...in my spare time

Wednesday December 30^th 2009

I’ve been to see Julie & Julia. I love food, Paris and blogging so it was right up my alley. While I loved the movie, it was the beautifully portrayed goal setting and perseverance that really struck a chord with me.

Goal setting is not my strong point. I had already decided 2010 would be my year of setting goals AND working towards them but this movie came at just the right time for me, in that post-Christmas haze, you know the one where the only thing that seriously goes through your mind is a general light hearted dalliance with what may happen on New Year’s Eve.

So in Julie Powell style I’m setting myself a goal – a big one! The true beauty if Julie’s goal was that it was exactly perfect for her. It incorporated her loves and her strengths. I need a goal like that. I think too, that I’ve put as much thought into mine as she put into hers, well, at least as much as the movie indicated anyway. My goal for this year is to paint every day (or draw or some creative expression other than sewing) and to keep me honest I’m going to post it here daily too.

It might not sound like a huge change to you but it will be for me as I’m one of those who has difficulty prioritising my art anywhere near the top of my list. Other things and people are constantly slipped in ahead of my art practise. I was brought up to be “good” and considerate and as a consequence reaching goals really only works when they coincide 100% with what’s going on around me. Not that I want to indicate that I’m unsupported in this because I am generously and lovingly supported in this goal and always have been. This really is a personal goal, a job of surmounting my old ‘self’ to allow my real, genuine and creative self to flourish.

Now, I wonder how Julie Powell got those boxes for the number of recipes and the numbers of days on her blog? (Not that it’s there anymore.) I’m off to check out how I can record my year of perseverance here…

Saturday January 2^nd 2010

OK, I think we can all see the problem I will be attempting to surmount clearly demonstrated here. I could not find the little box widget to record the number of days left this year and the number of days I painted, then I got distracted and exactly zero painting has occurred.

I’ve been and dragged out my copy of The Magic Lamp: Goal Setting for People Who Hate Setting Goals, dusted it off (surely it can’t be THAT long since I bought it?) and I’m going to read it, set goals, work towards them AND paint.

So here’s the deal – I am going to try to post daily here this year, however I’m not going to let blogging come before the actual work I want to blog about! I may post an image without words some days, just to get it on here and some days I may not post at all, but I will be honest about the painting every day. Oh those heady days BEFORE New Year (way back on Wednesday when I started writing this!) when I could say to myself “It’s not New Year’s yet! I can leave it until tomorrow to paint.” I must start today. I must paint every day.