Schedules and Flexibility: A Paradox? I think not!

 Recently I had a life-changing event. You may remember my quick note on IG at the beginning of October. This event, which I would like to keep private (thank you for understanding xo ), kind of messed me up for a while. I’m still feeling the effects of it over a month later. Things are better, getting back to an almost kind of normal, but things are different. Some good; some bad. As would be the case with any event that changes your life in some way, no matter how big or small.At the time, I was well on my way to finishing the second book in the BlackRock Valley series by mid-October. When this event happened, my schedule got as rocked as my life did. My personal deadline of Oct 17 to be finished writing Lucy’s B&B came…. and it went. I don’t even think I got back to writing until over a week after that date.Almost immediately following the event, I fell into an incredibly busy time with my work and life in general, which took away from my writing time as well. For those who don’t know, along with being a romance author, I’m also a scopist. That is to say, I edit transcripts for court reporters. Then about two weeks ago, I fell ill—just regular sickness, not the ‘big’ sickness that’s stopped the world recently—but it did stop me from working for several days. To say I’ve had a stressful month and a half is an understatement. But what this time period has been teaching me is about flexibility. I feel at my age I’ve grown into a fairly flexible person overall. Of course I like rules and schedules and itineraries, but I also like to go with the flow. I am mostly a person who, if something throws a wrench in my schedule, I can step back and assess the situation in order to continue on without having a meltdown.Because, as they say, life happens, and we can only control so much of it. However, with this event that happened, I’ve learned to become even more flexible. Like I said above, my personal deadline to finish writing the first draft of Lucy’s B&B came and went. The first day of November came and went. And instead of getting down on myself and my writing, I decided to reevaluate the situation and create a new schedule.  With this, I didn’t just set it and forget it. I posted it on IG—if you follow me (which if you aren’t, why not? I post good shit :-P ) you’ll have seen the schedule above. I posted it for everyone to see that I’ve put myself on this new schedule and now I need to follow it, because if I don’t, I’ll have to answer to you all who’ll be wondering where the new installment is. I posted it for accountability to get myself back on track after having allowed myself the time needed to get past the life change and to heal from it. I’m not completely healed from it, but I am at a better place. I’m at a time where I can get back to the reality of schedules and deadlines and get back to work and writing.  And speaking of writing, remember I said I was sick a couple weeks ago and couldn’t work? Well, the third day of the worst of it, while I couldn’t sit at my desk and work on scoping, I could relax in bed or on the sofa and get some writing done. Not all of it is good—haha!—because I did have a bit of brain fog. But that’s what editing is all about! And after 8 days of being sick, 5 days of no scoping, and 3 days of on and off writing… I’ve completed the second installment of the BlackRock Valley series.   The first draft of Lucy’s B&B was finished on November 7, a full 13 days ahead of the new schedule!! (The schedule was made before I got sick and had that extra time to write)I am so stinking excited! Are you?! You should be. This InstaLove will make you swoon! Being flexible involves more than compromise. Being flexible is also about taking a situation and making the best of it. If one thing doesn’t work, figure out an alternative. If the alternative doesn’t work, figure out a plan C. Don’t let one situation ruin your motivation to keep going. Things don’t always go to plan. Life has ways of throwing random wrenches at us—sometimes it seems for no other reason but to see if we can handle the change. And when we do handle it, hopefully with grace but not always I’m sure, we grow from it. We learn from it. That is, if we allow ourselves to.  I am always striving for better. I am always wanting to grow from situations, good and bad. If we don’t learn from what we’ve been through, what’s the point? I hope you take away from this that everything in life is not going to run smoothly. And when that happens, just step back, reevaluate, and keep moving, grasshopper. Life will happen. Learn to go and grow with it. No questions this week. Only good vibes. Be flexible, Beauty.