My Personal and Business goals and intentions for 2023

It doesn’t feel right to me to start off the new year without thanking you for being here. Whether it’s your first time stumbling across the blog or if you’ve been a long-time supporter of my biz, I am so beyond grateful for you and your time. I know it’s an active choice to allow people into your space online and in social media so truly, THANK YOU for allowing me to pop up on your feed and in your inbox every so often!

If you can’t tell, today’s blog post is all about goal and intention setting in the new year. I am by no means an expert on this topic but it is something that I set aside time to do at the beginning of every year and I find that it helps narrow my focus for the year to come.

Word of the year

The first thing I do when it comes to setting goals is choose my word for the year. In the past, I’ve chosen Growth, Appreciation, and Intention as my words. For 2023, as you can tell by the title of this blog entry, my word is Wellness. Choosing a word each year allows me to really get deep and think about what that word means to me personally and then from there I am able to set goals centered around that word and what I hope it can manifest in my life.

wellness (n.) : the quality or state of being healthy in body and mind, especially as the result of deliberate effort.

So this year, I am focused on Wellness. Not necessarily, fitness, or being healthy, or a number on the scale, but wellness in my day-to-day life. I want to truly take care of myself so that my head and heart and pure and so that I can approach all aspects of my life, work, relationships, and faith as my best self.

setting the goals and tracking the goals

I find that if I take time to look at the definition of my word of the year and really digest it, I can start to think about the kind of person I want to be and how exactly I want that word to look in MY life. Something to remember when setting your goals: your version of success should be yours, not someone else’s. The way that I look at wellness could be wildly different than how you view wellness and that is more than okay. So for me, when I think about what wellness looks like in my life it looks a lot like:

• Less screen time

• More time with friends, family and Matt

• Rest. True, guilt-free rest.

• Making time for a hobby

• Learning new things and absorbing new information

• An awareness of my physical health and my body, but not an obsession with it

• An awareness of my diet, but not an obsession with it

• Enjoying my work but also being aware of burnout

• Days off just because

• Saying no to preserve my peace

• No guilt for taking care of me when needed

• Less hurry, less rushing

• Making memories with my husband

• Traveling somewhere new

• Creating healthy habits and actually sticking to them

• Freedom from financial stress

Now that I’ve thought through how wellness FEELS for me, I can set goals around these feelings so that I can actually feel them and see them come to fruition in my life. I also like to separate my goals into personal and work goals so that I can achieve wellness in both of the core areas of my life. The goals don’t have to be lofty, but totally can be, I mean shoot for the stars, but also keep in mind small actions or steps that you can maintain throughout the year.

When it comes to tracking goals, there are a few ways you can do this! First things first, write down your goals in a place where you know you will be able to look back on them and check in! As far as actually tracking your goals/progress, Notion has a free Habit Tracking Template, you can bullet journal, or you can use a habit tracking app on your phone. Tracking my goals is where I tend to struggle, but right now I am using the Notion template as my guide as well as a small written tracker in my Get to Work Book Planner.

THE GOALS: How I want to achieve wellness in my personal life

• Daily movement of some sort and 100 Peloton workouts throughout the year: Last year, I recorded 84 workouts using Peloton and I feel like 100 is a number that I can actually chase and SEE. Outside of a workout, I want to be active in some way every day: whether it’s a walk, a stretch, or a full-blown HIIT workout.

• Unplugged and in bed by 9:30pm on weekdays: Gone are the nights of late-night working and scrolling without aim (hopefully lol)!

• Find a new hobby and not another biz opportunity: I’ve been so lucky that my hobby turned into my passion which then turned into my work however, it’s time to introduce something new into my life JUST FOR FUN.

• Develop a strong evening routine: I nailed my morning routine last year so this year I am focused on actually TURNING off.

• Daily journaling and reflection: This year I am using The 5 Minute Journal to try and stick to this goal. Practicing gratitude is something that I used to do regularly and throughout the hustle and bustle, I stopped. I feel lighter and less anxious when I can let go of what isn’t serving me and stop to be grateful for all that I do have and my favorite way to do this is through writing.

• 2-3 intentional date nights with my husband per month: We spend so much time together, I mean he literally works right next to me and travels with me to the majority of my shoots/weddings, but being mindful and intentional with our time together this year is very important to me. They say to never stop dating your spouse.

• Host friends or throw a dinner party at least once a month: Over 2022, I found that I get a lot of joy from hosting friends at our home. Whether it’s inviting them over for a game night or dinner party, I want to see more of this and set aside true time for it each month.

• Meal plan on non-travel weeks: When I’m not on the road, I want to be intentional with how I fuel my body! Cooking meals at home not only saves $$$ but I personally feel more nourished after eating a meal at home. I find that it has a huge effect on my energy levels and let’s be honest… my gut health! Gina Homolka from SkinnyTaste has some amazing recipes, cookbooks, and meal plans that are easy to follow.

THE GOALS: How I want to achieve wellness in my WORK life

• Hire on an additional SPC team member: This is the biggest goal for 2023. Last year, I was able to bring on a few contractors that helped free up my time and I want to feel that even more this year. I have a creative assistant on my team right now and it’s been incredible. Ideally, in 2023, I would love to bring on a full-time second shooter OR SMM so that I can free up some of my time and room in my mental filing cabinet!

• No more “heavy-work” after 5PM and no more work PERIOD after 7:30pm: Another lofty goal, cause well deadlines are a thing but I feel like creating these boundaries in my work life will allow for more play in my personal life. I also feel like this boundary will keep me focused and deliberate throughout my workday!

• 1 hour of learning every weekday: Whether it’s taking time to read a business or self-help book, dive into a course, or learn something new in my field, I want to continue education somehow this year.

• 1 guilt-free off day per week: One of the top reasons most people go into entrepreneurship is for time-freedom. Rather than packing my schedule out every day of the week, I want to allow myself one day to just exist and take a beat. This will likely change per week based on shoot schedules, meetings, weddings and travel.

• $10k+ last year’s revenue: I’ll keep the numbers hush, but last year I was able to crush a revenue goal in my business that I’ve been chasing for some time now. I want to keep the momentum going so that I am able to have that freedom from financial stress I mentioned earlier and so that I can potentially bring someone on to my team.

• Show more of my personal life to you: Hence this blog post! Cultivating relationships has always been at the forefront of everything I do. My goal is for you to feel like you know me before we ever have the chance to work together and I feel like letting you in on some personal things in my life is an awesome way to do that!

That pretty much sums up my approach to 2023. I feel like my goals are attainable but will also challenge me quite a bit but discomfort is how you grow so they say! Here’s to a year full of achieving wellness and showing up as our best and most-whole selves!

All love!

xx, steph