Blog & Business Goals REDO

Source via Caiti's Pinterest

I'm back...Hope you all had an excellent 4th of July weekend (if you're in the states). Honestly, I'm not much of a holiday person, besides the big ones like Christmas & my birthday. Speaking of which, my 35th came & went with a 3 day celebration, that began last Thursday with lunch & ended on Saturday with dinner. I'm not kidding when I refer to my birthday as a major holiday ;)

With the passing of another birthday, one tradition I faithfully hold on to is setting new goals for the rest of the year. This also includes reflecting on & reviewing the past 6 months & what I was able to accomplish or not. Looking for obstacles & patterns. As I've already mentioned in this post, this year has been rough. So, I'm not even going to share the status of my earlier goals because they were mostly a BIG fail. I'm looking ahead with optimism, enthusiasm & excitement. July is my month - I can feel it.

Blog & Business Goals:

• Get my website up & running
• Fine-tune my social media skills
• Create 4 new products for my Etsy shop
• Rebrand my Etsy shop
• Improve my photography skills
• Start a monthly newsletter
• Do a collaboration
• Host more giveaways & invite guest posting
• Write a guest post
• Work on publishing company with M for launch in the beginning of 2012
• Continue writing for the Examiner & expanding Reaching Through the Ether

Guess who joined Twitter over the weekend? You can find me @loveaffairpaper  I just started tweeting yesterday so this whole world is entirely new to me (see bullet point 2 above). Do you tweet & if so, how do you like it? What kinds of things do you focus on & who are some of your favorites to follow? See you tomorrow for Handmade Love Wednesdays.

To share or not to share

(source: TED)

Derek Sivers says it's better to keep goals secret. He shows evidence that people who talk about their ambitions are less likely to achieve them. This video is only a little over 3 minutes. Watch here & let me know what you think. 

In my personal opinion & experience, I think there is truth to what he says. When I posted my intention to open an Etsy shop, it felt so good. I was taking the first step in going for my goal and announcing it aloud was going to make it a reality. It was my way of being held accountable. Surely, I couldn't say it to my readers and then not move forward. That was a little over 2 months ago. My progress? Zip, zero, zilch. Just announcing it seemed to make it enough of a reality that I never went beyond that.  Sure, I've read a ton of books on the subject & I know what my next steps are. Which seemed to be enough. Because I felt proud & as Stivers' says, like I had nearly achieved my goal.

Then I shared that I hired a coach. And after that. Nothing. I felt like that was enough as well. That because we set a date to start for next weekend, that I could just wait. Sivers' solution isn't necessarily to stop sharing your goals. You'll have to watch the video to see his suggestion. And I wouldn't stop anyway. That would defeat the purpose of this blog & my intent to share all of it - the good, the bad & the ugly. My truth. My reality.

Currently, I'm in a hotel room in Cinci. I'm enjoying room service and getting over my cold.

The Creativity Summit I wrote about on Monday was better than I imagined/expected. I'm so excited to have a place like this close to home. And Michael Chabon was INCREDIBLE. So smart, funny and entertaining. Plus, its always energizing and exciting to be surrounded by like-minded people who feel a passion for creativity too.

Have a fabulous rest of your weekend & as always, thanks for reading. I love your comments and for those of you who don't comment (you know who you are because we've had conversations about it), I would like to thank you for your support as well. Just knowing that you care enough to read and make references to my blog in person means the world to me.

Best of intentions

(source: real simple magazine)

I have the best of intentions. I have many goals and ideas. I have lists upon lists of my desires, dreams, needs, wants. The part where I trip up is in the execution. I procrastinate. I let fear reign over me. When I wasn't working, I had such grandiose expectations of what I was going to achieve. And when it came down to it, I kept telling myself that I would get to it the next day. Because I wasn't in a rush. Because I had all the time in the world.

And now. Now, I'm working and my time has drastically diminished. But, all of my goals and ideas are still there. Along with the never-ending lists. The solution? Inspired by this lovely lady, I'm going to refocus on the goals that I created earlier in the year. And leave the guilt, apprehensions and setbacks behind. Because as much as I love a good list, if its not being utilized, what's the point?

By the end of the year, I will open my Etsy shop, complete my 5k running program, and work on balancing my priorities. Sounds reasonable enough, right?

Tell me, with 4 months left til the end of the year, what are some of your goals?