I started the week in a flourish of domesticity and have ended it bogged down in the executive part of my life.  I had a bit of a wake up call – literally.

I woke this morning realising that my GST return (same as VAT to readers in the UK) was due yesterday.  Opphs.

After momentarily thinking I should leap out of bed and plead my case to the Inland Revenue I then relaxed an remembered that there were thousands of others out there that have probably done the same.  What the heck, what’ a few hours delay going to do to the funding of New Zealand Government finances.  Although I suspect that the way things are every little bit helps.

If you’re wondering what all this has to do with this floating fern ball.  Good question.

This fern ball struck me as a perfect image for reflection this week and it was languishing in my photo stock waiting for it’s grand unveiling.

This ball hangs over the civic square in Wellington seemingly suspended in the air.  When you get up close of course you can see it has wires that are keeping this piece of art afloat.

It’s been quite a week weather wise.  We have 45mm of rain, mostly on Wednesday and today.  Let me tell you that is a heck of a lot of rain.  It caused disruption on the roads, the poor chickens hardly spread their wings and the bassets languished on the veranda not wishing to get their paws wet.  Us country folk enjoy a spot of rain to keep the water tanks filled up but as always New Zealand doesn’t do rain is small amounts and especially not here in Kaitoke.

We’ve had 200mm more of rain than our Wellingtonian friends this year already and they’re complaining heaps like the world is going to end.  I think it was to do with the flash storms on Wednesday that woke most of Wellingtonians up with lighting and pebble sized hail.  By all accounts it looked like it had snowed after the short storm.  You can read about my blogging friend Sarah’s report on her blog.

With the GST and provisional tax sorted I started to clear my desk for the weekend.  I came to realise that the clearing part was going to be a bigger challenge than I thought.  I have had lots of coaching appointments this week and whilst the client leaves those meetings with the things to do there is still a round of follow up work for me.

First up, booking next appointments.  Logging hours for invoicing and coach accreditation purposes.  Sending activities and readings to clients to help them towards their goals.  Writing up notes from the sessions so we can pick up the discussions at the next session.  And finally storing away all the paperwork in the cupboard.  And all that is with existing clients.  Don’t get me started on the list of things I need to do to generate new business.

All this is very manageable if that’s all I have to do.  When you start to mix coaching with consulting it all gets a little trickier to balance.  I’ve got two assignments on the go at the moment which mean lots of phone calls, research and writing up programmes for leadership events.  I really enjoy this sort of work as digging down to find out what it really is the client needs can be fun.  Then the challenge is to present all this to the client and persuade them that this is the right thing for them and not what they originally thought they wanted to do.

With all this going on, I sort of feel a bit like this fern ball is.  I have  clear idea of what I want to be doing as a Domestic Executive but it’s not always easy as the background of life often closes in.  And some days it can get very cluttered and muddled and on those days I feel frustrated and dissatisfied.

Luckily I’ve learned what I need to do when this happens.  Taking time to get things in perspective.  Not beating myself up about those things I didn’t do.  Re-setting my goals and gaining a new focus to move forward on.

I’m going to be doing a lot of refocusing this weekend.  With the list of chores from the summer almost complete it’s time to draw up a new plan of action. For people who know me well I’m famous for my lists of things to do. I feel  new list coming on.

My friend Sarah sent me some charming stationery for my birthday – a To Don’t List.  Oh how easy it will be to use that.  And the new files she sent me. I digress.  But these products are fun, check them out.

Yes, this weekend I’m going to overhaul my thinking.

But first I need to make some pizza dough – the first without the bread-maker.  Wish me luck!