The Life of Bon: January + February goals

Sunday, February 02, 2014

January + February goals






15 weeks.
Feeling great.
Coat: Nordstrom
Dress:  Target (old, similar here)
Skirt: Forever 21 (I am wearing a black skirt under the striped dress because the skirt wasn't quite long enough for me.  I'm quite the trickster, right?)
Tights: Target
Shoes: H & M (old, similar here.)
Headwrap: American Eagle
Bracelet: c/o Frontrow Shop
Sunglasses:  The dollar store.  (Every spring I buy about ten $1 pair of sunglasses from the dollar store and by October I'm lucky if I can find one.  I can't trust myself with nice things.)

I've been trying for a long time to figure out how in the world to wear these red tights.  I bought them in October and by Saturday I still hadn't worn them once.  I love them but they screamed too loud with everything I tried to wear them with and sp with every outfit.  Finally I figured out that mixing black with the red was my ticket.  A perfect Valentines Day look, if you will.

Also, do you notice how freaking legit these photos look?  Aubrey and I both had a bit of free time late Saturday afternoon so we got together to try to figure out our cameras a little bit and snap some pictures.  I am trying to look less like a hobo on my blog so there's that.

At the beginning of the year you may remember that I set some resolutions.  There was a lot I wanted to get done and thinking about all of it for 2014 completely overwhelmed me, so I decided to tackle one resolution at a time.  Twelve resolutions, twelve months.  So far this is the best thing I have ever done in terms of getting goals accomplished.  All this month I have had one main goal to focus on and it has allowed me to be successful.  Here's how I did:

THE GOAL FOR JANUARY:  REFOCUS ON BLOGGING
Written on January 2: "I have felt a bit "off" my blogging game the past few months, so I want to refocus and get back on track.  My blog has been an extremely satisfying and rewarding experience for me, and I would like for it to continue to be so."  (Original writing in bold, end of the month check in written in italics.)

Sub goals:
- Respond to 100% of blog comments left in January:  I did well on this, but I didn't quite reach the 100%.  This announcement made it extremely tough to reply to all comments, but I would say that I responded to 80-90% of comments.  I actually loved this, and a few posts in it became habit.  I feel like this really helped me to connect with readers and I loved having that sustained interaction with you all.
- Host a link up: My resolution post was a link up, my book club post was a link up, and on February 12 Taylor and I are planning an awesome pre Valentines Day link up, so keep your eyes peeled for that.
- Find an effective way to  advertise and increase audience (any suggestions here?)  I am still struggling with this, although I do have a couple of ideas swimming around in my head.  I am sponsoring a couple of big kahuna blogs in the next couple of months so hopefully that will help drive some traffic over here.
- Start blogger round tables again.  Check!  Wednesday night we had our first roundtable in six months.  Elisabeth gave us the basic scoop on photography and it was so fun to sit with a small group of girls and talk blog.  Definitely a success!
- Develop deeper connections within the blogging community:  Check!  I credit this to being more interactive with the comments- responding to comments helped me notice more who was often leaving comments and allowed me to make many more connections.  I also went to a blogger get together and met some new friends and connected with bloggers through the round tables as well.

EXTRA:  I held my first "fashion" shoot and learned to use my camera just a little bit better.  I applied for a couple of media companies that link blogs with brands and heard back positively.  I had the most pageviews I've ever had in a single month and wrote some of my favorite posts I've ever written (this one, this one, this one, and this one.)  I felt very grateful for blogging this month and the blessings it has brought into my life.  January goal- SUCCESS!

Well, that was fun!  I am hoping to continue with most of those habits into the next month.  I won't make as big of an effort to respond to the comments on every post, but I will for sure respond to all the comments on at least one or two posts a week.  

And now, it's on to February!  Bigger and better goals, people!  February's goal...

Written on January 2:
"FEBRUARY:  WRITE A BOOK
Even just writing that out makes me sick to my stomach.  I have always wanted to write a book, but have been plagued by fear.  Fear of failure, yes, but also fear of the extreme amount of time and energy and dedication it will take.  Who knows if the book will ever get published, but I'm tired of not trying.

Subgoals:
-Write five days a week for 1-3 hours."

Tomorrow is day one. 

Yah, baby.

Also, I'm doing a bit of unofficial research for my blog- I'd be very grateful if you would answer the question below...  I first posted the question on facebook and everyone answered facebook.  Then I posted it on twitter and everyone answered twitter.  Hmmm... I figured I better ask it on a "non biased" platform, so here you are.


What social media site do you use the most?

22 comments:

  1. I love how a DSLR kind of changes everything - and you're not entirely sure why! Trust me, after a year or so of fiddling, you get the hang of it :] And I love the goals recap - I can't believe January is over already! Best of luck with your book, I can't wait to hear about it :]]]

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  2. Holy cow, I LOVE those tights! Red is my favorite color to wear. :]

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  3. Great job on nearly crossing out all your goals! I have not set any for my blog and I think it's time to start doing so now. I love that idea of wearing a skirt under your dress! I'm tall so that's a trick I could def use :)

    --Jan

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  4. I have kind of varying answers for the social media question because I can't access Instagram or Facebook at work and I don't have enough data on my phone to check those as consistently as Twitter during the day...but as soon as I'm on WiFi, facebook is my favourite :)

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  5. I basically haven't set many goals for myself other than write a novel--I want to focus solely on that! It is really scary, and I made a goal to write 10,000 words last month and that did not happen. We need to hold each other accountable!

