As 2021 comes to an end, I’ve been receiving messages about how I set my 2022 goals, and what good goals are for photographers.

Goal setting is extremely personal. My goals won’t look like yours because we will value and prioritize different things in our lives.

One year ago, I wrote out my goals for 2021. This is my time to go through and see which ones I met and which ones I missed. I assess how/why I achieved the goals that I met and give myself a big pat on the back. I also take a close look at how/why I missed the mark on some of my goals. I don’t consider missed goals a failure and I don’t punish myself, but I try to see them as an opportunity to learn. I question whether that was a good goal to make, if I still prioritize that item, and how I’ll change my behavior going forward.

After a healthy analysis of 2021 goals, it is time to pray and pray hard. I will write a list of “what I’m thankful for” in 2021. Led by the Spirit, I will write out my 2022 goals and see where He is leading my heart.

GOAL SETTING TIPS

1. Prayer is my biggest tip. I don’t want to toil in vain. And I don’t want to end up at a destination that the Lord isn’t leading me. I try not to make my goals about what I want, but about what God wants for me.
2. Know your personality. I am a type-A “achiever” by nature, so I don’t need a fire lit under me. I naturally have a fire within me. A lot of my goals have to do with working less, taking more breaks, and caring for my mental health. If you need a kick in the pants your goals might look like big and lofty items to achieve.
3. Set a specific, measurable goal. “Be successful” isn’t a goal. You need to have something quantifiable to know if you hit the goal or not.
4. Don’t just set the goal… set the action plan. If I set a revenue goal, I also break down exactly how I will get there. For example, to hit $XXX,XXX in sales I will get there by selling 40% packages, 20% wall art, 20% albums, 10% affiliate sales, 10% commercial work. If I say I want to increase my sales of printed products over the previous year, then I dive into the marketing plan on HOW I will achieve that.

TYPES OF GOALS I SET

Every year I make revenue goals broken out by month. I know that April + October will be my highest revenue months, and January + August will be my lowest revenue months. I surely don’t always hit my monthly revenue goals, but it gives me an idea of which months I will hustle and which months I will rest.

I typically set goals for how many sessions I want to do and how many trips I want to go on (usually my goal is less than the previous year).

I have to set break/vacation goals in order to rest. It is important that I actually put these on a calendar to enforce them! If it isn’t set in stone on my calendar then it will never happen.

I also do a lot of “personal work” goals filled with people and places I want to photograph.

Sometimes I set goals of where I want my work to be published.

WRITE THEM DOWN

Make sure you write down all of your 2022 goals and place when where you can see them every day! Stay motivated and on-track throughout the year by keeping your goals literally visible. By the end of the year, you will know if you reached them or didn’t quite hit the mark.