Happy Monday! I hope your holidays were wonderful and that you’re gearing up for a truly awesome 2015. 🙂 Last week was a pretty great one for me, because I got to connect with a lot of people I love. First, I met up with some old co-workers. We worked at a gelato store together for about 5 years while we were in high school and college and they feel like brothers and sisters to me. I hadn’t seen them since before I left for Japan over three years ago, so it was really great to reconnect.

I also got to share some ideas and get feedback from my friends Jess and Naadine during a planning meeting we had. It was our first of its kind, but we’re going to try to do it every couple weeks to stay on track with our goals. I’m super excited!

Lastly, I got to spend Christmas with my mom and Paul’s sweet family. It was a great day! 🙂 Here’s a pic of Paul and I with his cute little dog, Moomoo! Also, here’s Monja unwrapping the present that Paul gave him. Monja LOVES eating paper, and at first we were like “awww look he’s unwrapping it, how cute!” But then he’d run away with a wad of wrapping paper in his mouth, thinking he just scored a new snack. It was pretty hilarious. We eventually got him to open the real gift though — even better!

Now for some goal-setting! Last year, I set a multitude of goals I was hoping to accomplish before the end of 2014. Now that this year is nearing its end, it’s time to revisit all those dreams and see how I did in achieving them. Looking back on what I set out to do, I feel good about what I was able to finish, though there are certainly a few lingering dreams that have yet to be met. I’ve also got a whole mess of new goals I’m working on for 2015. Read on to see exactly how I did and what I’ll be reaching for in the new year! What are your goals for 2015?

Revisiting My 2014 Goals

I set numerous business, blogging, and life goals during 2014. Here’s a shortlist of goals I was able to tick off my list this year:

• Go to a blogger conference. I ended up going to two: Alt Summit and Elevate. 🙂
• Create a flow + process for my business. When 2014 began, I had barely started my graphic design studio and was still warming up to everything it involved. Now, I feel confident and comfortable running my business and working with clients.
• Make at least $50k before taxes. I actually surpassed this goal, and for my first year in business, I feel really good about that. 🙂
• Launch Special Projects #1 and #2. I was purposely vague when I shared those goals, because I can feel nervous about putting myself out there. Now, I’ll tell you. One of those projects referred to my print shop, which I did end up opening. Maintaining it took a lot more time and work than I was expecting, and being busy with my design studio and blog, decided it was best to close it. I do feel proud of myself for putting myself out there and trying though! I also have some ideas for how to incorporate products again one day. 🙂 As for the second project? A magazine. I’d love to do that in the future, but 2014 wasn’t the year. 🙂
• Read at least 10 books. Yes! I haven’t reviewed all of them, but you can see what I thought of most of my 2014 reads here and here.
• Travel to at least three states I’ve never been to. I went to Miami, Florida, Portland, Oregon, and Salt Lake City, Utah. I’ve been to Miami before, but let’s just count it, k? 😉
• Come to terms with my life in the US. If you remember, I moved back to California from Japan in November, 2014. The adjustment was difficult at first, but I do feel a lot more comfortable and happy about being back in the US now.
• Try yoga. Yeah! I tried it out only a couple months ago, but I’ve been really loving it ever since. 🙂

