Goals for 2013

I've wrapped up my 2012 goals and am excited to share my long term goals for 2013 today.

1. Work out twice a week. I'm sure that this sounds like something of a pathetic goal, but I have never maintained a regular workout routine in my entire life. At this point in my life, there are no more excuses for it. Ideally I would like to build to a more rigorous workout schedule, but this seems like a realistic place to start.

2. Create a weekly cleaning schedule and stick with it. I swore up and down that I would do this when we moved to Milwaukee. A year and a half later, it's never happened. I have gotten much better about keeping up with clutter on a daily basis, which is a significant improvement. On a very similar note to my first goal, I have no more excuses for not finally making this happen. Now that we have three cats, it's more important than ever.

3. Double my December 2012 HubPages earnings. I am still kind of in shock that I was able to not only double but triple my December 2011 earnings by December 2012. I am optimistic that I'll be able to double again within the next year.

4. Maintain a minimum 2,000-3,000 words per day minimum on weekdays. When Jake was an intern, I kept a pretty crazy work schedule. Now that he's mostly working weekdays, I'm trying to keep to the same schedule for writing so I don't burn out and can enjoy time away from the computer. I am really proud of the fact that 2,000 words per weekday doesn't feel like a huge undertaking anymore and am hopeful that I'll be able to maintain this pace for the duration of the year.

5. Participate in 10 craft fairs. I would like to return to 4 of the craft fairs that I participated in during 2012. I already have a list of 5 more that I'd like to check out for 2013. I'm confident that I'll be able to add one more to that potential list and can fill in others as needed if any of these shows don't pan out.

6. Learn one new Photoshop Elements skill per week. I'm sure that I've discussed this here at various times over the past few years, but most of you probably don't know that I have always been completely overwhelmed at the idea of learning Photoshop. I am pretty fearless when it comes to learning new technology, but for some reason, Photoshop makes me want to run the other way. Now that I own an SLR, I feel like I don't have any more excuses. If I'm serious about furthering my photography, I need to learn real editing skills.

I bought Elements and am determined to start easing into it. As I literally don't know how to do anything with the software, I'm using the term "skill" very loosely. The tasks can be extremely simple, especially during the first few months of the year.

7. Start to monetize my photography. I took something in the range of 10,000 photographs during 2012. While I have been able to use many of them for endeavors online (selling on Etsy, blogging, writing for HubPages, etc.), there is so much more than I can do with them.

At this point, I'm not interested in investing in a lot of inventory and selling my work in person. I've already invested a lot in my randomcreative beading, button, and music image and am not ready to take a whole new direction with it. I also feel like I need to put it out there that I'm not interested in doing session work (engagement shoots, family photography, etc.). I know that I'm going to get approached about that now that I own an SLR, and for a lot of reasons, it's not something that I want to pursue at this point.

With that being said, I would like to start by exploring options like Cafepress that handle the printing side for you. If anyone has experience with this type of work, I'd greatly appreciate your input.

8. Participate in 6 BBA challenges. All of the drama with the EBW team burned me out on challenges a bit in 2012, but I'm excited to be more free for 2013 with just the BBA. Our challenges have a very broad range and do not have to involve creating items that we sell for Etsy, which is really nice.

9. Maintain focus on expanding my best selling items/lines. This may seem ridiculously obvious, but sometimes I get caught up in experimenting with new ideas and neglect to restock, let alone expand, my lines that are doing well. After doing so many craft shows this year, I have a pretty solid idea what is and is not doing well in my shop. I'm never going to stop experimenting with new crafty ideas, but expanding existing successful lines is going to be a high priority.

10. Maintain focus on ensuring consistency for my craft fair booth and my business in general. While the jewelry selling world is extremely competitive, I have a pretty solid niche for my business in the Milwaukee area. I get a lot of comments about how unique my work is, and people never have trouble picking me out from one show to the next. I want to continue to play up the button and music aspects of my products and display and maximize the unique potential of my business.

I have read a lot of great 2012 goal wrap up posts this week. If you write 2013 goals, share the link in the comments!