January Notes

Welp, it’s January 4th and guess what? I haven’t written my goals. I didn’t get ahead on all those blog posts like I said I would. I drank wine last night (and the night before that… I said I was going to do that less). And my instagram queue is not as full as I expected. While I love the fresh start that the new year brings, it’s kind of intimidating and stressful. We put all of these restrictions on ourselves and usually make unrealistic to-do’s that MUST be done by the 1st. Otherwise, what’s the point (if you didn’t get it done by the first)? I did it to myself. And I know a lot of you guys probably did too. So I’m thinking… let’s stop being so hard on ourselves, instead let’s create and put those things out anyway, no matter how “late” they are. For example, I wanted this post to go live on the first. I wanted it to have a printable that you guys could hang on your inspiration boards. And I had an entirely different direction for how I was going to write this. Well, my printer died on me, the 1st passed because I was busy enjoying a little time away with my husband and dogs, and I decided let’s talk about something that might be on your minds instead of an inspo board I will forget about in a few days.

Let’s give ourselves a little time to get creative without the pressure to put something out by a certain time or date. I think that you will still like reading this even though it wasn’t posted on JANUARY 1ST! I will still share a pretty printable for you when my new printer gets here, it will just be tiny bit later than I thought. But, I will feel better about the content I’m putting out rather than feel like it was rushed and not at all thoughtful. Now, I’m not saying forgo deadlines completely. I’m saying when it’s just something you want to do, and there isn’t anything really depending on it (like a client for example), take your time to do your best work. It may feel like everyone is lapping you in the productivity race, but I think we’re all just trying to keep up.

One of my biggest problems with putting things out, here on my site or just launching something for my business, is always giving myself (and sometimes our team) unrealistic timelines. This is going to be one of my main focuses this first quarter; giving us all space to be creative and put out exceptional product and content instead of what we got done in time. I want our blog posts to be more thought out and researched, I want our products to be packaged thoughtfully so it’s an experience when you order from us, and I want our content to be relatable but still inspirational. I think all of this comes with taking a step back, making an accurate estimate on timing (not when you’d LOVE for it to be done), and thinking about things more. Making sure that we focus on the end goal which is satisfying what our reader or customer needs.

I have plenty of other goals and ideas for 2019, but I really feel like this one tweak can make a big difference in our business and so it will be how I approach everything we do. In just the few days that we’ve been back, I already feel like a weight has been lifted. I’ve dropped projects that weren’t making an impact on our business (I simply thought we needed to be doing them), i’m creating realistic deadlines in our calendars for projects, i’m putting down my phone and working on creating instead, and i’m focusing on things I can do to move us forward in the big picture.

So, I hope that this inspires a few of you to stop feeling like you are behind or not doing enough or like everyone is more organized than you. Because none of those feelings ever lead to creating your best work!

I’d love to hear how you all are starting your new year off on the right foot and what changes you want to put in place for a better you or a better biz!