Blogging + Business Goals for 2015

1. Launch my upcoming eCourse and have at least 50 people sign up. I just had a super motivating planning meeting with some blogger/business friends, and feeling really confident about this project now! 🙂
2. Create a solid social media routine. I mourn the days that I used to be good at social media (circa one year ago). I felt a lot more connected to the blogging and design community, simply because I spent a lot of time chatting with people on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. I definitely want to get back into that and will also be working with an assistant to help me promote posts when I’m busy. I’m excited to whip this part of my blog and business back into shape!
3. Collaborate more. Mmmm vague. I’m keeping this one simple, but I’d love to collaborate more with other bloggers, business owners, and brands. Blogging is most fun when done with others! 🙂
4. Increase TNC’s number of subscribers. Since specific goals are important, I’d love to reach 15,000 Bloglovin’ subscribers, 10,000 Instagram followers, and 5,000 newsletter subscribers. Kind of lofty goals for me, but I find it more encouraging to reach too high and not quite make it than to reach too low and completely exceed your expectations.
5. Send a newsletter every week. Newsletter? What’s that? Bah! I’ve been terrible at sending them, though I definitely want to. It’s my goal to do them once a week. Any newsletters you love?
6. Get back into the blogging groove. This time last year? I wouldn’t dream of posting here less than five days a week. But blogging has been getting away from me lately, and that is no bueno! Maybe it means I take on less clients or maybe it means I set aside one day a week strictly for blogging, but I know that blogging means something special to me and that I don’t want this space to fall by the wayside.
7. Reach 300,000 monthly pageviews and 150,000 monthly visitors. That’s about double of what we’ve done during the best months of 2014, but I’m hopeful! 🙂
8. Try “co-working.” Co-working is where you essentially pay a membership fee in order to use a facility to do your work. It’s like an office, but almost everyone is a freelancer and usually instead of individual offices, everyone has access to desks and tables in a bigger, open space. It may sound like a glamorous library, but there are some gorgeous co-working spots in LA and I think it’s exactly what I need in order to meet other designers and bloggers around town. Working from home is great most of the time, but I do look forward to being surrounded by more people a couple days a week.
9. Publish an e-book. This isn’t yet in the works, but I do have some ideas I’d love to pursue next year!

Life goals for 2015

1. Move to LA. I think I’ve officially decided to move from Orange County up to LA. It’s only about an hour away, but a lot different from where I currently live. I’m excited for something new!
2. Train Monja to be more calm. At this point, Monja is a great house dog. He’s calm at home and a pleasure to have around. But when we get outside? Mayhem. The worst of it is when he barks and growls ferociously at other dogs and kids. He goes nuts. I know this could become problematic — and I’d love to take him out with me more often without having to worry — so I’ve found a trainer that I think can help us. I’m looking forward to seeing our progress next year.
3. Make my new apartment feel like a home. I won’t be moving until the end of February, but I’ve found that I tend to do this thing called not decorating. I put up a couple things here and there, but mostly I leave my walls bare and don’t put enough effort into where I live. I actually love decorating, and I know the reason I don’t do it is because I always feel like things won’t be permanent — that I’ll probably move again soon anyways, so what’s the point? But spending a day taking down decorations seems well worth it to reside in a space that feels like home, doesn’t it?
4. Go skydiving. This was one of my 2014 goals that I didn’t accomplish, but I still really want to try it! Have you ever gone skydiving?
5. Read all of the books on this list. 
6. Visit Japan. I miss Japan more than I thought I would. I’d love to go back and visit before I forget too much of it and while I can still speak some Japanese.
7. Rebuild stronger friendships. I had a lot of great friendships in college, and still keep in touch with most of them, but after moving to Japan and coming back to California, I realize I need to put more effort into maintaining the same level of friendship I once had with them. Many of the people I used to connect with and see regularly are now once-in-a-blue-moon friends, or less. This has been one of my biggest struggles this past year and something I intend to put more effort into in 2015.
8. Save at least 10% of my income. 

What will you be striving for in 2015?

 WEEKLY WISHES LINKUP RULES

1. Share your posts about your goals, challenges, or wishes for the week, month, year, decade, whatever! Entries completely unrelated to the theme or linked to your homepage will be deleted. 

2. Link back to this site so others can get their goal-setting on, too! You can use the button below if you’d like!

<div align="center"><a href="https://www.melyssagriffin.com/tags/weekly-wishes/" title="The Nectar Collective" target="_blank"><img src="https://www.melyssagriffin.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Weekly-Wishes-Button.jpg" alt="The Nectar Collective" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

 

3. You can link up your posts on any day of the week, but the most common day to do so is Monday.

4. THE MOST IMPORTANT RULE OF ALL! You MUST visit the person’s blog who linked up directly before you and leave them a motivating comment. This is such an important part of this linkup! We are each here to encourage each other and build a community of determined women and friends. 🙂 If you do not do this, your post will be deleted from the link-up.

p.s. My 2014 Goals + How to Get Shit Done Even When You’re Totally Unmotivated