2018, Here I come!

Happy 2018!!! First day of the year!!! Doesn’t that sound so promising? Like opening the first page of a brand new notebook, or popping in a brand new roll of film into your camera. Last year I wrote a blog with all of my goals for 2017. Did I accomplish everything on that list? No, but I did get a lot of it done and I was really proud of myself. So, I wanted to do the same thing again this year. It really does help with accountability for me to write it out and visit it throughout the year. I have five goals for this year. The first one is to spend more time with God. How do I hope to do this? Quit making excuses and dig into the Bible and read more Christian books. Setting that time aside each day for me to be able to do this is going to be key. I would also like to memorize at least five Bible verses this year. I feel like it’s very important to have God’s word inscribed in our hearts.

The next goal that I have for this year is to spend more time with my family. Last year I really let work come in between them and me more often then I would like to admit. So, this year I plan to make and hold those boundaries. When I finish my day at work and I say I’m going to be at home I’m going to be there, present, and attentive. I’m also going to designate days for them during the busy seasons. I don’t get this time back and these moments are so precious. I don’t want to miss out on my sweet babies growing up or miss out on spending time with my husband. I love that my clients understand family comes first.

My third goal is running my business better. I love my clients! I love the relationships I’ve gotten to build with a lot of you guys. I enjoy watching your families grow, watching couples get engaged and then married and having babies. I have been truly blessed to get to be a part people’s lives and document it for them. Some of my goals this year for my business is to hire a studio manager to help me run things more smoothly and to give me that time with my family. More to come on that soon! Also I want to continue improving my editing and getting things back. I know this is an area of weakness for me but this will be the year of organization and making this a priority. I want experiences at NDC Photography to be positive memories professional and fun.

My fourth goal is to be happy with the things in which God has given me in the situations in which I am in. I catch myself too often thinking about what’s next. In some ways this is good, but in other ways, especially with a discontented heart, we don’t enjoy the moments that we are in and we don’t enjoy what God has given us and blessed us with now. We’re too worried about what else we can have, or better places we could be. It creates a snowball of wanting more and more and more. I’m tired of being that person and I want to enjoy the things that God has blessed me with right now.

My last goal is I want to be better with the money God has blessed me with. Last year I completed Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University. I was able to watch God bless me, my business, and my family. It blew my mind! I want to keep this going and go back through the course and apply it even more consistently. If you are out there and struggling with money please consider this course. I’m not doing a commercial or getting any compensation for my opinion, I just want to say the course really has changed my thought process on saving money. I think five goals are pretty good for this year. I feel like it’s not overwhelming and it’s doable. Many people probably only read half this post and then went on to look at Facebook but if you made it to the end, thank you! I hope that you yourself set some goals for the year and push yourself to get out of your comfort zone and try new things. I think God wants us to challenge ourselves in life, not just stay the same. We can have goals that we set for ourselves and even if we don’t accomplish all of them at least we have something to push towards. I am thankful for the blessings of this past year. 2017 was a good year and I’m very excited about what 2018 holds. We know this is gonna be a big year for our family with our new addition coming in July! So here’s to 2018, can’t wait to see what this year will be like and thank you to everyone for making a great 2017.

*** 2018 has already been a big year for someone else in the Carsten Family. Anna spent her first night in her big girl bed welcoming the New Year!