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  6. My goodness, could you be any cuter!?!??! You are rocking those red tights!

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  7. I love that you buy sunglasses from the Dollar Store. And good luck on the book - imagine how satisfying it will be at the end of the month when you have one baby in your hands, and one baby in your womb :)

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  8. I use Instagram and bloglovin the most. I don't know if bloglovin even counts as a social media platform...does it?

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  9. I just started following your blog last week and have been introduced to your wonderful baby news! CONGRATULATIONS! such a wonderful, happy time. I wish you and your husband all the best on this journey xoxo. I think that January resolutions for blogging were really great. You picked some awesome ways to connect with the blogging community and advertise. I will definitely take some of those tips for myself. Thank you! Good luck on February's resolution. I am excited for you. Writing a book takes a lot of patience but it is so rewarding. You will enjoy the ride :)

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  10. you are glowing, absolutely gorgeous! :) in terms of social media i mostly use facebook :)


    Leyla xx
    Leyla Writes...

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  11. I'm glad you're responding to comments. I used to comment on your blog from time to time, but kind of stopped. It's so much more worthwhile I think when there's a conversation happening.

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  12. Your pictures look awesome!!! And I LOVE that outfit! :)

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  13. Love the outfit, especially those red nylons! Love them!

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  14. Cute outfit! Random question, but how tall are you?

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  15. Yay for writing a book! I know I need to get back to working on mine this month too. If you ever need advice or someone to talk book ideas with, let me know. It's my favorite thing to do!

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  16. I've had an idea for writing a book tumbling around in my brain for gosh .. two years now? Props to you for just DOING IT! Where does one even start?!!

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  17. LOVE the tights! i have some mustard yellow ones that i love to wear, but the red is so fun! i may need to make a target run and pick some up. and just curious, what kind of book are you thinking about writing? you may have mentioned it in a past post but i'm a fairly new follower :)

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  18. Anonymous6:43 PM

    Love the red tights!! And I love the idea of splitting goals up by month - I'm doing the same thing and so far (one month in, haha) it's working really well for me!

    Good luck writing a book! If you care for some unsolicited advice read on. If not we can just pretend my comment ended there. :) I've written a couple books and am just trying to find an agent now. My biggest piece of advice is this: just go big. Write like crazy and don't look back. Don't edit, don't worry about where the plot is going, just finish. Your first draft will probably be a disaster anyway - mine had characters dropping out halfway through or things that I'd say were coming up that never actually happened. And that's ok. A first draft is all just about getting it out there. Then you can go back and fix it all. :) Over and over and over haha. But if you don't finish it you start to lose momentum and then you never really care to fix it or finish it. Just race through that first draft as fast and as hard as you can - and then expect it all to change haha. And just know that the middle is always the hardest. The beginning is so fun and you're all pumped for your idea and then the middle just goes on and on and you start to think your idea is so dumb and it'll never finish and it's a boring story anyway. And then you get towards the end and things start to pick up again and it's fun and you gain that momentum again and you feel totally bomb and awesome when you finally finish it! And then you eat chocolate. :) (or at least, that's what I do at the end of every draft). But the trick is finishing it - then you know where it's all going and everything that you want to have happen is so much more clear when you know where you want it all ending up.

    And really, you can write more than you think you can. Or at least, I could, and I think it's probably true of most people. I try to hit 2000 words a day and I find that once I commit to that it's not really that hard. I just have to know I need to set aside 2-3 hours a day and pound it out. Course, I don't have a full time job or pregnancy to work around, so do what works best for you, of course. :) Just know that you can do more than you think you can, and then your first draft will be done in just a couple months and it will be awesome.

    And that is the end of my unsolicited advice. :) Just go for it and have fun! What kind of book are you planning to write?

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  19. Anonymous9:32 PM

    So hard to answer your SM question, because for me what I check totally depends on how much time I have. If it's a quick minute or two, it's usually Instagram. If I have 5 minutes, FB then Twitter, and lastly if I have lots of time (or if I'm bored) Pinterest it is :)

    Good Luck with your Feb goal!

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  20. Hey Bon, I'm a new subscriber & I just love love you're blog ! Also most of you're links to other bloggers are on point. I subscriber to like 5 more. I especially love Danielle Wallingsford & elizabeth Ivey, I wish she would update about the house & had a deeper archive darn it. I can't get into the way you wear headbands, sorry. It reminds me of Olivia Newton john's "let's get physical". I'm dating myself. Google it. Best of luck with the babe and thank you so much for sharing your life !

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  21. PS by the way, some of your links don't work in your year in review, and in your popular posts. EG they don't go anywhere. Could you fix them please ? Thanx.

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  22. I just tried to comment in bloglovin, and I don't think it worked. The jumping pic is my fave. This is proof that DSLR cameras are worth the price. Imagine how great the pictures will be when we actually know what we're doing.

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