It’s nearly Christmas. It’s nearly the New Year. I did heaps of good stuff this year, and I guess I am reflecting a wee bit. I wrote a book. Which has always been a bit of a dream of mine. And it is D.O.N.E. – thanks to a team of great people at Hardie Grant, Tim James and the very great people at Ortolan. And thanks to a HUGE swag of fantastic Australian crafty people who contributed super great projects to the book. And thanks to my family and friends too – who put up with all the testing and the fabric and the ink and the hammers and the nails and all the crafty hoo-haa. And forward thanks to the people that might buy the book I did – because that’s important too!
I wanted to tell you a bit about the conception of the book, because I know a LOT of people dream about writing a book, and I like dreams. And I like books. And I think it’s really good to share this stuff. So here goes…
About 18 months ago I thought about all the things I wanted to do. I wanted MOST to have a happy life and a happy family. I wanted NEXT to have a business that did good stuff and had meaning and made people smile. And I wanted NEXT most to write a book about something that was important to me.
It dawned on me that dreams are really NOT enough. They are really good, but unicorns are good too, and you don’t see them helping old ladies across the road or getting elected or stuff like that. You need to do a bit more than dream, don’t you?! You have to get out there and have a go. You have to try and make the things you most want happen. They are not going to arrive on a bus wrapped in brown paper with your name on them and a stamp that says VERY BEST EVER DREAM OF MISS LUCY-JANE SMITH. I am sorry, but they are not, I know that’s sad. But the thing is… you totally have to do something about these aforementioned dreams.
Consider this – Dreams are like mosquitoes, (only nicer) – buzzing about, leaping centuries unscathed, inspiring epics of Spielberg-ian proportions, making you feel tetchy, hard to get rid of and ever present. Also like mosquitoes, they can create an itch.
And this is the thing. You don’t want that itch to be everlasting, do you? You don’t want to set yourself up for a life of Stingose and Citronella and cold compresses. What you DO want to do is ACT. I don’t mean like foppish as in Hugh Grant or kooky-cute like Zooey Deschanel. What I mean is ‘Make A Move’. However small, do something to move towards the amazingly great thing that you want to do. Be ready to be knocked back, for sure, but also be ready for good stuff. Life might surprise you. It totally surprises me every single day.
I would also like to point out, that if you are on the defensive or if you’re too busy making excuses as to WHY you can’t do stuff (and how hard your life is and all the pressures you have to deal with), well, you might not spot the guy who is holding the sign marked ‘DID YOU WANT TO HAVE A GO AT THAT REALLY COOL DREAM THINGY?’ And that would be a shame, wouldn’t it?!
Okay. Enough now. But really… think about it. Because I know there is some stuff on the back burner that is probably REALLY important to you. And I think you should do the stuff that is important to you. Even if it doesn’t work out, it’s so very great to give it a go, don’t you think?
xx