Well, 2020 has started off nicely. Social media has gotten done, and I spent the month ahead on blogs. I’ve found the motivation to do the things I need to do, thanks to accountability from my boyfriend who is amazing. I’ve always done better with another person in it with me. Goals come easier when I know there is accountability and I know there is someone actively participating with me. For a long time, I thought there was something wrong with me that I couldn’t handle such tasks on my own, but now I see that dreams and goals were never meant to be done alone. I’ve accomplished some big things (for me) this month. Here’s what I’ve been up to:
Doing hard things means setting goals. The red journal is for tracking my goals. If you don’t track your goals, get yourself a goals journal and start.
DOING THE HARD THINGS WITH DISCIPLINE AND INTEGRITY.
And then make them easier. One of the hardest things for me to do in my business is anything money-wise. I like collecting and depositing paychecks. I don’t like bookkeeping. I don’t like taxes. I don’t like any of that. I know I’m not alone in that. Nobody likes that stuff. The week of the 6th, I sat down and updated my books for 2019, and prepared the things I need for taxes. It wasn’t fun, but I found that I finished the year stronger than I thought, found some new things to work on, and none of it was as bad as I thought. I also established a better system for my bookkeeping. The last weekday of every month, I have dedicated part of the day to housekeeping tasks like evaluating analytics to determine if any changes need to be made to my online marketing strategy and updating my books for the month. The one tool that I hope will make this all easier is Quickbooks! I’m not getting paid for saying nice things about Quickbooks. I’m not that big of a deal, but so many people have recommended it to me, and I finally came to the conclusion that I shouldn’t be running my business without it.
CONNECTING.
I really struggle to ask for help. I always think I can do it all on my own, and that almost always turns out to be a mistake. So it was a big deal to ask my friend Christa at Hap’s Air Service to help me set up and learn Quickbooks. I did it, and she agreed. It’s going to be so refreshing to have a better system of tracking my finances. I mean, before it was just a basic spreadsheet. Before that, it was a paper ledger. It was just messy and disorganized, and I’m hoping QB will make this task that I hate so much be less of a pain in the butt. If you have anything to say about QB, leave it in the comments! I’d love to hear other people’s experiences with it.
Work party at Burgie’s!
WORKING 40 HOURS A WEEK.
After the holidays this is a struggle. I seriously just want to lay in bed and eat junk food. When they say January is like one big long Monday, I totally understand the sentiment. Mondays are always great for me. I love the fresh start, and I’m always eager to get back to work. However, January is different. I’ve just spent a month gorging myself on meat and cookies, so pardon me if all I want to do is nap. One great thing about my boyfriend’s presence in my life is that he is very driven and ambitious. He’s a hard worker and is well-disciplined. This is a great influence in my life. At least once a weekend, we have a work session. This month has come with lots of me distracting him by lip-syncing Ed Sheeran lyrics while he’s trying to get things done. Staying focused is a challenge, but I’m still getting work done. Even if it is in a pretty obnoxious fashion.
NEW CAMERA + GEAR
I’ve been wanting to shoot 100% full-frame for a while, and this month I found that I had the funds to make the purchase that I’ve been eyeing for about two years. I purchased the Canon 5D Mark IV to accompany me and my 5D Mark III to every shoot. While I’m sad to be retiring my 40D as it was a gift from my father, it will be good to have my 40D not be connected to my business. If something were to go wrong, such as a lawsuit or, heaven forbid, I have to sell all my assets, I don’t want something so meaningful to me to be at risk of losing. In addition to my 5D4, I also purchased a 35mm prime lens, which I can’t wait to be able to use with my weddings this year. With all this new gear, I needed a place to store it, so I bought a new camera bag, which will also make things easier on wedding days.
All in all, January is actually not a bad month to get things done. It’s cold and miserable which is an excuse to work in my sweats. That’s probably not the most professional thing to say on a blog, but I’m not going to hide it. I dig my sweats and in January. It’s just cozy. Throw in some hot tea and some cats destroying the house and I’ve got the workday underway.
Cheers, kids.
Emma