As you would expect, The Planthunter is one pragmatic and down-to-earth individual. What Georgina Reid in not into, however, is new year’s resolutions.
‘I get that a new year is a new opportunity to make a fresh start, but surely fresh starts happen every single day when we wake up? Every minute we can turn over a new leaf if we choose to,’ she explains. ‘Lumping all the things we say or think we should do into the first week of each year seems like a recipe for disaster to me!’
You’re probably wondering, then, how she manages to get so much great stuff done (helming her own popular blog, contributing to great communities like The Diggers Club, and penning a much-loved monthly column for us!)? ‘I used to make big goals and cross my fingers I’d reach them. Sometimes I did, which was a pleasant surprise. Other times I didn’t, and then I’d be really pissed off at myself,’ she reflects.
Over the years she’s learned a few things on this topic:
1. Big goals are great, but you need to break them down into little, easily achievable ones that then lead you to the grand finale. It’s like looking at a map and saying, “go there”, whilst pointing to a random spot surrounded by wilderness. A road is a useful thing.
2. When you make smaller goals that are easily reached, it’s easier to be happier with yourself and more positive about your achievements.
Looking back on her 2017 resolutions, Georgina can’t really recall exactly how each goal was achieved. Can you? ‘I sometimes find my scrawling in notebooks about future ideas, visions and goals and am often surprised that a) I had the vision, and b) it happened!’ jokes Georgina, who is set to be a little more structured this time around.
That looks like this: ‘I know generally where I want to go in life, and whilst I don’t necessarily make comprehensive road maps illustrating how to get there, I do work to a mud map, scrawled in the dirt with a stick. Sometimes bits get washed away in the rain, others end up being dead ends, and usually, one track turns out to be the right one. Intuition is usually the driver!’
Being rather ‘anti’ new year’s resolutions, instead The Planthunter shares her list of things she plans to ‘meander towards in 2018’…
Study Birds
Since moving out of the city I have become a bit obsessed with birds. The two books on highest rotation at our house are Field Guide to Native Plants of Sydney and Field Guide to the Birds of Australia. I want to learn to identify all the birds I hear every day. Then, I guess, I’ll be into the insects, reptiles, fungi, etcetera. I reckon I’ve got a lifetime’s work ahead of me…
Prioritise Joy!
Since I started The Planthunter in 2014, I’ve been running on adrenalin, anxiety, and ridiculously demanding digital publishing timeframes. This cocktail, whilst energising in some ways, is bloody draining.
I’ve decided it’s time for me to stop putting so much pressure on myself to perform, achieve, and do, and focus on finding and cultivating joy and playfulness in my life. I want to focus on doing more things that fill my heart and connect me a little more with myself and the world around me. Balance, I guess, is what I’m after.
Be in my Garden
I have a garden of my own for the first time ever. I want to spend as much time in it as possible, testing, playing and growing a botanical ark. 2018 is the year of the garden, for me.
