If You Plan to Plan you Fail to Fail...is that how it goes?

I have set myself on a new schedule in an attempt to get more accomplished during the day and have more to show at the end of the week. I have many aspects of my "business" life that all seem to pull and tug me in different directions and take up the limited time I have during the day (and night). I'm going to put into practice the advice to use 5% of my time to plan the other 95%. (And the cliche, If you fail to plan you plan to fail, keeps running through my mind.)

So, a big part of this planning initiative is making the time to write. To this point I have claimed it was what I wanted to do for a living, but only made time for it like a hobby. This has to stop if I am going to make this dream a reality. It's like the scene in (one of my absolute favorite books) The Alchemist, when the boy realizes that not everyone actually wants to acheive their dreams and goals--some people are happy just having a dream. I don't want to be one of those people. Although I live most of my life in my mind (the result of an over active imagination), I do enjoy seeing the fruits of my labors, so to speak.

So with this new schedule, with specific and concrete goals, I venture into what I hope is the next stage of my writing, where I am able to complete two books a year, not as hobbies, but as a serious means to support my family. I know that I created another blog to discuss my more religious thoughts and subjects, but I need to cross that line for a minute on this topic.

I have been self-employed going on four years. A large part of that decision to leave the safety of State employment and seniority was the feeling Natalie and I both had that I was supposed to pursue my writing (and I felt that working full time and being away from home for nearly 11 hours a day wasn't going to allow for this). In my heart, and in a very real sense, I promised God that I would write if I was able to stay home. Of course, anyone who has ever been self-employed knows that you work harder and longer when you are relying on yourself and the money you make instead of the money you earn at a job. My writing again took a backseat to my business efforts, and my spare time was quickly and mindlessly filled with old Seinfeld episodes.

When I was forced to return to the workplace last year, I realized (again) how good I had it working from home and re-committed to work harder and make writing a priority in my life, and (again) made a deal with God that if I was able to return to working from home that I would continue to use my talents (limited as they might be) to write and reach people through my words.

We were blessed with yet another opportunity to return and work from home again, and then the words of Joseph Smith struck me to the very center: "Men not unfrequently forget that they are dependent upon heaven for every blessing which they are permitted to enjoy, and that for every opportunity granted them they are to give an account." It was like God was speaking directly to me and I redoubled my efforts to make sure that I succeed this time, that regardless where I am working--at home or in a cubicle somewhere--that I continue to make the development and use of this talent to use, for I will be asked to give an accounting when all is said and done, and as I have said many times before, I never want to hear myself utter those words, "If I'd only..."

--Guy