Have you set up your goals yet?

We are reaching the end of January and I still consider this time to be something new&exciting, a kind of transition from old to new. Therefor I just posted my last good wishes via postcard for the year 2013. I think I am still on time, since we are in January.

Nevertheless I could improve sending seasonal greetings. With birthday cards I am already pretty good. That might be, because it was my last years goal: to send "happy birthday" -wishes on time. My this year's goal will be: at the end of the year to send the holiday greetings on time. Knowing me it will be hard.

I am speaking now my objectives and goal setting for the year 2013. I skip promises & wishes. Objectives are something realistic and measurable and they should be written down and revised few times a year (four, for example). I did this the first time last year, thanks to my professor in a "Management of a small business" -course. Back then we had one session of self knowing/management and our teacher had handcrafted us pretty notes of the objectives.

There are 8 categories for the goals;
1.) physical surroundings
2.) hobbies, free time
3.) self development
4.) career&work
5.) friends&family
6.) relations with your colleagues
7.) economy
8.) health

+ I have added my own 9.) Dream section (things you know will not happen, but you still want to keep thinking on them that maybe, some day...)

During January I have been thinking these categories and what I would like to improve in my life or how could I do things differently. How I would like my life to be by the end of the year and what changes I should make in my way of being. Please skip all the jargon of "doing more sports & stop smoking" and focus on what could you actually do and succeed on doing, maybe just going for a walk 1-2 times a week for 1 hour (this is only a simple example). These objectives should be easy to reach so that they would be encouraging and you could stick on them. My idea for physical surroundings will be to take out the garbage as soon as they are full, especially the biological one. Nothing too tricky. Last year I focused on cleaning the dishes at once and not just piling them up on the sink waiting better days to come. And I managed to do that.

These goals are personal ones; you don't need to share them, it is for your own use only. Write them down and have a look on them every three months; have you succeed, if you need to change your goals a bit and so on. For sure this way you can make most of your studies, work , life in general. Good luck with your year 2013!

These are the notes that our professor made us and my notebook 

where I write down my goals for the year to come.

Inspiring conference

The Fashion School Felicidad Duce organizes once in a while conferences around the themes of fashion. In December the turn was for Josep Abril - Creation of a collection. I immediately assigned to the conference, but I have to admit that first I mixed Josep Abril with Josep Font, oops, my ignorance. The lecture was worth of visiting.

Josep Abril is a men's clothing designer who has his own brand and is already established in the Spanish and international men's clothing scene. He has a great appreciation to noble materials (wool, linen etc.) and textures. His style is; I would say, timeless and he has a thing for lines and squares. I did had heard of his name, but was not really familiar with his work.

It was such a pleasure to listen him explain his vision of textile industry and creation of a collection from a point of view of a visionary designer, almost like an artist, but not forgetting the end user and that the collection needs to sell. Clothes are not pieces of art. I was happy to here finally something that is not "fashion design for industry", fast fashion or directly copying.

All the time Josep Abril was speaking about clothing and not fashion. He is creating clothing instead of fashion as fashions come and go, but his vision stays. He as a designer of his own mark has his own preferences, path and the customers that are not in the great mass of "fashion victims". Thank you! In a country of such a high consumerism of fast fashion these kind of opinions are more than welcome.

As a designer and producer of his own line (the manufacturing is done here in Spain) he is also focusing to sustainability, a theme, that is not so often heard in the class rooms of Spanish fashion schools or in the street. Also he mentioned the luxury brand Hermès as one of the number one sustainable companies in the textile industry. The price is not just a vanity thing and more money to the pockets of the owners, but a salary to a crafter that is living and enjoying his life and work as any other worker is. Clothing work should not be done in the sweat shops at all.

The conference lasted about one and a half hours and I really enjoyed every minute of it. I hope there will be more designers like he is, following his path as a creator, but still focusing on the client and making that mixture a successful one.

Ah, and Josep Font is a Spanish designer of women's clothing and few years ago he was the only Spanish designer that was participating to the Paris Haute Couture shows with his own collection. Unfortunately he no longer creates Haute Couture, but I think one day I will write more about him.