Not goals, just nice ideas
The power of plans scrawled on bits of paper
We’re hurtling towards the end of the year, once Halloween is done we’ll take one last sip of our spiced lattes (I hate spiced lattes) and it’ll be Christmas. So I thought I would look at how this year has gone so far.
In January the Good Ship Illustration had a planning party where we all made plans for the year ahead. Here are the plans that I scrawled on a bit of paper and pinned above my desk.
I was feeling quite anti-goals at the beginning of this year. I have had plenty of years packed with big exciting plans and goals, and that has been amazing, but this year I wanted to calm down, take stock and stop feeling like I was chasing my own tail. The stressy energy is not good for us long term is it?
So I made a list of nice ideas rather than goals.
Did I meet each goal/ nice idea?
See friends (especially baby E.)
I am happy to report I have spent lots of quality time with friends this year and have enjoyed some good lying-on-the-carpet-play-time with baby E. at our Good Ship business meetings. Happy days!
Art Club Fun
We’ve had some brilliant Good Ship Art Clubs this year and we have four new Art Club dates for your diary: 27th October, 3rd November, 10th November and 17th November, 7pm (UK time) over on Good Ship Insta. Everyone is welcome!
Lock phone and iPad in metal suitcase (metal is important 😂) and hide it from myself every Sunday
Well I haven’t done that every Sunday, but I have spent less time on screens this year. I am feeling pretty smug about that.
Write and draw in my diary
Actually I did that until about April, then it started to feel like a chore. So I started writing more here on Substack instead, which feels waaay more fun. Substack will be top of my ‘Nice Ideas’ list next year.
Make a new picture book slowly with care
I did that with my pals Deidre and Maria at Walker Books. We are really proud of ‘Smelly Peggy’, it’s out next year.
Play games, do jigsaws, go kayaking, walk my dog Peggy
I didn’t manage the kayaking. Or the jigsaws. Oh well, there will be jigsaw action at Christmas.
Buy more things second hand rather than new
I bought nearly all of my summer clothes on Vinted.
Don’t get over excited and say yes to things I can’t do, or don’t want to do
This has been my biggest achievement this year. When offers come in I often get over excited and say yes before I think it through. So this year I have been consciously stopping, breathing, closing my laptop and taking a few days to think. I haven’t agreed to do anything, then regretted it later. That is a big deal for me. I am usually MRS OVEREXCITED who thinks she can manage everything then feels frazzled.
Say no to anything that’s not on this list 👆
Yep. I did that and I am happy to report: no frazzle this year!
Things I did that weren’t on the ‘Nice Ideas’ list:
Taking a step back from working so hard has meant we have had time to do some nesting and make our house a nicer place to live: We got a new kitchen (which meant digging out a mysterious sink hole under the house)
My Mum and Dad helped us create a new gravel garden. BTW for those of you that remember the succulent propagation experiment in the summer, it didn’t work. Back to propagating in the traditional way. It was worth a try 😂
My creativity popped up in other places and I got back into darning and sewing: I made these Good Ship flags and took part in our local Repair Cafe where I was the ‘darning lady’.
I started creating a Good Ship Business Course with my pals Tania and Katie at the the Good Ship Illustration, that launches in January.
I must admit there were times when I felt guilty. The judgy voices in my head whispered ‘Are you doing enough? Are you being lazy? Your publishers will be angry with you. Your agent will be disappointed you didn’t make lots of books this year.’ I even dreamt my publisher dumped me. But I hushed up the voices and I stuck to the plan. After all, once it’s written on a scrap of paper and pinned above my desk, it’s THE LAW isn’t it? Writing things on scraps of paper is powerful.
(I should add that my publishers and agent aren’t the least bit annoyed. They are lovely people who know I have had a crazy couple of years and have been really supportive. And exciting new book ideas are brewing…)
Did you make a plan this year? How’s it going? Is there anything you dropped because it wasn’t working? Anything you are proud of that you’d like to share here?
Love Helenx
P.S. I am doing a Walnut Mouse workshop with my pal
before Christmas, see you there!P.P.S. In January we will have another Good Ship Planning Party and you are all invited. We’ll keep you posted.
Love your “not goals, just nice ideas” philosophy! I realized that unconsciously, I think alike, because somehow I tend to procrastinate on “Goals” I set, but I always try to make “Nice Ideas” happen no matter what...😉 also, the journaling thing is hard to do for me, but like you said Substack has been more pleasurable and I think it may be because of the sharing part, here you share the thoughts you write ✍️ but the principle of a journal is that it’s not meant to be shared...and yes most of my nice ideas have become a reality this year except an important one and that’s because I depended on someone else to make it happen and another big and nice one where life just got in the way...but will just be added to the next nice ideas list...never give up on your nice ideas that’s what makes your life a happy one! 😊
Well done! I started one of those complicated planners in the beginning of the year but was too busy crushing goals to write in it! The planner industry might be in trouble if everyone finds out we can just jot them down on a scrap page. 🤣