January 2022 News

The end of another year, the beginning of another: an obvious time to consider achievements of the past, and objectives for the future.

I don’t like to talk about ‘New Year’s Resolutions,’ as things that I must achieve or fail.  Instead, I like to take a piece of paper and write the date a year ahead on it.  I then write myself a sort of diary entry, as though the year has passed.  I write down where we are as a family, how the kids and Fabrizio have spent the year.  I write down where I want the business to be, as though it already is, how the workshops have gone, how the flowers have sold, how the creativity of the wedding installations made us use our creativity in exciting and new ways – I write how this business has developed so that the next year is possible.  I’m quite specific, with clear numbers for achieved figures, but also clear statements about the family and how we all are and feel: I don’t forget to include my health and the rest of the family’s.

This process makes me think clearly about what I’m going to have to do, the steps I’m going to have to take,  in order to be in the position I state in this year-ahead-diary entry. 

I was given this idea by Sara Kirkby (Sara Kirkby Event Style,) years ago, and it’s always a useful exercise.  I put the piece of paper in a drawer when I’ve finished it, and sometimes, a year down the line, I find it and read it again, and see what we’ve done.  However, looking back, piece of paper in hand, twelve months later, is not at all the point.  The point is the working out what has to be done in order to achieve the objectives, the steps that must be taken.  By writing it all down one is forced to be realistic, to consider time, space, whether the drive to achieve objective a, b, or c, is really there.  This makes one write a manageable list of things to do.  And so, often, the list is managed.

Will you simply declare a new year’s resolution?  Or will you too work out carefully what’s actually possible in a twelve month period?  Will you identify long-term objectives and the route you must take to achieve them? 

I find that this way of working means that, while I don’t always achieve the objective I imagine I’ve achieved in twelve months, I have usually taken a good many steps towards it, and if the original objective is not achieved, it’s often because I didn’t think the process through, and so have learned a lot of other things, discovered other paths I must take in order to get where I hope I’m going.

Workshops, demos, and 1-1 sessions at Common Farm Flowers are designed to help you achieve your objectives.  Do have a look at our list and book a place so that we can help you.

One of the important things I plan to do in 2022 is to make a clear, termlike structure for the Common Farm Flowers year.  I’ve always sort of done this: but I’d like to have much more event and information listed well in advance.  I plan to split the year into four clear seasons, and place the workshops and demos within those seasons in much more organised ways.  I hope to plan the ‘lives’ we do on Instagram in advance too, so that people can send through their questions and make sure they make time for them.  And I plan to use YouTube to mirror the rest of what we’re doing so that the clips we make add another layer, like the icing on a cake, to the information we share. 

I say this is a plan to implement in the new year, but actually… if it’s going to work, I need to start making that plan, and scheduling the social media and workshops around it, now.  Best get on then!

So happy new year friends.  Thank you for all your support and encouragement during 2021 – a year in which I really started to practise what I preach in my social media workshops, and so found I achieved a great deal more by doing more focused work, which took less time, and freed me up to do other things! 

And here’s to 2022 – and all our clearly planned objectives!

Georgie xxx