Putting up my feet

I’m sitting in the loungeroom, snuggled under a blanket glancing now and then at the flickering fire and I’m blogging. Why - because I can! Tonight is my night. I’m having a true night off – no planning, no plotting, no making lists of phone calls to make tomorrow – a real switch off night to celebrate a month of intense pressure.

‘A goal is a dream with a deadline’ is a quote I’ve read at my hairdressers. (Thanks Cathy!) In November I set myself a deadline – June 1^st – the date to release my book. Exactly one month ago I announced that I was taking pre-orders for my book – I gave my private goal a very public deadline and myself a huge dose of pressure!

It is only tonight, having mailed off the last of the pre-ordered copies, that my shoulders have finally relaxed, that my tight brows have unknitted and my face has broken into a smile – a smile that has been in place since I spoke with one of the earliest recipients of the book yesterday. I am prone to being outcome focused, which is probably an asset when you decide to write a book, but it can also mean I miss the joy of an achievement as there is always another task to complete. Not tonight though. Tonight I am sitting still, feeling pride in the culmination of three years of hard work, persistence, attention to detail and commitment – all held together with a mighty big dash of adaptability.

I’m so glad I heard The Future Women podcast where Jamila Rizvi shared her thoughts on the link between resilience and adaptability – as an eight-year-old I lacked adaptability and it made life challenging – very challenging. Somewhere in the last 50 years, probably mostly in the last 15 years, I have developed the ability to adapt – and it has been a life changer. I could never have converted my dream into a goal without adaptability but more on that another time. Right now, I’m off to finish a book – not writing one, or promoting one, or talking about one, simply reading one while sipping a nice cup of tea.