income
Blogging is a business, and I would like to make more income out of it. I intend to do so by doing the following:
Ads – but this requires massive amounts of pageviews every day
Sponsored posts – if you have some traffic and have grown an audience you can start sponsoring brands on your blog. I find, though, that this isn’t profitable right away
Affiliate marketing – if you want to start earning right away, this is a great option.
Service – I also do freelance writing and get paid for it.
Goal 9-Network
This year I focused a lot on networking which has allowed me to meet so many awesome like-minded individuals. This year I want to continue to nurture those relationships and friendships. On top of that, I want to focus more on connecting and engaging with those who read and support my blog via social media. I want to thank Audrey McCelland and Vera Sweeney for allowing me to part of the Permission to Hustle group.
Goal 10-Grow My Social Media
I want to continue to grow my social media presence.
I know what I want. I know what I don’t want.
These are my goals and I want for 2019. Dream Big
If you have questions about blogging, goal setting, or anything else, leave them in the comments. I’d also love to know what your goals and successes are? Good Luck