It’s a cold January morning…. snow is frosting the roof tops…it’s a great time to make plans and sew your seeds for the Spring.

In ‘Wendy Woo’s Year – A Pocketful of Smiles’, 6 Sow seeds for Spring, is a useful way to start…..

These are metaphorical seeds, the ones you may have been germinating from last year. (see October)

If you haven’t started to plant your ideas and goals seeds yet, you can start now, no problem.

 

We all have wants, desires and ideas in our heads; ‘I’d love to visit Egypt/South America/Snowdonia’, ‘I wish I could play the piano/guitar/French horn’ or ‘I’d love to be able to wear shorts in the summer’ but, unless these ideas are committed too, that’s how they remain, just ideas and wishes.

 

To turn our wants and desires into attainable goals, we need a plan. I’m not keen on the word ‘goals’. It worries me that if you spend too much time reaching for other things, you forget to live in the now. However, I have attached a ‘Wendywooism’ to this process which helps me get over the goal thing: ‘If you don’t have a plan, you can’t change it.’ For me that means, I can make a yearly plan, or a monthly or weekly or even daily one but as long as I have one, I always have the opportunity to change it. For example, my plan was to carry straight on and write the sequel to ‘Destiny of Angels’ as soon as it was available to download. For the following month, I planned out how to ‘create’ three full writing days in my week to write ‘Wrath of Angels’. However, an e book won’t sell itself and I decided to write ‘A pocketful of smiles’ before the second novel so, though my time has been spent on writing, it wasn’t on the book I had planned but because I had made the original plan and allocated my time, it gave me the opportunity to use that time writing a different book and promoting the first. Without the original plan, I would be panicking about not having time to do everything.

 

I found two books useful when attempting to find time in my life to achieve more balance. The first was a tiny book from the library on allocating time and the second is Peter Jones’ book ‘ How to do everything and be happy.’ http://www.howtodoeverythingandbehappy.comYou can follow and copy all of Peter’s ideas or just dip in and try the ones that seem appropriate to you and your life. It’s easy to read and makes good practical sense.

 

Once you know what you hope to achieve this year, this is a good time for research. If you would like to visit Egypt, check out the cost of flights, decide if you want a hotel based holiday or a trip down the Nile, bellydance lessons or an all inclusive package. If costs look steep, you could start a savings account and plan to go the following year. If you want to play the guitar, do you have one? If you do, check out local teachers, groups and evening classes. If you don’t, start researching possible second hand ones from local music shops or online.

 

This is the time to start sowing seeds for the spring and the year ahead.

Last Friday, I spent a chunk of the day sharing with a friend what I would like to do this year. This is a great way to find out what you really want. Last year with all it’s ups and downs, is also worth reflecting upon as it gives an incite into what worked, what didn’t and why.

Today I’ve a meeting at my mum’s re-ablement centre when I will find out when she will be returning home, hopefully with a new care package in place. Once I have this information, I’ll be able to organise my time better. I’m also looking forward to getting together with Mark Barry, a fabulous author from the Midlands who I met online, to discuss our past year’s successes and disappointments and throw ideas about for our forthcoming year of writing.

The one thing I do know is I will be focussing on writing….Wrath of Angels will be finished, as will a friend’s book I’ve been helping with.

We WILL sell our house and move to Wales…..it’s been tough waiting for this to happen but I do believe my future is in the Welsh mountains.

Instead of making resolutions, sow the seeds for a happy, successful future