Hello 2017 – we’re going to be busy
2017 is going to be a time of big changes for us as I become redundant from my job at the end of this month, and from February onwards my maternity leave ends and I enter the world of the self employed. I have worked in projects in a transnational, corporate environment for a long time now, so the transition to blogger / content writer / WAHM crafter is going to be an interesting one (can you tell I’m working on the basis that it’s a good thing to have a few options open to you to manage peaks and troughs or workloads?!).
I don’t believe in resolutions which I think set you up to fail, but when I think about what I want the next year to hold – not only for me personally but for us as a family – then I have a few goals I want to achieve, so lets start topically:
BLOGGING – overall to take tippytupps and turn it from an online journal into a ‘proper’ blog.
Consistency – I will be aiming to blog at least 3 or 4 times a week and will be planning and scheduling more to make sure I meet that. Content will be key and there will (hopefully) be a good balance of reviews along with all the usual family chaos which makes up our life. The blog will also be following me as I try and find my way as a WAHM.
Increase Reach – as a blogger this one pretty much goes without saying, however in addition to growing my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram followings I want to try and embrace Pinterest and maximise SEO.
Monitise – every bloggers dream….some time in 2017 I want to have my first paid post. With money as opposed to goods; to do that I need to:
Increase my DA – and hopefully get noticed by some brands and PR’s who fancy spending some cash on this little blog *waves*. To do that, 2017 will be a year of collaboration: guest posts, linkys and generally getting involved in the blogging community.
Photography – I used to do a lot of darkroom photography in my youth and that has long given way to mobile photography. As much as I love the ‘image captured in an instant’ philosophy that instagram promotes, I want to go back and fall back in love with the camera. Therefore having invested in a new digital camera I want to learn to use it properly. So be warned….many more pictures of the kids will follow!
Create a second blog – I’ve spent a long time in projects / HR / comms / change management and have a lot of experience and knowledge that I don’t want to lose by leaving, therefore a good outlet to keep my skills intact I think would be a second professional blog. So watch this space!
Tippytupps brand – I want to somehow run both the blog and an online shop from the same tippytupps brand, and therefore I need to find a way to do this without one side taking over to the detriment of the other. I don’t know if it’s possible yet to try and get that balance but I’m going to try!
PERSONAL
Relationships – to continue to grow as a family of 4 and remember to appreciate the little things and capture the moments that make our ordinary life extraordinary. It doesn’t take a lot of money to be happy.
Health – to reclaim my body now I have finished making babies with it! It’s time to get back to being ‘me’. To do that I will be running or walking 500 miles throughout the year.
Travel – to make better use of what we have close. We now have National Trust as well as English Heritage memberships so I can’t wait to get out as a family and explore.
Home – there won’t be a lot of spare money next year as my salary will dramatically change, so we need to get creative when it comes to updating the rest of the house as we still have 3 rooms to do including the hallway and it would be good to at least make a little progress on that next year. Also as a family we made a pact this time last year to have less waste: something we did pretty well at for the first 6 months but seems to have gone out the window since Henry arrived and our lives became more chaotic, therefore this is one we will be embracing once again.
And that’s it…..a pretty big list but what can I say? 2017, I have a lot of expectations of you! I expect it to be hard work but hopefully all the coming work will pay off and the next year is going to be a good one for us.
Happy New Year all.
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