Goal check in – Quarter one!

Can you believe we’re more than a quarter of the way through the year? 2013 is seriously flying by. When I was a kid I always felt like time crawled by and now I find myself constantly wishing time would just slow down. All the more reason to seize the moment and try to live life to the fullest! Anyhoo, since we’re 1/4 of the way through the year I figured it’d be a good time to check in on my 2013 goals- as outlined in early January.

Business Goals

• Photograph 25 weddings in 2013 – when I mentioned this goal in January I had 13 weddings booked for 2013. I now have 23. So close!
• Assist/Second shoot on even more – starting this weekend I’ll be second shooting  a few weddings with Dani Leigh! So excited to work with her! I love her! I also have some second shooting gigs set up with other photographers throughout the year.
• Photograph a birth story – No luck yet, hopefully I’ll get to do this! :)
• More newborns too! – I have one scheduled for May and I can’t wait to meet him!
• Thanks to MD Question 6, attend and/or photograph as many same sex weddings as possible – I have two this year so far and I can’t wait! I love love love both couples.
• Build an office/studio – We’ve been getting estimates from a few different contractors and expect work to happen this month!
• Continue learning and improving! – This one is never-ending, but I can say I’m definitely sticking to it!
• Continue consistently blogging, even when it’s the slow season (winter) and there are fewer sessions to share – I took a hiatus for a few weeks this winter where I didn’t have much to blog about but in general it’s been pretty consistent :)
• Network with more wedding vendors – Working on this actively already! This will really start happening even more once wedding season hits fully.
• Find more wedding venues that I *love* and give them prints and albums to share with prospective couples – As wedding season continues I’ll get this going :)
  

Personal goals

• Leave my full time job either late this year/early next – … stay tuned ;)
• SAVE SAVE SAVE until then – So far so good! We also paid off the car last month so that’s SO helpful.
• Cook more dinners at home – This is hit or miss depending on how busy I am but I’ve been trying new recipes and having fun with cooking again!
• Make being healthy a priority again – I’m dead on with the food aspect. Working out has fell to the wayside with how busy I am right now. That will hopefully improve soon ;)
• Be more positive – I like to think I’m doing pretty good at this one! 
• Although it will be a very busy year between working full time, teaching, my video freelance career and putting in full time hours for my business, I will make more time for quality time with my awesome and supportive husband, Steve. – Fail. :( Sorry babe! This will improve very soon! I love you and I am so lucky to have someone as awesome as you by my side during this crazy time!
• Travel as much as possible this year. – So far we’ve got Mexico under our belt, a trip planned in 2 weeks for California, and OBX later this summer. We are also saving up credit card reward points and cash to do a big trip next year. Possibly/Probably Cairo, Egypt!

So far I’ve been pretty pleased with my progress for this year’s goals and it’s only been a few months! Every session so far this year has been an improvement over the last and I am consistently thrilled with the results. I can’t wait to see what the rest of this year brings :)