Andrea Mann

Andrea Mann is a British screenwriter

The Goals Post

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James Taylor’s great song ‘October Road’, or as I am currently hearing it in my head: ‘October Goals’

I have just written down my October goals. I do this every month (write down that month’s goals, not my October goals – that would be weird, except for in October), and they cover all kinds of things, though they tend to focus on work and health/fitness.

I by no means always attain them – especially the health/fitness ones – but, as I touched on in my last post, I try to keep them to goals I can control.  There’s no point in me writing, for example, that my goal is to win a BAFTA – especially as the BAFTA Film Awards take place in February, not October. No. Instead, for example, one goal I’ve written down this month is: ‘Deliver an outline I’m proud of, to deadline’. Those are pretty much aspects I can control when it comes to my current work project – which is, you guessed it, writing an outline (a prose document written ahead of a script) for some lovely producers, to an upcoming deadline in October.

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The Habit: An Unexpected Journey

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AKA: The Two Daily (And One Weekly) Habits That Helped Me In 2016

img_2245It’s strange reaching the end of The Year So Awful It Became An Adjective knowing that on a personal level, it was possibly my happiest, most fulfilling year yet. It’s also strange to look back and realise that most of the lovely things which happened to me in 2016 were things I hadn’t seen coming in 2015: I got engaged, I got married and I went to Santorini (yes, these three things are connected); I got a place on a political mentoring scheme (with Jess Phillips MP as a kick-ass mentor); I performed an all-singing, all-dancing All That Jazz routine in front of an audience (although the less said about my rendition of ‘I Dreamed A Dream’ the better); I started using London’s bicycle hire scheme and now regularly zip around the capital on two wheels, grinning like a 10-year-old (although this could be because I’m high on traffic fumes).

Even if the only thing I’d done in 2016 was marry the kind, caring, supportive, loving, handsome man I did, I would call the year a success. Dammit, I’d call my life a success. And the fact that this year involved other happy achievements, too – plus the fact that I’m looking forward to 2017 as much as I am – is down to a few things, I think. Most notably: a shift in attitude to life, and most importantly, to myself. I’m going into next year feeling braver, more resilient, more confident, more me than I’ve ever felt in my whole life.

And the reason for this post is to share three habits I adopted in 2016– and which I’m taking into 2017– that I think have helped me make that shift in thinking (and feeling). They’re habits which have had brilliant knock-on effects: they’ve helped me to achieve certain goals – not least because they’ve helped keep me on track throughout the year – and they’ve helped me to deal with life, and all its challenges, better.

In short, they’re habits which I’ve found hugely helpful – and I hope you’ll find helpful, too. And they are… *drumroll*… [Read more…]