resolution ramblings

the cover of my new 2008 wall calender *

5 am - we're all tucked in and cozy in the living room, my laptop has been downstairs for a week now as I slowly, gradually move everything out of my office so I can paint the trim, the floors, and the inside of the closet. In a bold new approach to accomplishing the billion things on my ever growing list of things to do - and things that must be done, I'm attempting to have a much more realistic expectation of the by-when/date to finish things and my office is/will be my first experiment with this new way of being- I'm giving myself the entire month of January to finish it.

Resolution No. 1/48 - attempt to be more realistic in your expectations of life & self (and this one should cover a lot O' ground for me). I do have a tendency to live with my head in the clouds, believing with many things, that if I think about them long enough and plan every minute detail that the work required will just magically happen and I'll spend my time dreaming and planning. Planning & dreaming. I read this great formula somewhere and it is SO true Action = Motivation = More Action and I guess that would be Resolution No. 2/48 - just begin.

Thankfully my design work and business doesn't seem to suffer from the same procrastination affliction that plagues the rest of my life. I've learned, especially in the beginning days of life as a self employed designer, that if you sit and think and wait for that brilliant idea to hit you ... you may be sitting for a very long time. I now turn the little voice in my head off, pick up my beloved red mechanical pencil and with a fresh clean sheet of tracing paper - I just begin. And to this day I am amazed at what often will appear on that piece of paper.

It's been lovely to begin each morning here on the sofa, Jake and Winnie Dixon curled up nearby, a fire on and CBC radio keeping us company. The business report is just finishing up and it's time for the 6am national news - it's snowing, another winter storm advisory in effect and we're not going anywhere this morning. Think I'll go pour my bath.

* wall calender from the beautiful Cavallini line of products