31 Before 31 Goals Recap

31 Before 31 Goals Recap

It’s that time of year again. No, not pumpkin spice season. Today is my birthday! I turned 31 in the wee hours of this morning. We are kind of Event’d out, though, so not doing anything big. Ian has something small planned for tonight, and then tomorrow we’re doing dinner out with a group of friends. Low-key, just how I like it!

So, my annual check-in. Last year, I made a pretty ambitious list of goals to complete before this birthday. Then, of course, life happened. In some very good ways (got engaged and married!) and bad ways (finding out my mom had cancer, my car ceasing to function). That wreaked a bit of havoc on my ambitions, understandably. So here’s a recap of what I had intended to get done this year:

Original 31 Before 31 List

  1. Take a vacation with just Ian. Double! We went to the Grand Canyon (where we got engaged) and then to Europe (for our honeymoon).
  2. Get to see my little sister. Yes! She came to Austin for the wedding and was my maid of honor.
  3. Create a lookbook for the screen printing shop. Nope. Not even a little. The shop really took a backseat this year with all of the wedding craziness.
  4. Query 6 local shops about stocking my work (breaking into wholesale!). Nope, same reason as above.
  5. Pay off my credit card debt. Ha. Ah hahahahah. I was making progress on this. And then not working 6 weeks this year + wedding + needing a new car = NOPE.
  6. Open a retirement account. No. But this is getting moved to next year’s list.
  7. Make this blog responsive. Nope, didn’t get to it. This blog, like the shop, took a backseat.
  8. Reach 200 sales in the screen printing shop, and 75 sales in the digital shop. Wow, no, not even close. But again, I wasn’t tending my shops at all.
  9. Design a calendar for sale. Nope. Would still like to do this, though. Going on the next list.
  10. Launch a digital papers section in the digital shop. Nope. And not sure I’ll still do this.
  11. Complete my 2014 50/50 challenge and up the goal for 2015. I did finish my 2014 goal. And I intended to up my 2015 goal, but, again, wedding planning. My goal for 2015 is an even hundred, which I’m behind on but hope I can still catch up.
  12. Clean out my office closet & desk. I did do a pretty thorough clean out of my desk. But then it got messy again, and I didn’t get to the closet.
  13. Paint my office purple. *sigh* Nope.
  14. Come up with packaged service offerings for my design business – descriptions and prices. Yes! Did this one. You can see here.
  15. Add 6 new digital prints to the digital shop. Nope. Again, shops = backseat.
  16. Create 6 new screen designs. Nope.
  17. Write one new Yelp review per month for local places I love. I did this for awhile, then forgot about it.
  18. Make tortillas from scratch and/or bake bread from scratch (not banana bread type thing, but actual, honest-to-goodness-yeast-needing bread). Nope.
  19. Apply to 2 big craft shows. Ain’t nobody had time for that this year.
  20. Find 6 local business I want to work with and approach them about design services. Nope.
  21. Complete the Duolingo programs for Spanish and Irish. I was making progress on this, then honeymoon started coming together, and I focused on learning some basic Italian. Duolingo tells me I am 10% fluent in Irish, 17% fluent in Italian, and 22% fluent in Spanish (this last is probably higher, just haven’t gone through all of the lessons).
  22. Finish my two hand lettering classes on Skillshare. Nope.
  23. Go through all of my bookshelves and make a pile of books to give away or trade in. Nope. Still need to do this.
  24. Stainless steel-ify the fridge (finally – I’ve had the stuff to do this for awhile). Yeah, I think this is just not gonna happen.
  25. Wear my Lumo Lift posture coach more consistently (3x per week minimum). Nope.
  26. Buy myself an HP Envy x360 without increasing debt. Did not get one.
  27. Save $1,000 for a deposit on a new car. I intended to do this, but then my old car died. So no longer relevant?
  28. Sew 6 new items of clothing (use that fabric stash!) Nope.
  29. Go to TxSC 2015 Camp. Yes! I did this.
  30. Find & acquire the perfect purple necklace. Still looking.
  31. Make all of the hand-me-down recipes (from my mom and grandma) in my recipe box that I’ve never tried. Nope. This was the year of frozen meals and fast food. Too much tired for experimental cooking.

I know that looks pretty dismal, but keep in mind these:

Unexpected Noteworthy Things Before 31

  1. Got engaged.
  2. Planned a wedding.
  3. Got married.
  4. Went on a honeymoon.
  5. Bought a new car.
  6. Worked with a business coach.
  7. Got a professional headshot done.
  8. Re-branded, re-launched and LLC’d my design business.
  9. Got a professional bra fitting, and learned the correct size bra I’m supposed to be wearing.
  10. Did dog training classes with Sienna so she could be in our wedding.
  11. Visited my mom for 2 weeks: went to a chemo treatment with her, and helped her pick our her fabulous wig.
  12. Reconnected with my baby sister who hadn’t talked to our family in five or so years.

Yeah. It’s been a CRAZY BUSY FULL year so far. Of the original goals, it stands at 4 completed, 5 partially done, and a whopping 22 incomplete. Not a good showing. But if you add on the unexpected items, that’s 12 more completed things, some of them pretty darn major. Plus I’m giving myself bonus points for finding the most adorable stock photo ever for that image up top. So overall I don’t feel too bad about the state of my goals list over this past year of my life. Some things take priority when then come up. If you want to see what have in mind for this coming year, stop back tomorrow. 🙂

How’s this year going for you? Do you make goals lists? Are you knocking things off it?

About

Hi, I’m Amanda!

I’m a self-employed graphic designer by day, and a crafty hungry bookworm by night. Dragonflight Dreams is where I write about books, recipes, internet goodies, life things, crafty projects, Austin happenings, and more.

Thanks for stopping by!

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