Goals for 2017 |

I guess, I really should have started with this post for 2017, but oh well…I hadn’t really thought about it till I sat down and started planning for the next few months. Which made me think about what do I want to achieve with my blog in 2017, and even in my life. What are my goals and where am I going?

How was 2016

The word that comes to mind for 2016 was tough. I feel like I have been walking about either in the dark or blind folded. I didn’t quite feel like I had direction in any area of my life, even though I made some very BIG changes in 2016.

The biggest being that I quit my full-time PR job and started running my own photography business full-time. Which, wasn’t really something I had planned to happen, just yet, but it felt like the right choice for that moment, based on everything else that was happening in my life. So, as you can imagine, leaving a paid job to start a new business with no plan and no guaranteed income…was…well to say the least – frightening!

So, starting to work from home and for myself was probably the most scary and stressful thing I have ever had to do…I went from never really thinking about money and how much things cost – to counting every cent…which is a HUGE thing for me (I don’t really think you understand how huge – I have always had Champagne tastes on Oros money…only before I had wine money and now I have no money)! I’m not quite sure how myself and my husband, Garith survived but somehow we came out of 2016, still good friends and most importantly still married and mostly speaking.

So I guess I should start by apologizing, as the blog wasn’t much of my focus last year, and I hope this year will be better.

Blog plans for 2017

Get Personal – I want to write about more personal things (like this post). I’ve been reading more and more overseas blogs and the thing I love the most is how you get to personally know the person who is writing every day, week or month. So, I want to try that and see how it works for me…I might run out of things but I will try keep it light, interesting with a little humour where I can
Preparation is Key – I want to try be prepared and go back to posting a blog once a week again…this is always a hard one for me, as I am a igniter/starter but not always a follow througher. So, I definitely need to keep working on that. Also, a lot of people do not realize how much work a photographer actually does, but that is for another post
Authentic – I feel that last year was such a hectic year for me, I didn’t spend as much time as I would have liked to being authentic in my posts. I think that needs to change this year!

Personal plans for 2017

Simplify & Minimise – this has already started in my home, I have been trying to slowly go through all my stuff and give away what I can and throw out what I can’t
Exploratory Travel – for me, this means going to one country and seeing as much as I can. This is not something I have done in the past and I just feel like I need to see some of the less travelled roads and places…obviously the main sights too 🙂 So we have booked to a trip to Scotland and one to Croatia (I will post about both of these)
Pleasurable Photography – I’ll call it this, as I spend a lot of time taking photos of what my clients want, this year I would like to spend some time taking photos of the things I enjoy, weather it be a flower in the garden, or some animals in Pilanesburg

Word for 2017

I read a post from another SA blogger (Sharon – The Blessed Barrenness – you must read her blog, it’s brilliant). I read her blog posts religiously. Sharon wrote about her word for 2017 being CLAIM (here is the link to her post – it’s worth a read: My word for 2017 – CLAIM), which also got me thinking what would I want my word to be…I have chosen a strange and rather selfish word, but I think I need it. I have chosen ME.

I feel that 2017 has to be about ME, there is a lot I feel like I need to do on myself and for myself this year. I feel like I have forgotten about ME and just focused and dealt with everything else that has been happening around me:

Getting ME healthy
Getting ME fit
Making my business work for ME and not the other way round
Photographing things that make ME happy
Taking time out to do things with ME
Spending time with ME
And most importantly learning to forgive ME when things don’t go according to plan

I’m not saying that I have more direction now than I did at the beginning of this post, but I’m hoping the mist will start to clear a bit, so I can see and follow the path. So, I wish all of you a fantastic 2017 filled with all the happiness, love, laughter and success you deserve! And, I would love it if you would keep following on my blogging journey, hopefully 2017 will be a fantastic one!