Planning

This post is borrowed (with permission) from Nancy Farmer, as swimmer and artist from Somerset in the UK. You can see some of her art Here, but she is also active on Wordpress and Facebook. I did not include any of the pictures of Roger. 

This morning I have mostly been drawing naked people. Well, ok just one naked person six times. This is Roger.

A fellow artist complained that she kept going off the edge of the paper, I said she just needed to take a bit of care and plan where to place the drawing on the paper at the start. To which she said, slightly aghast 'oh I don't like to plan!' ...see, this is a problem, you can't be fabulously spontaneous without careful planning first, otherwise there is a danger that you will - maybe metaphorically - fall of the edge of your paper.

Don't look at me as if 'Plan' is a four-letter word ;-)””.

This may be the most brilliant thing I have read all week. Planning is absolutely essential toalmost everything you do. I am a big fan of planning to make sure all the essentials are in place so I can relax and have fun. A prime example of that is winter swimming. It may only last a few minutes, but it is way more fun with a tent set up, knowing exactly how my clothes are laid out so I can get dry and dressed in a hurry, and having friends who know what to do in case of an emergency. Here is a picture of me with some of my buddies on a winter swim from a few years ago. We are all wearing caps with synchronized swimmers in a design that looks like snowflakes, made by Nancy.