How many goals should an illustrator have every year?
In my quest to finding focus and motivation in my freelance children’s books illustrator career, I have found myself asking this question : how many goals should an illustrator have every year? After all, life as a freelance illustrator is quite different than anything else I experienced before and all the articles I have read online were very generic and not tailored to my circumstances.
For me personnally, setting 3 key goals per year is more than enough. This number allows me to focus on everything else I have going on at any point in time.
Here are some types of goals you could consider:
Creative Development Goals: These goals focus on improving skills and exploring new styles.
Professional Growth Goals: These types of goals involve advancing your career or business. This could include finding new clients, securing a certain number of commissions, or publishing a certain number of pieces in a year.
Marketing and Exposure Goals: As an illustrator, building your brand and audience is crucial. Goals in this area might include growing your social media following, updating your portfolio website, participating in exhibitions, or collaborating with other artists.
Project and Output Goals: Set targets for the number of projects or pieces you want to complete. This helps maintain productivity and ensures you're consistently creating new work.
Personal and Well-being Goals: Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is important. Goals in this area might include managing your schedule to avoid burnout, setting aside time for rest, or engaging in activities that inspire your creativity.
My goals for 2025 , just to illustrate the above points will be :
Creative development goal : I am aiming to make the switch from digital to traditional media in 2026, so one of my goals right now is to keep working at making traditional art until I am happy with the outcomes.
Professional growth and well-being goals : These two go hand in hand for me. I suffered a burn out before. I do not wish to go there again. In 2024, I got four new clients and I worked on five projects. On hindsight, I could have done more but I prioritised me and my family above all else. 2025 involves a lot of projects that do not revolve around my career, so I will not be working on as many as this until everything else is kind of settled around me. It’s important to me that I look after my well-being and that I be present for my child and husband. I will keep chasing my existing clients for new projects, but will not be chasing new clients until all else is settled.
Marketing and project goals : I want to completely redo my portfolio in traditional form and I will try to share on social media more.
Have you thought about your goals?
