I’m just gonna hit you with it, today:

Only specific goals count.

When you join Weight Watchers, you have to make a goal weight.  Not ‘when the skinny jeans fit’ or ‘when I don’t feel gross’ or ‘when my waist is the circumference of a small citrus fruit,’ but an actual number that means you’ve made it.  You’ve done it.  You can take a moment to be proud of yourself.

What does success look like, in your business?

If you had 50 portrait sessions last year, how many do you want this year?  It might be 25.  It might be 125.  There’s no right answer.

So, you want X portrait sessions.

And how much money do you want to make?

‘A lot’ or ‘enough’ or ‘more’ or cutting a picture out of a magazine because a right-brained business manual says you should?  Those aren’t numbers.  How much money do you want/need to make?

Maybe it’s the cost of each mortgage payment plus a weekly dinner date, because your spouse takes care of the rest.  Maybe it’s the cost of operating your household that comes complete with five kids, a chicken, a dog and a kitten for the entire year.  Maybe it’s the cost of a safari to Africa plus a new camera body.

Don’t let someone tell you that a business grossing $10,000 per year isn’t a business, or that your dreams of making $300,000 per year are stupid.  There are no stupid goals, only fuzzy ones.  Because…

If you don’t define YOUR success, you won’t know when you’ve reached it.

Some artists won’t be happy with anything less than a $2.2 million dollar gross annual income and seven employees.  (I would throw myself off the nearest bridge if I had seven employees — that will never, ever be a part of my business plan.)  Some peeps just want to get out of the house for 10 hours a week to feel like they have an identity outside of their kiddos, and others won’t be happy until they’ve had a portrait session with the President.  Acknowledge what YOUR success looks like.

Then pick the number — an actual number — and when you reach it?  Take a moment to stand in your own success.