Today I will share with you my plans for 2016. Start of the year is a good opportunity to rethink your strategy and clarify the things that will bring you closer to your dreams coming true. I am deliberately not talking about resolutions because I think they imply some form of enforcement and change. As if you’re not good enough at who you are. Last year has been a wonderful time of growth for me and I have come to understanding that you are not becoming the person who you want to be by enforcement but by love. Cherish your values and pursue projects that reflect them. Even small steps will bring you closer to where you want to be than self-loathing and bullying yourself for being this or that way or not being cool enough.
I will share with you 11 plans for 2016 and the 12th one will keep secret for myself. 12 goals for 12 months, so that it’s easier to portion my workload and fully concentrate on one of the objectives each month. They are not in any particular order of priority but keep your fingers crossed for me!
- Build my web design/development portfolio. In 2015, I have devoted a lot of time to learn about UXUI and design. This year I want to get hands on, learn to design websites from scratch and put all the coding layers in HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP together to build fully functional and beautiful websites.
- Learn more about the business side of photography. 2015 was all about building a portfolio, blog and social media. Right now it’s crucial for me to understand the business side of photography, how to market it and seal the deal with potential customers.
- This brings me to a goal number 3. – Make it easier for my potential customers to reach out for me. Soon you will be able to easily find on my website how to book a portrait session, what can you expect from the shoot and what are the prices.
- Include longer and more in-depth articles on the blog about photography techniques, creativity and inspirations. Many of you have been asking me about an advice in these areas, so why not sit down and write it down nicely and clearly for all of you.
- Redesign my website to be able to feature more versatile content without compromising the photography. You would be surprised how difficult it is to find an ideal WordPress layout when you have a very precise requirements. I would like my layout to be as good for photography as the current one. The main thing that discourages me from the layouts I frequently come across is that you have to scroll so much, especially when featuring photography in portrait orientation.
- I would like to collaborate even more this year. I always wanted to write stories about inspiring people. I would like to support emerging talents and people who independently pursuit their dreams in the new Nation of Dreamers cycle of posts.
- I am much more comfortable behind the camera than in front it. In the beginning of my photography days I was much more brave to experiment with some forms of self portraiture. I would like to devote some time to it this year too! Also I really like the blogs where you can get to know the person, who is behind all that texts, so I think it would be a good thing to show my face on my own blog every now and again too.
- I have managed to establish a small presence in social media but it’s mechanics are still a mystery to me. This year I would like to strengthen my social media presence and discover new territories of the Internet promotion.
- Start regularly submitting my editorial work to magazines. It has been at the back of my mind for entire year and I did have a go at submitting some of my photos but to really break through in the publishing world, you need to be very consistent. I would like to make it a habit to be proactive about having my photos published.
- Take care of my health. Full time job, one hour commute each way every day, photography, blogging, coding, designing, networking, my head is exploding every day with thousands of ideas that I want to do. These things eat up most of my time and almost completely pushed out procrastination and all the other things from my life. Sadly this has taken it’s toll on my healthy lifestyle habits and every now and again they drag me to the corner of stress and sleep deprivation. This year, I would like to find time to regularly take care of my body, because in healthy body the healthy spirit lives.
- I am learning a lot of theory about user experience an interaction design lately. I am fluent in Photoshop and have taught myself Illustrator and InDesign. Sadly, I have not sat down and design any interface myself yet. In 2016 to overcome my fear that I am not ready to build a graphic design portfolio, I will challenge myself to complete 100 UI Days Challenge.
- As I mentioned above the last one is a secret that I will share with you once it comes true! In the meantime to keep the list complete, I would just substitute it with a plan to keep writing the blog. I had a hard time initially with writing regularly but I seem to have caught a momentum. Let it stay that way.
I would like to wish you all the best with your plans for 2016! Let them all come true.
The photos illustrating this post were taken on the last day of 2015. It was a lovely walk around Shepherds Bush, London, right before the nightfall. As usually the photos of me were taken by Ivan.