2017 Recap + Goals For 2018

My Look: Sweater | Denim | Boots | Similar Boots | Similar Boots

Another year has a come and gone. What I think is so crazy about a year is it goes by SO fast, yet when you really go sit down and think about where you were in January a year ago and compare it to where you are now…it does make the year seem longer and you really see how much has changed or how many different things you’ve gone through.

This time last year my goals and ambitions were a little fuzzy. I was blogging and knew I loved it and wanted it to grow and become my full time gig, but I wasn’t making much money off it at all and I also was doing it solely for fun as well as not being very consistent. I was still working part time at a salon and although I was only part time, having that sense of security of my paychecks got to be comforting and I didn’t really worry about putting time and effort into my blog. But there was something itching inside of me at that time. I really wanted to take it on full time and just SEE what happens. So in February of last year, I quit my job and decided I wanted my main priority to be my blog! This decision was a little scary because I did end up making it public and kept asking myself ‘What if I fail? What if my blog doesn’t end up going anywhere or right here right now is it’s peak? I just left my job infront of everyone I know AND complete strangers’…I was SCARED. And I think that making it public was my way of pushing myself to follow through. Funny how we think that way. This change was probably my biggest change of 2017! Fast forward to December of the same year, I am contributing to our life, have grown my readers on here as well as my followers on all social media channels, and even brought my blogging to ‘vlogging’ and started YouTube!

Another fun thing (and challenge) that I went through in the past year was starting my online store. That was kind of one of the main reason’s I left my job, or so I told myself. To be honest and raw with you guys, my blog was always what I wanted to grow, but I was scared of committing to just that and having it not go anywhere. So I really needed a back up plan, another way to make money, and something else that could be successful if my blogging was a flop. I think another reason I felt the need to start it was because a lot of people didn’t view my blog as a ‘career’ which is okay. People that aren’t in the industry sometimes don’t understand it. But I wanted to be taken seriously and have a ‘real job’ that I was leaving my current for. So I started Shop KarlieRae in March last year and it really was fun! I learned a TON about business and time management. But what I ended up struggling with was as I was doing my store, my blog was growing and I was getting more partnerships with brands. Then when it came to days to do photoshoots I had to shoot ALL my new arrivals for my store PLUS blog content – which often wouldn’t work at the same time and was a lot to ask from the photographers that I’d shoot with. It got to be really overwhelming. Another problem I faced was I was doing EVERY SINGLE THING with zero help. You don’t realize how many little things go into a business until you are having to take on 93743987 roles and do them all yourself. And to be honest, if my store would have been my number one priority, I probably would have pushed through a couple more months and then hired on help, but for me personally, it was always my blog and that’s what I wanted to truly see grow. I did want to touch on this because I never fully addressed it and I also get a lot of DM’s from you amazing peeps asking about it so now you know 🙂

2017 was also a fun year for us as we finished off our first year of marriage and headed into our second! We moved into our first home together in February, had our first summer on the lake, and did some fun trips including Scottsdale, San Francisco & Vegas. This year was really our year to dive into married life!! Before February we had been married 8 months but lived with my in laws that entire time so we hadn’t totally started our solo life yet, and it has been so fun. Living with your bff/hubby is the absolute best 🙂

Some personal accomplishments of 2017:

-Taking my blog full time

-Traveling to the city where I was born for the first time (SF)

-Remodeling and moving into our home

-Working with some fun brands such as Smashbox, Mattress Firm, PMD, Hello Fresh, Kate Spade, + tons of boutiques that I now love

-Helping build a Seattle blogger community and develop true friendships with local blogger babes

-Starting to build my own online community and connecting with more readers

Some lessons I learned or things that didn’t go so well:

-Taking on too much work load

-Playing the comparison game and getting caught up with other girls doing ‘better’ than me. *Remember ‘the success of another woman does not determine your own!*

-Not having the best time management (I feel like I could get a lot more done in a day than I do & I’ve been kicking myself in the butt for it lately!)

-I had a resolution to go abroad somewhere and we didn’t this year! Hoping for next!

Now onto 2018! This year is getting me PUMPED. I feel like the new year really is a huge motivation to reset your mind, and set some goals for yourself! This year I am going to write my goals down somewhere I can see them at any time and won’t lose them. I also am going to write down where I am at now so when it comes to reflecting a year from now I can see exactly how much has changed. Some ways I am getting organized with my goals is to set 2 goals in each ‘category’ of my life! The categories I’m focusing on are work, personal, marriage, health + fitness, and faith. For me and my scatter brain, making the categories works easiest for me and also limiting myself to only 2 ‘main goals’ gives me those two things I REALLY want to focus on. I of course will set other goals through out the year or have smaller goals that lead up to these main goals, but these give me something to work towards.

A couple of goals I’ve set so far are:

-Be more organized (I also have mini goals within this main goal to get me there)

-Do my devotional every single day. I shared my new year devotional all my Instagram stories, but incase you missed it and wanna do it with me here is the link!

-Up my monthly income. (I’m sure this is a financial goal of everyones haha! I haven’t determined a set number for myself yet, but this week I am going to evaluate the previous year and set my personal financial goals for this year!)

-Be active or workout at least 3x a week. (Run, Orange Theory, Barre Class, Walk Leo, etc.)

-Dedicate more time to quality time with my husband. Do new things together to make memories!

-Create a community on here! I feel like it has already started but one of my biggest goals is to grow this community and have more dialog and conversation going as well as all get to know each other more! I have a couple ideas up my sleeve but would love more ideas from ya’ll as well!

I haven’t gotten the chance to set all my goals and make them exact, but these are some of the ones I’ve put in my ‘notes’ in my phone so far! This week is dedicated to reflection and goal setting for this girl! Since my goals aren’t set, I’d love to hear some of yours for this upcoming year! It’s always fun to get inspiration from other people so please comment below! I’d love to get the conversation going!

Wishing you all the best upcoming year! Cheers to 2018 and ROCKING THE SOCKS off it!!

Xx,