Happy New Moment…

Having turned professional as an artist, some of the tasks I have to perform, of necessity is to keep up my social media presence. This includes blogging as often as I can. Now for some reason social media demands you do this with  some regular frequency, for example, at the same time each month or two or three times a month or whatever is required to keep your plates spinning, This can be a bit of a bind. It’s not that I don’t like blogging, in fact I do quite like writing and keep a daily journal but like many people I am starting to resist the urge to do something just because social media says you should. It’s a sure way of losing elements of spontaneity. So I’ll blog when I feel I have something useful to say.

So… here we are, a new year and my first full one as a pro. A few years ago I decided I would not wait until a new year to make mostly because by the middle of January I’d broken most of them and then I’d spend the rest of the month beating myself up because yet again I had failed to accomplish what I set out to do.

When you think about it, every new minute, every  new second, every new day that passes bring us an opportunity to make a new decision. We can put our stake in the ground at any time! No need to wait til the new year to make the decision. 

Towards the end of last year, I bought myself a yearly planner, the sort that’s designed for creatives, you know, to help you think a little bit about your work and how to set goals in bite size chunks to make sure they happen.  As it happens, this planner starts on January 1st and runs through December 31st so I’ve pretty much started my plan at the beginning of the year but that’s ok. I’m not against setting goals, besides I’m yet to come across a yearly planner that starts in the middle of the year!

What I’m hoping to achieve with this yearbook planner is to be able to have my thoughts and plans in one place with daily, weekly and monthly schedules that will hopefully help me to stay on track. I want to see how I use my time on a daily basis and planning ahead means I can pretty much hit the ground running each day. At the same time, Ill be able to keep an eye on my income and expenditure as well as keep little notes on thoughts and ideas that come to me during the course of my daily activities. 

So far, January is looking good. One of the decisions I made was to tackle the anxieties I have about painting outdoors and now make the time one day a week to visit a location in the Lake District. When it comes to inspiration, this area does not disappoint, and I am thankful I live nearby. 

I’m writing this blog at the end of the month and it has gone well. I am pleased with the way January has turned out. Bring on tomorrow. I’m ready for a new day.