Hi! Happy Thursday. Now that I’ve reviewed the previous year, it’s time to share my goals for 2019 with you. I don’t think I’ve ever been so clear on my goals coming into a new year. After listening to multiple podcasts on goal setting, I feel like I have a better, more realistic hold on what I need to work towards this year. Something about sharing my detailed goals feels so vulnerable to me but there are two reasons for doing this: 1. I want to share this growth process with you all. I want you to realize that I’m a Food Scientist with a dream. Not someone with a marketing degree, a graphic designer, web designer or a photographer. Everything I’ve learned is either a result of teaching myself or some very kind and generous friends who shared their knowledge with me. If I’m able to learn how to chase after these dreams of mine, you can too. 2. Accountability! It’s scary because you’ll see if I fail. I’m ready for that though and know that I will certainly fail along this journey (heck, the amount of times I’ve failed so far is laughable). There are so many lessons to learn from failure so while I don’t necessarily welcome it with open arms, I certainly don’t run from it.

If you want to set goals for yourself, I highly suggest listening to these podcast episodes. I listen to these podcasts constantly but these episodes in particular are extremely helpful! These are in no particular order, by the way. All of these women are GREAT!

Why I’ve Agreed to Fail 100 Times in 12 Months – Amy Porterfield

This Daily Practice Changed My life and My Business – Rachel Hollis

What I Did Right and What I Did Wrong in 2018 – Rachel Hollis

What Worked, What Totally Sucked: A Review of 2018 – Jenna Kutcher

There Aren’t Really Failures: Here’s Proof – Jenna Kutcher

Word of the year: INTENTION. I want anything I buy, do, follow, surround myself with, wear, eat, listen to, read, etc. to be backed with intention. This one word alone is the reason why I have set the following personal and business goals.

PERSONAL GOALS

• Read scripture daily and grow on my walk with Jesus. Every morning I read the First 5 app before I get out of bed. I love starting my day that way. Stephen and I want to continue growing together as disciples. We’re already off to an amazing start this month together and we plan to keep that streak going way beyond 2019. I know this isn’t necessarily a SMART goal (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound) but it will always be at the top of my list.
• I can’t believe I’m about to type this… Am I really about to say this?? In the first quarter of 2019, I don’t want to buy a single piece of clothing. For the year, my goal is to purchase less than 10 pieces of new clothing items. The items that I do purchase, must be essentials/pieces that I need and/or will be worn for years to come. I’m doing this because a friend of mine asked me, “Would you be able to go an entire year without buying clothes?” Her question came at a perfect time actually because I just looked through our budget from 2018 and I noticed the pathetic amount of money I spend on clothes that will only last a season or two. When I realized that one of the biggest sources of waste in the world was due to the clothing industry, I said enough is enough. In 2019 I want to change my mindset so that I invest our hard earned money into items that will last me for years to come and are items that will be a part of my capsule no matter the current trends. I don’t want to buy something just because I think it’s cute (like most of us, I think a lot of clothes are cute. Ha!). In those moments, my brain would immediately start telling itself it would wear it a lot and that I NEED it. We all know that’s not true! I once heard this little tip and it has stuck with me ever since – if a dollar is equivalent to one wear out of a clothing item, would you get as much wear out of it as it’s sold for (we all know most clothes are not actually worth what they’re sold for)? For example, if a pair of Lululemon leggings is $98, would you wear them 98 times or more? If yes, that might help you decide if it’s worth it or not to purchase the item. I also want to research and support more companies that produce their products ethically. I want to invest in them and their team members because they work very hard to produce quality clothing and pay their team well. I’m not saying to never shop at big brands or anything like that again. I’d just rather invest in items I know will last and that will become staples for me. If I decide to invest in something not only will I think about it a long time before purchasing (versus making a shotgun decision while online shopping one day because THERE’S A SALE OMGOSH!) the item so I’ll know I will actually put it to use but I will also be much more reluctant to donate the item after a season or two, for instance. You know what… I’ll just write an entire post about this on it’s own. I have a lot to say.
• Nail down my morning routine: scripture, workout, smoothie. My goal is to workout a minimum of 5 days a week. Ideally 6 but on the weekends I get sidetracked with projects almost the minute I wake up so I give myself some grace there. I mean heck, at least I’m up and moving!
• Less scrolling, more reading. For as long as I can remember it has been a yearly goal for me to read a book every month. I’ve failed miserably every year so something has to change. I realized in 2018 I was spending a pathetic amount of time scrolling. I started to analyze what was really going on in my brain while doing that. Mid scroll I’d ask myself, “What am I getting from this?” Do I feel joy? Am I learning something new? Sometimes it was yes! A lot of the time though I asked myself again, “What in the heck am I doing?!” and would close out the app. I know this is ironic because I’m trying to grow the blog/this community via Instagram but I believe it’s possible to be intentional with your time while on the app. Have some favorites you follow? Check in on what they’re doing and get on with the day! Or set only a couple of times you’ll get on the app – maybe morning and night or lunch and before you read at night. Whatever works best for you! Then instead of spending time scrolling, replace it with either a book or podcast. Preferably something that will help you grow but even if it’s a book that’s just for pleasure, I still believe there are benefits from reading and it’s more rewarding when you finish a book. My goal? Read 12 books minimum is the SMART goal but really, I’d love to train my brain to reach for the nearest book instead of my phone. 12+ books will just be the result of that.
• Plan and go on more dates with Stephen. The goal is once a week! That doesn’t have to mean going out to eat or to a movie or anything like that. It can mean planning to make dinner at home together and watch a couple of episodes of Blacklist. Nothing fancy. The point is to be intentional about taking a break to spend quality time together.

