Are you still saying “I’ll get round to that one day…”?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in almost seven years of working for myself, it’s this: you have to do what you say you will.

 (I’m glad we’re not in January anymore.  Aside from it being rubbish in general, January is the worst month for anybody – especially clients – actually doing what they say they will.  I take every message that yelps “I’ll get this over to you tomorrow, I promise!” with a large ceramic shakerful of salt.)

Doing what you say you will is a good rule for life, too. 

Constantly saying “I’ll get round to that one day,” while never actually getting round to it, has the potential to chip frustratingly away at your self-confidence (why do I make promises I can’t keep?)

It also has the potential to embarrass you in polite company, as other people remind you of that time when you said you were definitely going to learn Swahili, or master the art of découpage.

A few years back, I was out for a twinkly New Year’s dinner with my then-boyfriend and some of our friends.  One asked us what we planned to do with the year-in-bud, and my boyfriend confidently replied that he was going to take piano lessons and “finally sort out my website.”

This (straight-talking, Danish) friend furrowed his brow.  “Aren’t those the same things you said you were going to do last year?” he said.

Reader, they were.

I’m not immune to the whole “one day” thing myself, mind.  I might have published two books, but I’ve also been writing the same novel for over a decade.

While I always insist that the damned thing is nearly finished – it is, I tell you! – it’s no less embarrassing when people ask me how it’s all going.

(Not least because when I started my novel, I was only a few years older than my troubled heroine.  Now she remains stuck in her unripe quarter-life crisis as I pad softly towards the menopause.  This has presented what the professionals might call an “author’s challenge”.)

I’m so desperate to finish that I recorded a podcast episode at the start of this year, stating my writerly intentions.  Feel free to hold me fully to account next January.

Is writing a book on your “I’ll get round to that one day” list?

It might just be.  Over half of Brits “would like to write a book”, apparently.

When I set myself up as a freelance writer, I had no idea that so many other people also wanted to write.  But from my chats with friends, acquaintances, and strangers alike, it’s clear that they do.

(Back when I was one, nobody ever told me that they too wanted to be an HR Manager.)

I also learned that some of the main reasons behind “I’ll get round to that one day” are not knowing how, and not having the right support.

“There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.” (Maya Angelou)

So if you finally want to break that procrastinatory spell, I can offer a few focused and supportive options:

• Gentle, purposeful, contract-free mentoring.
• A one-off, 90-minute Plan Your Masterpiece session.
• My newly-launched online course, How to Write Your Life Story.

If you’re not sure if any of these options are right for you, but you’d like to arrange a chat to find out, you can do that too.