Goals.

{Soar}

Before the summer began, I sat down and wrote some goals for this space and my shop. Although I'm pretty good at setting short-term goals or being self-motivated, I struggle with seeing the big picture.

Rather, I struggle with allowing myself to make big goals or dream big. Sometimes, it's easier to make lots of short-term and easily attainable goals rather than set my hopes high and focus on larger, more difficult goals.

I know that I could make goals like have x amount of followers by x/xx/xx or make x many sales by x/xx/x. 

Although I don't believe that these are wrong goals, I knew that these goals might distract me from what I really wanted.

And then that got me thinking...so what do I want? 

I think this sums it up for me:

For my my blog:

I want my blog to be authentically my voice and a place of encouragement. I want to worry less about what people may think and more about sharing truth and life. I want people to read my blog because they want to and they enjoy it. I also want to connect with real people across the Internet and truly represent myself.

For my shop:

I want to focus on a few strong products and only create or collect what I enjoy. I also want to have a sustainable budget that includes giving, paying myself, supplies, etc.

For me, these are more mission-statement goals, but I do have a vision/goal that I'm a little sheepish to share. I'm actually a bit afraid of it.

I want it to work. 

More plainly, I'd love for this blog space and shop to produce a little extra income for us. But, my first two goals are more important to me than extra income.

In fact, I'd rather have those goals fulfilled than be making money with a fake voice, under-handed motives, or making items that I don't love. At the same time, I do hope (in the future) that these goals are the catalyst for more concrete goals such as extra income (even if it just pays for coffee dates and gas). 

Anyway, as I thought about these things, I created a goal list for this summer with more tangible goals. Here they are in a nutshell:

1. Comment on more blogs. Since I often read a post and enjoy it, why not make a better effort to let them know. I know everyone appreciates comments :) (still learning to do this better!)

2. Think about joining twitter (and I did!)

3. Access whether to begin sponsorship on this blog. If so, what do I envision with this? (doing the guinea pig sponsorship this month to help me figure this one out!)

4. Think about starting a  monthly link party or join someone else in creating one. If so, what would you focus on? (yep. still thinking about this and whether I want to do it or not)

5. Have fun! (still having fun!)

6. Do a monthly giveaway (perhaps September...)

7. Shoot all new photos for the shop (did that!)

8. Work on uniformity in the shop (I think it's improved!)

9. Start selling two new products (in the shop now!)

10. Sign up for Influence (I'm on the list!!!!)

I still struggle on learning how to set more long-term goals, but I think it's because I want this blog/shop to grow organically (that sounds fancy, but I simply mean I don't want to use a lot of gimmicks to get people to follow me or read my blog). Even though I do advertise, I do it to connect with potential new readers, but I truly only want people to follow/read my blog if they enjoy it. For that reason, I want my blog to be a happy space that people want to spend time in! Yet, I know it's not everyone's cup of tea :) 

And that's okay!

So, does anyone have any good advice about setting more long-term goals?

Do you guys think that having short-term and long-term goals/vision for your blog or shop is important? If so, why? 

Do you have goals?

ps. I'm sorry this post was a bit long and chatty! I think a lot of it is self-reflection :)