BUSINESS GOALS

• Woof. Now is when I’m starting to feel pretty uncomfortable. Numbers are a scary thing to share and easy to compare! Especially because you’re able to see them all for your own eyes (except for a few). The first goal I have for 2019 with the blog is to reach 100k views on the blog. That’s actually my impossible goal for the year (listen to the first podcast I posted above to understand what that means!). 100k views! That’s a lot considering I hit 14,605 in 2018 but I believe that with the help of my team and YOU ALL we can do it!
  • Along with that, I want to 10x the number of Pinterest referrals by June 1, 2019. In 2018 I had 181 to my blog from Pinterest so you can do the math on that one.

• Another goal with the blog is to produce a minimum of two posts per week that can 100% answer the question I ask myself every time before I post, “Will this post inspire, teach, encourage growth, or spark joy?” If not, it doesn’t deserve to be here. By the end of the year, I would like to be at least two weeks+ ahead of the content going live on the blog and social media outlets.
• Receive a sponsorship or collaboration opportunity with at least three companies that I desire to work with.
• Launch my presets and teach others the basics to using a DSLR in manual mode so they can feel confident when they pick up their camera!
• You should know that my heart is beating faster than normal right now… My Instagram goal of 2018…… 10,000 followers. Yes. It’s a goal of mine and I’m not ashamed to say that. I guess some people probably think it’s ridiculous which is why I’m having a physiological reaction right now. HA! Why 10,000 you ask? FOR THE STUPID SWIPE UP FEATURE. Holy guacamole it would make my life so much easier to link a blog post directly to share! Linking products you all ask for would be great but now with the new algorithm it’s essentially useless for income purposes so I don’t really care about that. Blog post links though would be extremely helpful and I believe would certainly help to serve. The struggle to reach 10k is that I want a community of people. I don’t just want followers to have followers. I want to be able to tell brands that I have a tribe of women (and men!) that support each other and seek joy like it’s their job. I want that tribe to KNOW that what I produce is to serve them, to inspire, to encourage growth, or to bring them joy in their hearts and homes. Above all of that, I want them to know that you all trust me and believe in me. That won’t happen overnight, I’m aware. Slow and steady wins the race, right?
• By the end of the year,  I would love to 5x my email list and Facebook group. Right now we have I think about 20 people in the Facebook group and 58 on my email list. Originally my goal was just to double these but no no no. We dream big around here and we work hard, rest hard. 2019 is the year to exceed expectations.

Question for you all: what content would you like to see more of this year? We will plan out the upcoming months around that!

As always, thank you all of the support and for being such a big part of this journey. You guys rock.