Tag: accountability

I have heard so many people talking about how long January felt this year, and I have to disagree. January was the break that I needed after an extremely busy fall and before we launch into the craziness of the theatre and senior spring seasons. I am extremely sad to see the month go because I know what is coming. Starting tonight, there will be 5 theatre performances, 3 choir concerts, 2 choir competitions, 2 spring breaks, a choir trip, an art show, 4 birthdays, graduation, and countless parties in the next 5 months. I will be longing for a break by the time we hit May, so I tried to soak in as much down time as I could in January. I actually read 2 books and I have worked on goal setting and my vision for my businesses. I am proud of myself for letting things stay slow as much as possible.

Having said that, I did still have goals I intended to meet, so let’s recap those:

• Get my goals for 2023 and my first quarter goals ready – I am working through 12 Week Year and plan to implement the goals I am working on starting later this month. I am excited about this and can’t wait to share a special goal post about it soon!
• Get matte screen protector for iPad so I can photograph Valentines products and get previews made – This is half accomplished. I have the matte screen protector. I am still stalled on product previews. I am sure that I am making them into something far bigger than they really are.
• At least 1 adventure and 1 create date with blog posts – We did this! It was close, I was worried, but we pulled through.
• Film 12 craft videos for Crafty Phonics – L Sound FLEX class – This is done. In fact, I have all but the last week of posts created/scheduled.
• List a sewing class and a Communicate and Create for the Make Your Year Edventure Conference with classes to continue after – I have listed these classes and several others and not had any enrollments. None of my one time classes have booked in the last year unless they were specifically requested and created for a current student. I have been marketing and tracking stats, so I will be ready to make a new game plan after this month.
• Finish the ACE Educator process – I did not do this. I chose classes and then they all disappeared because a new month started. I feel like this is probably going to happen again, so I better get with it.
• Walk outside or on treadmill 20x – I hit 15 walking workouts in January.
• 12 hikes – finish my last few for 2022 and begin 2023 52 Hike Challenge – I did 3 hikes. I added the two that were technically within a year for 2022 to that year, but then I went ahead and counted them for this year. I make my own rules. I have been struggling with hand pain that gets worse in cold, so I just need to figure that out so I can get out and hike. We have lots of fun hiking planned in March, so I need to build up my stamina before then.
• Make dinner 20x – I am actually pretty sure we hit this. I have been cooking so much more which is good since we have the new budget now.
• Pay off $1500 in debt – We had a car repair that caused us to add about $25 in debt this month in spite of my aggressive payments to our credit cards. We are refilling our emergency fund, so hopefully we will be better equipped to pay for things like this in the future.

I see a lot of growth here. I am at 6/10, which is pretty good compared to the last few months. I have made the decision to just let TpT be for a while and focus on my main income over at Outschool. I have also made the decision not to pursue Allschool since they raised their fees to almost as much as Outschool so there really isn’t any benefit to moving over. With that in mind, here are my goals for February:

• Adventure and Create Dates.
• At least 4 blog posts.
• Get new email list up and running with a freebie.
• A Random Act of Kindness every day.
• $1200 income across businesses.
• 2 new classes – look at insights and topic requests to see what would be best fit.
• Hit 900 learners taught.
• Pay off $1000 in debt.
• Close Stand and Move rings daily.
• 5 hikes to get back on track.

I think this is a good mix of business and personal, and it seems like something I can accomplish. I am actually really excited to have a pretty solid plan for my business and personal life this month.

Do you have any goals for this month? Let me know in the comments so we can support each other and have accountability! 🙂

I am having a very hard time believing we are in a new year – but I am super excited by the possibilities! I am currently working on reflecting on my goals from last year – what went well, what I need to update, what I want to add, what I want to leave behind. I can tell you that I did accomplish so much in the past year. I can also tell you that I had several goals that I did not even start or that I made progress on and then lost the progress. I do think I need to make my yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly goals line up just a little better. There are definitely monthly goals that were lovely but didn’t move the needle on my big goals. There were definitely things I could have been more consistent with. But there were also things I did very consistently and things that did impact my goals in big ways.

Let’s start this month by reflecting on my goals for last month. I think this is going to be a mixed bag because I was very sick for 2 weeks in December, so I did not do anything that wasn’t absolutely necessary. But I know I also tried to plan goals that allowed me time to get ready for the holidays and celebrate with my family, so we shall see….

• Add previews to my Time, Winter, and Arctic products – I did not start this. I am obviously at a block here, so I need to start really small with a goal for January that I can accomplish and that will move this forward.
• Market my January classes on Instagram and Facebook groups to fill my classes – I have been doing this – I need to make a big push this week. I actually have decent enrollments right now for my classes that start next week. It could definitely still get better, though. 🙂
• Add 20 Pinterest pins – I did not start this. Again, I know it is important to move the needle here, but I just need to rethink how it will work.
• Figure out sewing machine logistics in my classroom and list a sewing class – I did not do this. But I do have ideas for a sewing club and will try to get it listed this week.
• Make 4 blog posts – I did 2 blog posts – and then this will be the 4th one for this specific day in the beginning of January. I’m going to count this as a done.
• Hang blinds and plates in my office – I did not start this one. I completely forgot about it, actually. Adding it to my list for this week.
• Send Christmas cards to friends and family – I did this! And they probably even received most of them before Christmas!
• Make dinner 12 times – I am pretty sure I did this as well.
• Hike 4 times – visit 4 winter hike series parks – We visited 4 of the winter hike series parks and we did 7 hikes total in December!
• Do my 20 hours of continuing education for my SLP licensure – I actually ended up doing 22 hours of CE this month.

It looks like I get about a 6/10 on this one. I am super pleased with this because, as I said, I was out of commission for a good chunk of the month. I have been feeling really, really frustrated with having 2 businesses I am trying to grow at the same time recently. When I started my TpT business, I was averaging about $1500-$2000 a month on Outschool. I thought it was stable, so it seemed like it would be easy to maintain while also building my TpT business. Instead, I have really had to put in a lot of time into both. I am feeling stretched and need to find balance there. So, I think adjusting my goals a bit to fit where I am in my businesses and life will really help.

So, for January, while I am still working through goals and my visions for my businesses, I am going to make some pretty simple goals. Here is what I have:

• Get my goals for 2023 and my first quarter goals ready.
• Get matte screen protector for iPad so I can photograph Valentines products and get previews made.
• At least 1 adventure and 1 create date with blog posts.
• Film 12 craft videos for Crafty Phonics – L Sound FLEX class.
• List a sewing class and a Communicate and Create for the Make Your Year Edventure Conference with classes to continue after.
• Finish the ACE Educator process.
• Walk outside or on treadmill 20x.
• 12 hikes – finish my last few for 2022 and begin 2023 52 Hike Challenge.
• Make dinner 20x.
• Pay off $1500 in debt.

I’m not going to lie, a lot of this list is things that is already in progress. I am working through writing my goals. I have chosen the workshops for my ACE educator pillars. I have already hiked twice. I ordered the matte screen protector last night. I am paying bills this morning. But, if I write this list and actually finish the things on it, I know that it will propel me into February with so much momentum. I am excited and hopeful and feel more in control of my businesses already.

What are your goals for January? Do you have goals for this year to share? Let me know in the comments!