I can’t believe how quickly this past year has flown by. Reflecting on 2014 has been a bit difficult! Coming down off the holidays is a hard thing to do. Checking in with yourself and setting new goals for your career, family, friends, relationships, health etc. can be overwhelming.
2014 was an overall good year. I’m proud that my sister has joined me as such an amazing co-worker. I worked as an additional makeup artist on my first major motion picture, revamped my website, and had loads of happy memories with my family, friends and loved ones. But by far, my highlight of 2014 was my trip to Africa this summer after barely having any time to catch my breath with all that was going on at work. I was elated to turn on my ‘out of the office/country’ instant reply for the most unforgettable, life changing two and a half weeks with my family and the Oles. I will have to divulge more details in another post because it would take too long to explain-I still have trouble describing how much that trip meant and affected me, but long story short, it was very hard for me to reassimilate once I returned.
I’ve tried to give myself a few days–(okay more than a week) to step back and gain some perspective before setting my resolutions. Again, it’s challenging to take a step back and see where you’ve excelled and where you can improve in each aspect of your life with the glimmer of the new year .The highs and lows are amplified by the holidays. It’s fantastic keeping old traditions alive; seeing old friends at old hangouts, singing-and tearing up-while the congregation sings “Silent Night” by candlelight, The Hiebert’s annual Christmas pageant after dinner, cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, laughing with my fam watching Dad open gifts at a snail’s pace, then having our annual open house for all of our friends to come eat, drink and duke it out in bingo and Catch Phrase. It’s my favorite time of year to be with the people I love and just enjoy the moment.
New Year’s Eve followed, which was great. I helped host the 4th Annual NYE bash with Six Cactus Productions and I think it was our best theme yet. Brazos on the Bayou Masquerade was a hit. We had almost 900 people show up to ring in the New Year with Tameca Jones and a Louisiana Funk Band. See our first round of pics here! But I do have to say, I fell victim to coming down off the high of the holidays and pretty much crashed and burned.
To be perfectly honest, the holidays are a nice bump of business because people are attending Holiday parties but it has been pretty quiet for me and Claire in the recent months, and I’ve become a bit stir-crazy. I’ve had the holidays as a pleasant distraction but once New Year’s Day arrived and I began to think about resolutions, I, like many others, was distracted by the influx of special promotions and suggestions in my inbox and newsfeed. I wanted to add each and everything to my list of how I could improve each aspect of my life and became so overwhelmed that I froze and shut down for the last two weeks.
Well, after a few days of trying to sift through every thought and figure out my priorities and a good cry-ha, I have stopped fighting with what isn’t working and what I don’t have control over as of the moment and am just going to focus on what is working and try to make small changes, one thing at a time. Genius and brand new idea right?! To give yall an idea of what I’m going to be focusing on for 2015 the following are being held at the top of my list:
1. Become more organized– I’ve dealt with attention and anxiety disorders since I was fifteen so keeping myself on a schedule is tremendously helpful and disastrous when I am off of one. Time blocking and lots of calendars are key. I’m happy to say that I have each obligation that I have on deck filled in so I don’t run into any more hiccups! I would also like to focus on being more organized with my house. It seems as though my room is perpetually untidy and it’s driving my nuts. I love my little house but unfortunately I have limited storage space so it’s hard to go through things when there’s no room to put them! But I’m excited that Spring is upon us and I am going to do a MAJOR overhaul to declutter my space of unnecessary material objects to lighten my load. I’d like to try out a product swap party for my clients and a clothes swap party for friends before cleaning everything out for a garage sale/ consignment stores and donating! Decluttering will help me feel lighter and hopefully downsizing can help me become more organized.
2. More Content- I’m signing up for a photography/Photoshop class at Laguna Gloria that is being offered in March to get a better understanding of how to use my camera and how to edit my pictures. Claire and I are kind of scraping by with our combined knowledge and I would really love to improve the quality of my content. I love the work that I do and I would like to be able to photograph what I have done, some of my pictures are just not up to the standards I would like and I hope that I can resolve that with some instruction. I’m also trying to take more pictures of what I do day to day, behind the scenes, etc. to get better on social media and my blog. I have a lot of new ideas for the blog that I can’t wait to share with yall too, so stay tuned for that in the upcoming months!
3. Stop comparing my job to those around me- This one is going to be rough. I absolutely love what I do so when the clients and weddings slow it’s hard for me to keep it together because I want to work! I’m not the typical 9 to 5 worker but I do like some stability which is something I lack in a job that revolves around my clients and this time of the year. The grass is always greener on the other side-this summer I was so busy to where I barely had a second to myself, which was fantastic but it amplifies this part of the year. My down season is a tad hard on my spirits but I wouldn’t trade this for the world. I am so thankful for my job and how I connect with people- I just want to do more! Just like the picture below says, “No regrets, just lessons learned,” there are marketing and advertising tactics that I have learned throughout this down time and am ready to take on 2015.
