My daughter Loobys 11th birthday portrait

Good morning dear reader and yes it's a slightly later time of the day for me and my blogging fingers but I slept remarkably well until 9am (you can tell the girls and Petunia are staying at their dads until tomorrow) and now I am back in bed with my Mac and a cup of gingerbread coffee (only 2 cals per cup).

I've been thinking about success and what it is over the last few days, I really do believe that at varying times in my business I have actually achieved that, I also feel however that I achieved it at a great price, that of my marriage.

I never do anything by halves, it's not in my personality type, I either have to launch myself into things 150% or not at all, I can't have a like for something, I either love it or hate it with very little in between.  It's just the type of person I am.  It's probably why when I met Paul we found ourselves married within 6 months.

I actually find it quite easy to work 7 days a week, 365 days a year and up to 17 hours a day if necessary, all I have to let it do is consume me and fill me with passion and it's enough to nourish me to the point where I can put everything else aside.

Just lately I have reduced my hours so that I only work 3 days a week, 5 hours a day and then 1 day at weekends although during the busy times I do have to work more at weekends because that's when people want to have photo shoots, it's not that much trouble to adjust my diary every now and again but if there's something I've learned over the past few weeks and months it's that you can't put business above family because if you don't have business you will find a way to survive but if you don't have family and love well you just become an empty shell, man cannot live by money alone but give a man love and he'll find a way to make life work for him because I believe when you have love you can do anything, you can change the world if you have to.  I do know something and that is love is everything, business and success is a contributor to happiness but it's not the whole world.

And so if anyone asks me now I'll tell them that for a while there I was successful, I'm sure I could have achieved great things but I'd rather just trundle along now and have a chance that love and family might nourish all of those parts that I used to fill with work and the general running of business.

Don't get me wrong, I adore the career I have and writing and photography are careers which can actually be kind to family life and easily adapt to whichever situation you are in but my days of photographing 300 sessions in a year are over and I am happy with that decision.  I plan to put 150% into loving the ones I cherish and cherishing the ones I love just as I wrote in my blog about making a life plan

So this weekend dear reader get out there and do the same, put down those keyboards and pens and go have fun with those you love whether they be your children, your partners or your pets, embrace them and love them for if they disappeared from your life you would notice a lot more than if that spreadsheet you''re working on for Monday went missing.

Making a Life Plan, 5 Steps To a Happier Life

Yesterday dear reader I was thinking about life and business and making plans for the future, I think we can never anticipate what's around the river bend, it takes great foresight to make any plans because often the path is so hidden but in business it's always good to make a 5 year plan and I reassess mine every once in a while and so I got to thinking, why didn't I make a 5 year life plan, why didn't I put my expectations for the future down on paper (or on Facebook in my case) and then I would have them there to remind me and I could reassess how I was doing.

And so here it is, I am pleased to present my new life plan to you all - 

1. To only do business with lovely people
2. To only be surrounded by lovely people
3. To try to be as lovely as I can each and every day
4. To cherish the people I love
5. To love the people I cherish

Goodbye to Rain cloud people, people with crazy expectations, drama queens, harsh people and generally miserable people.

Now obviously I have some stuff I have to deal with immediately to change that both professionally and personally, I'm as guilty as the next person of not having the vision to see the true colours of other people and everyone pretends to be nice when you meet them but toxic relationships in either personal or professional lives are so very harmful, I think sometimes that even if it's a little messy to rid yourself of these poisonous people in the short term when you look back in the longer term you'll find you are so much happier.

Whilst we cannot change other peoples behaviours I do believe that if we change our own behaviour then peoples attitudes towards us both in business and leisure will have to change.  So today I would like to encourage you to be the master of your own destiny, write yourself a life plan, it doesn't have to be a 5 year plan it can be a 5 day plan, a 5 week plan or a year but the best thing to do is just have some guidelines of things you want to do or achieve or the place where you want to be literally, spiritually or emotionally and then do it!

I make mistakes, sometimes I screw things up for myself without even realising it until later but the key is not to beat yourself up about that, just get your life plan out and remind yourself of the things you need to do so that you can be happy and magnificent in the long term.

Good luck and go forth and have a wonderful Wednesday.