2015 planning and new directions

“With each passing moment, a soul sets off to find itself” Rumi

Happy new year, friends! I hope you were able to find a few relaxing moments in the midst of the holidays, and that you have entered January feeling refreshed.

I love the stillness of winter. I love the energy so many of us bring to ourselves, thinking about 2015 planning and deciding how we want to treat ourselves this next year.

A recent walk I took in the woods near our house

I want to live this year with balance and intention, planning out my time strategically and cutting out the chaos that can accompany new years resolutions when they don’t quite fit. I’ve been guilty of this for many years, letting resolutions dwindle away when life got busy, but this was before I truly fell in love with planning.

This year I’ve put all of my goals, to-do lists, dreams, quotes, random ideas, suggestions, and timelines into Evernote, which allows you to keep lots of content organized in one streamlined location. I have an online notebook to keep all of my life goals organized, and another notebook to keep all of my business goals organized. There’s a free version, so check it out if you’re like me and could use a little organizational boost this year.

I’ve also declared that in 2015 I will not let my own fear slow me down. I’ve spent the past week:

• learning more about business accounting, so that I can no longer tell myself that I’m bad at it
• narrowing down my endless list of business goals for marketing, expanding my shop and portfolio, getting my art into physical stores, and building up my website to a solid 7, so that I can break down those goals into achievable monthly, weekly, and daily action steps and log those into Evernote for easy tracking and accountability
• committing to one big, scary, soul-centered creative project

There’s some comfort to keeping your goals safe inside your mind, but as I’ve been learning with my accountability partner Leah (who has a gorgeous business – check her out!), sharing your plans out loud does amazing things for your motivation and dedication.

So, I want to share the one big, scary, soul-centered creative project that I’m going to work on this year:

I’m going to write and paint a children’s book. 

LOVE! I don’t know yet how long it will take me to plan, create, and publish my book, but once the idea came to me, it just clicked. I have always loved books for children of all ages (even as an adult). My parents have countless books from our childhood still in their house, and I love taking moments here and there to pick up a favorite and read. The stories are heartfelt, the illustrations are beautiful, and watching a child discover new worlds through a book has always been one of my favorite things.

This is indeed a dream project, and I’ll be happy to share my progress with you along the way.

If you have any projects, resolutions, or goals you’ll be tackling this year, I’d love to hear about them. Let’s keep each other accountable!

Here’s to a beautiful new start,