Hello 2014!

A few months ago, I was talking to a friend, very shortly after we met, and we got chatting about goals. He produced an A4 page, a list of his goals for the year, and for 5/10 years in the future. Some were simple, like home improvements, and others were more ambitious, like to win a Grammy. But just by writing them down, he made a commitment to himself to do everything in his power to achieve them. He asked me what my goals were, and I honestly couldn't tell him a single thing. I realised that I needed to change my thinking, and I did. I started writing down my goals for the day every morning, mainly short term ones like to finish editing a particularly annoying wedding, or to get a certain number of album designs finished, and also mundane tasks like to take out the recycling and to practise my trumpet. I've always been a procrastinator but suddenly I found myself more productive than I've ever been, ahead with my work for the first time in months, and feeling so much more positive about life. That something so simple could have such an effect on my life was a revelation to me. So then I started to think about longer-term goals, and I realised that if I was going to have the life I want to have in 5 years time then I really have to do something about it. No point daydreaming, hoping that it would all fall into my lap. So I started planning.

It's been a couple of months since I laid out my plans on paper, and some of them are already being put into action, but I guess that New Years Day is as good a time as any to state them here. It is the day for resolutions! It will come as no surprise to anyone who has known me, well, since my school days really, that I've decided to move to the Netherlands. I've been talking about it for as long as I can remember, but I've never taken any action towards it. When I was working in science it seemed quite easy, I would just get a job in a University, and I knew that my ex-boyfriend always wanted to move back there too. But when I started my business I suddenly felt like it was too difficult, that I was tied here permanently. I started to think that maybe I'd just enjoy going on holidays, and retire there when I got tired of taking photos. A couple of months ago I realised how ridiculous that sounded, because running my own business gives me the ultimate freedom, something that other people can only dream of. So I've now got a 5 year plan, and suddenly the seemingly impossible task of moving a business to another country just looks like a long list of small, very achievable steps. Terrifying, but achievable.

When I set my mind to something I find it hard to wait for it, so it kills me to see things in the plan for 1, 2 or 3 years away, because I just want to do all of it yesterday. But I also want to do everything properly, because half-arsing it just isn't my style. So this year the big goal is to improve my Dutch, and that involves quite a few smaller goals, the first of which is completing an intensive course in Amsterdam in February. On top of that I've got a long list of goals for my business, for my home, for holidays and for my personal life, and I can honestly say that I've never come into a New Year feeling so excited about the future :)


Oh, the photo is of a massive oil rig that's being repaired in the Harland and Wolff shipyard, Belfast's unofficial Christmas tree