San Smith

2009: year in review!

I did a post like this last year for 2008, so I thought it would be nice to do one for 2009 while getting ready for New Year's Eve celebrations!

• describe 2009 with 3 words:
  Oh man... intense, hard & inspiring.

• which concerts did you visit in 2009?
  Obi Best, The Bird & the Bee, No Doubt, and Paramore

• what was your favorite moment in 2009?
  All of it. 2009 was totally amazing - completely life changing in every way. I worked so hard, shared so much love, and grew a lot. Lots of life lessons learned this year.

• which one was your favorite month?
  Oh wow - February when I went to California! I went to an amazing concert, drove all over California with 2 awesome friends and my boyfriend, explored San Francisco, saw great art exhibits (Totoro and Coraline!), and so much more. Lots of snow too at Lake Tahoe - it was exciting!

• most influential people in 2009?
  Hmm - I think I took a lot of inspiration from various illustrators and their progress. I was also inspired by a few ladies due to their fashion and attitude on life: Dita Von Teese, Betsey Johnson, Hayley Williams, and Lauren Luke.

• have you already made plans for traveling in 2010 - and if yes, where to?
  So far the only plans I have are to visit friends in San Francisco and to go to Japan. Nothing is set in stone though! I know I'd like to visit somewhere with snow before Spring...! :)

• best book you read in 2009?
  I wouldn't say it was the best book, but I did enjoy reading the Twilight series paired with the movies. hahah! Oh boy, what a mess.
  
  

• best film you saw in 2009?
  Hmm - maybe Watchmen and Ponyo! I didn't see too many movies this year.

• 5 Musicians you listened to in 2009 too much!
  According to my last.fm: Paramore, Hall & Oates, Taking Back Sunday, Halicali and The Black Ghosts.

• what are you looking forward to in 2010?
  Moving forward with my illustration career, traveling, relaxing, maybe trying new hair colors - who knows! keeping up with my blog, and so much more :)

And one Picture From every Month :
You can view all the photos I shared in 2009 here, but these are my favs:

Hope you all have an amazing New Year's eve!

Making visual goals for 2010: part 3

And here is the final installment in my visual goal posts! (See part 1 and part 2 here.)

How this worked for me

Sure sure, making lists is a lot of fun fluffy ridiculousness. An excuse to be crafty. But does it really work?

I originally made my first visual goals because I was unhappy with my place in life. I was in a bad rut and needed an escape plan! So, what better time to make goals to fix things than New Years eve? I made my first visual list, took a deep breath and then began to slowly follow through as each day passed...

I was skeptical the first year I did this - I didn't fully believe I would actually get anything done. But I did - I accomplished everything on my list!! When I realized with a little hard work and motivation, I could do just about anything... I decided to go with bigger goals that seemed more like unattainable dreams. I made the next year's list with my pal Laila over some coffee, and I remember thinking - Can this really work again??

Well, I have some good news: The goals I made in that cafe a year ago will be fully completed at the end of January 2010... and I will have some exciting stuff to share in February! Yes - it actually worked again! :) How cool is that?

I think its amazing that we can really accomplish anything with a little bit of planning, hard work and motivation. (Saving money and running a blog can be motivating factors too. ;D ) I believe in this so much that I had to share it with you guys. I think life is too short to move forward with out realizing your dreams - so if you are feeling like I did 2 years ago, then please try this out! You've got nothing to lose and will be amazed with what you can accomplish!

Some last little tips to help follow through on your goals:

If you are wanting to do something that involves an activity - such as exercise more, meet more people or learn a skill, then start looking into classes. One year I looked up the cost of yoga classes, knitting lessons, weekend college courses, craft meet ups, etc - wrote down dates they were occurring and set aside money to go to these events. Then I had a set date in mind when I would accomplish something, and what would be needed to do such. Easy! All that was left was to just go to class... ;)

If you are planning for something very large, such as moving far away or starting a new career - then focus on doing some research every month and documenting what you find. Learn how these changes might effect your money and lifestyle, and if anything is required to prepare. For instance - when I thought I wanted to move to San Francisco, every month I looked into cost of housing, career options, chatted with friends and family who lived there on opinions, heck - even visited a few times! I decided I wasn't ready to move yet, but it really gave me a great outlook on what I will need to do when that time comes and how realistic the move is.

WRITE EVERYTHING DOWN. Make lists! This will help keep your mind free, and calm the anxiousness to accomplish something. Every little thought and note is a step forward! A lot of my goals involve planning or saving money, so list making really helps keep me organized and relaxed. I like to make lists of things I need to do during the month and lists of things I'd like to buy... so I can really think them over before indulging in unnecessary spending. Heh!

    

Hope you guys find this helpful and inspiring. Remember, there is no right or wrong way to do this, so take the ideas that work best for you! And as always, remember its OK if you don't accomplish everything on your list. What matters most is having fun and working towards your dreams - every little action counts and helps you grow as a person.

