I’m not a big resolution maker. I tend to attempt to live the life I want to lead on a day-to-day, month-to-month, year-to-year basis. I don’t normally say this year I’m ___(insert changed behavior here)____, because in general – I think I’m doing what I would like to be doing. And if I’m not – the dawning of a new year isn’t going to suddenly make me wake up early and go running every morning. (But that’s just me.) 🙂
However, I’ve come to realize ‘Life Lists’ are a very different thing. They aren’t about resolving to change something about you or your life – they’re more about putting your dreams & aspirations out there for you and the world to see – in hopes that perhaps it will help you to actually do these things in the future. I’ve never made such a list. I think partly because I was afraid to put it out there like that, and also partly because I just didn’t see the point in it. But now, I’m really wishing I had made a list – because I could have crossed things off it last year!
- Go full-time with my photography business (check!)
- Shoot a destination wedding (check!)
- Be featured on a nationally televised TV program (check!)
- Own/train a puppy (check!)
- Travel to a different country alone (check!)
So many fun things I could have crossed off the list (but it only lived in my head, so I can’t – phooey).
So now – I’m going to go ahead and make a list – and I’m going to add to it as I think of more things. Some of these are things I hope to do in the next month, some are in the year, and some are things I hope to do in my lifetime (fyi).
- Finish decorating my office.
- Travel abroad (Ireland, Italy, Spain, Greece, France… you name it. I’ve never been anywhere but Mexico internationally!)
- Shoot a wedding abroad (see above).
- Get my work published on a blog.
- Get my work featured in a magazine.
- Host a workshop.
- Streamline my business.
- Hire an employee and/or intern.
- Take a road-trip around the USA (so many great places here to see that James and I haven’t yet – James has his heart set on the Grand Canyon.)
- Visit the east coast/meet James’ extended family.
- Have a baby (or 3)
- Design & print our own wedding album. (Yeah, we haven’t yet… oops)
- Write a wedding graduate post for A Practical Wedding.
- Get accounting software & develop a regular system for inputting information to it! (Yeaaaaah… need this badly.)
- Swim in the Mediterranean Sea.
- Train Chloe to STAY.
- Develop a better organizing system for personal photos.
- Print personal photos & put in albums! (No more Facebook as my album. No no no.)
- Sell our 2nd car.
- Go to a cabin somewhere with a fireplace, a hot tub on a deck, and snow falling outside. (I’m seriously missing winter this year! I need this!)
- Meet all the lovely APW ladies I’m friends with online in real life!
- Mentor someone.
- Get an IL license and transfer our car to IL plates. (Can I get in trouble for putting this online? I’ve been here for 6.5 years. Oops!)
- Buy a home (preferably with a backyard).
- Grow my own garden.
- Renew our vows/throw a big wedding-like party again. Because we like weddings. (Obviously.)
- Be the kind of person my grandma would be proud of.
- Take social media breaks more often.
- Volunteer to take photos of pets up for adoption at a shelter.
- Get out my Mamiya and shoot film again.
I’m certain there are lots of things I’m forgetting – so I’m going to try to update this regularly & (hopefully) cross a few things off along the way!
And because no post is complete without photos… here are a few pics from our NYE dinner party we threw! (If you could call it that… haha. It was *pretty* low-key, but we had fun!) However, I’m completely bummed that I did not get any photos of me and James together, or of my new dress I got just for NYE! 🙁 Another time my friends… another time.
Here’s to a happy and healthy 2012!! 🙂
