To plan or not to plan

Life seems to be getting away from me at the moment.

This morning, the former secretary of the writers circle came over to give me the files, and sort out the email account etc.  He  was late which didn’t help. We went through various bits of paperwork, then he  showed me how to blind copy a message to all the members at once. After he’d gone,  I tried to do that myself and it wouldn’t work! So now I’m officially secretary of Leeds Writers Circle – email address – leedswriters@btinternet.com  if you know anyone who might want to join.  

I’m giving a talk/workshop for the U3A tomorrow, in Harrogate. The idea was to NOT plan it too much. What I didn’t bank on was one of my workmen turning up. Can he talk??????? Not half. The upshot is I think I’m prepared but as every group is different, you can never quite tell how things will go.

Why am I not planning the talk too much? 

It’s all about feeling the fear and doing it anyway. If you plan everything to within an inch of its life and the event goes well, the credit goes to the planning which means next time you have to over- plan again. By doing less preparation, the hope is that when it goes well (please) I can take some of the credit and put it down to my knowledge and ability to communicate with people, rather than having spent 19 hours planning everything.

I managed to get into a bit of a flat spin earlier. This is the first workshop/talk I’ve done this year and that threatened to make it overly important in my mind. I had to make a quick trip to the shops before I felt overwhelmed. Of course I came home with a clematis, lupins, hollyhocks and strawberry plants which then had to go into the garden…. Then the builder arrived.

You see what I mean about planning. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.