I'll be sharing my goals next week (I'm working on them today!!) so until then, good luck goal planning and please do share if you try this out! I would love to see everyone's lists and journals.

Making visual goals for 2010: part 2

Lets make some visual goals!

Welcome to part 2 of making visual goals! (Click here to see part 1.) In this post I will walk you through the steps I take when planning my goals for the upcoming year.

Step 1: To start off, I try to review what I've done through out the year and make a list of 10 things I am proud to have accomplished. I do this to feel a little more confident about setting new goals since it helps me see that I've gotten some neat stuff done! Then I write a brief summary on what direction I'd like to move towards in the new year. I chose to put 3 items down for the moment: Improve quality of life, work towards being self employed, and make more arts and crafts.

Step 2: Now that I can see some of my accomplishments and dreams, I start to move toward the meatier part of the goal planning. Evaluating who I am, who I want to be, what exactly my goals are, and how the heck am I going to get there. That is a lot of information to tackle, so lets first start with, Who do I want to be? I typically have a pretty good idea of who I am, but I feel like my interests change a little bit every year due to growing older, learning more, etc. When I'm trying to figure out where I'm heading as a person, I make a list of people I'm admiring or that inspire me on a sheet of paper separate from my notebook.

Step 3: After I finish the list of inspirational people, I write a number next to each person's name. On a second sheet of paper I write only the numbers for the names and then write a few reasons why that person is inspiring next to each number. Once I've completed my list of reasons, I stash the first list of names in a mini envelope, or tape it under a piece of cardboard so it can't easily be viewed.

The second list is the important one - read over it and see how many repeated factors you wrote down. Those repeated items are likely things that you aspire to be or do! I typically take that information and pair it with the 3 loose goals I wrote down earlier to build my final list of what I want to accomplish in the upcoming year.

Step 4: On two blank pages in your notebook make a calendar to cover the amount of time you will be working towards your goals. My original goals covered a span from August 2008 to January 2010, so I made 18 boxes (one for each month). As each month passed I wrote down things I accomplished that I found noteworthy. A few examples from my first month: Came up with new goals, increased site traffic, had freelance work coming in, visited with friends, etc. It doesn't have to be life changing stuff - just write things you are excited about or proud of! By doing this, you can keep track of the progress you make and it will help you see that you are moving forward.

And thats it! You now have your goals, a personal review and a goal tracker to document progress. I like to keep my notebook with me at all times so I can look at it when I'm feeling down or frustrated. I find it can be very motivating to see the progress on the goal tracker, or review the notes I took about who I'm working to become! Also - I recommend half way through the year you re-evaluate where you are going with your goals to refresh your view and re-motivate yourself to move forward. You can see below the different versions of my goal evaluations over the past two years.

Hopefully this is helpful and has inspired you to try to make your own visual list of goals. :)
Click here for Part #3!

brrrr

Now that I'm back from vacation, I'm trying to finish up a freelance project that is due today... but my office is SO cold!!! :( I'm using a cup of tea to heat my fingers and nose right now. I feel like I'm turning into a snow man! Brrrr! I have two pairs of socks on, fingerless gloves, a giant scarf, two shirts, pants and a dress. Why am I still cold!?? Ridiculous!

As soon as I'm done working I'm going to go run around outside to warm up! Maybe make some tasty warm dinner. Hope you guys are doing well and staying warm. I'm excited to share my second post on goal making tomorrow!

Making visual goals for 2010: part 1

For the past 2 years, I've been making visual lists for my life goals. I wrote a blog post in 2008 on how to do this, but I thought I'd go over it again in a three part post to help you guys make your own lists and also share how this has helped me accomplish my dreams.

If you don't know what a visual list is, I cover the subject in my old post. I think visual lists work well with creative types because not only does it display all the information in front of you that you are trying to capture, but it allows you to use your imagination while working through building that list! Each piece put together symbolizes something to you and helps you connect deeper with your goals.

My visual list of goals to accomplish by January 1, 2010 -

#1

and #2

Why do I have two lists? Half way through the year, I re-visited the goals I made to see if they were still working well with the direction I was heading in life. Luckily they were, so it only required a little bit of tweaking... I found the consistent things I wanted to focus the most on were working towards being self-employed, putting bright color back in my wardrobe (and hair!), becoming more content with myself/finding a spiritual side to life (yoga, meditation, and fortunes/good luck even if its silly!) and being a positive hard worker. They aren't perfect little lists - but I find whats most important is that I work fast while inspired and get my ideas down with out over thinking things!

So - are you interested in making your own visual list for 2010? Got some goals you want to accomplish?

What you will need:

• An empty notebook/sketch book you can work in. I prefer the Moleskine pocket sketch notebook.
• Markers, pens, pencils, crayons, highlighters, etc. Whatever you feel most comfortable writing and doodling in.
• Tape or glue
• A small envelope or a small piece of card stock paper
• Optional: Inspirational photos, magazine clippings, interesting papers or scraps, quotes, fortune cookie papers, stickers, etc. to motivate you!

Ready? Click here for Part #2!