Coming back from Spain

My Journey so far

We moved from the UK were we were business advisers with staff, to living in Spain semi retired and no staff. Land, fruit and nut trees, olives, hens however no mains electric and water from our own well we looked forward to living the good life. However it was not to last my other half became ill, the pound was devalued and we had to return to the UK.

Whist in Spain I’d toyed with the idea of working online however poor internet connection and electricity from a generator made it near on impossible. The idea of writing a book was next on the agenda to be investigated, whilst working as business adviser for many years the information and knowledge that we had gained was immense.

When we moved to Spain we took boxes of books and material from courses we had designed and run, our study was full of what my husband called stuff. Because I’m a collector of stuff it was easy to start the book, we spent hours going through the material we had used with our clients over the years and the book began to take shape.

My husband’s illness and the move back to the UK meant the book was put on hold for a full year, then in February this year we decided that it was time to take on the challenge and restart the book.

What a challenge it as turned out to be, a change in Government as meant everything that had been done had to be double checked, website, funding, contacts, advisers lots of changes and even when my book is finished there could still be more changes looming.

My first job was to decide on the headings for the chapters the content I already had, however as most was written for clients on a one to one basis and some was written for seminars it had to be rewritten for a new audience.

Proof reading is a nightmare and at the moment it is in it’s fourth draft my husband is working on my spelling and grammar and I’m busy rewriting like mad.

Now my good friend Bob Mouncer is going to do the final proof reading for me, and because proof reading is what he does I’m a little apprehensive. However whatever is said I’ll deal with it, correct it and finish the job.

Each day I write my daily goals usually three, one for the book one for my home and the other for my family. For me it is a necessity, when my nose is in the computer all else stops my house work falls by the wayside and my family ask if they have to have an appointment to talk to me.

Now each evening when it’s time to put my feet up I take a double sided piece of clean A4 paper. At the top there is my main goal followed by my three goals for the day. This if followed by my plan as though the days goals have been completed in the present tense.

Turn the page over, at the top of the page there is written my major problem in the form of a question followed by 20 one line answers. Beneath that is an action point I select one from the 20 one line answers and do it immediately. At the end of the day most have been ticked of as achieved and what ever as not been done are forwarded to the next days list. This way I don’t feel that I have failed. It also keeps me focused.

I hope you will make this journey with me, please leave a comment we may learn a lot from each other. Whilst knowledge is power I believe it is there to be shared. Please feel free to leave a comment and pop by tomorrow to find out what happens next.