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This year, my family started a new tradition of writing our goals down together and sharing them. Even my son is on the bandwagon as he started a journal for his goals and a planner to track them. My daughter uses her planner as both an art journal and a goal keeping tool. I am not sure what cockamamie system my husband has, I just know that he has one and I have a few systems going on at once.
One exercise I find invaluable is reviewing the goals of the previous year and documenting how I did with each one as I plan my goals for the following year. I also have been documenting this annual ritual on my blog as writing goals down and keeping them visible holds me accountable.
Thank you for sharing this journey with me. I would love to hear from you in the comments about how you set goals for the year.
Year in Review
Here is a list of the goals I made for 2016 and how I did with each of them.
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| See blog post The Art of Goal Setting for a deep dive into my 2016 goals |
One error I made last year was too many goals. Early on in the year I saw this problem and intentionally cut out a few of my business goals so that I could focus on my motherhood and my spirituality.
1) New online art classes..
I planned on launching 4 new art classes in 2016: an art journal class which became Painting with Words, a watercolor class which became Farm Animal Spirits, a Handcrafted Holidays course as well as a creative marketing class. In actuality, I did launch 3 new art classes plus a private coaching series to see if I could build that into a course for those wanting to market their art. Since I had bitten off more than I could chew, instead of choking on too much I really only developed three of the four courses. Two of them did exceptionally well and the Handcrafted Holidays course was not as successful ( in terms of profitability) as I had hoped.
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| Outdoor art show… lots of compliments.. but less sales than online |
2) Outdoor Art Fairs.
My goal was to do 3-4 outdoor shows. I actually only did two which was fine as they are very time consuming and difficult on my back. Not even sure why this was a goal.. One of them was very successful and the other venue I will not be going back to.
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| Traveled across the country (for the first time) to Portland, Oregon |
3) Travel
I traveled to Portland, Oregon to see friends and family and also down to North Carolina for an art retreat.
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| painting sold in 2016 (50% supported charity) |
4) Solo Art Shows
I had a successful solo art show in May 2016 and cancelled a planned show in November when I realized I had too much on my plate. ( good decision!!) In 2017, I plan on 1-2 open studios
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| painting sold in 2016 |
5) 50 New Paintings
I don’t think I came even close to this number.. Unfortunately, I didn’t create a good tracking system for myself so I can’t say how many paintings I produced in 2016. I will change that for 2017 and actually track how many new artworks I create.
6) 6 Figure Art business
I did not hit this goal but my net revenue was up 20% in 2016 over 2015.
Goals for 2017
For 2017, I have broken down my goals into three categories: personal development, business and new skills. (although you could say that the new skills are also personal development)
Personal Development
1) Meditation
Although it wasn’t a specific goal in 2016, I began meditation. I also downloaded the “Calm” app which helped me track my progress. Since I downloaded the app in June, I meditated 215 times with the help of their guided meditations.
I introduced meditation to my children and my daughter has started meditating as well. She found it helps her relax before her cello sessions. My son has also started meditating as a sleep aid, although he likes the app “Headspace.”
I want to continue to meditate daily as I found it has both short term and long term benefits for my emotional well being and concentration. My specific goal is to meditate more in 2017 than I did in 2016.
2) Journaling
In 2016, I worked sporadically in my art journal, experimented with the “5 minute journal” app as well as flirted with the practice of morning pages. In 2017, I want to maintain a practice of daily journaling to keep my goals in mind and express gratitude. Specifically, I want to make sure I take the time every month to review and reflect on my month to adjust course.
3) Move my body
I actually have no weight loss goal in mind. My specific goal is simply to make sure I get some form of exercise every day, preferably in the morning. (since if it doesn’t happen then, I know it never happens)
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| A page from my 2016 art journal on Gratitude… |
4) Express Gratitude
This is actually part of the journaling and meditation process, as I want to make to create a daily gratitude practice. Gratitude is also my word for 2017.
Business Goals
1) Upgrade the Inspiration Place
I am investing time and money into the Inspiration Place software platform in order to create a smoother and faster experience for my students. Although they are happy with the old one, students who have been testing the new platform absolutely love it and I want to have a site that represents a high end experience.
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| This painting, that I completed during my North Carolina Art retreat will be the basis of my next series of paintings. |
2) Create 4 new art collections
I plan on creating a new art collection each season. More on this in future blog posts.
3) 6 Figure Art Business.
Yep, it’s back on my goal list. I think if I keep my expenses down and release new and popular art classes regularly I will finally hit this milestone.
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| This painting is also on the easel and in development… can’t wait to share the finished painting with you. This is the type of art I will teach in “Mixed Media Masterpieces” |
4) New Art Classes
This year I am revamping several of my popular art classes to make them better as well as creating a few new ones. You can anticipate a new watercolor class in Woodland Creatures as well as a mixed media course tentatively titled your Mixed Media Masterpiece.
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| My husband HATES this purple lipstick, but it makes me feel like a powerful artist… so I wear it. |
5) Open Studio
I plan on hosting two open studios in 2017. The first one will be June 11th ( I think… waiting to hear when my mom’s 70th birthday party is scheduled). So save the date!
New Skills
“New Skills” is a new category for me which my son came up with. My kids and I have sat down to write our goals & I was so inspired that my kids both made “new skills” a category on their goals list.
My sixteen year old son wrote that he wants to learn a new language & also learn how to drive.
My nineteen year old daughter also wrote that she wants to get her driving license. (finally! goodbye driving my kids around) & also wants to learn how to cook.
Here the new skills I want to focus on
1) Play Bridge
2) Study the Bible ( Torah, or old testament)
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