On the eve of my fortieth birthday, I thought I’d blog about my evolving set of life guidelines. I started compiling this list in an attempt to identify useful professional practices (always keep an up to date curriculum vitae on your desktop: that kind of sensible stuff) and it gradually morphed into snippets that were more to do with everyday crap (put the car keys in the same place in your handbag everyday). It ain’t rocket science, just a valiant attempt to keep the general complexities of life from swamping the good stuff. Here’s an edited version of some of the things that made it onto the list:

1. Don’t try and cook gourmet meals with a cranky toddler underfoot, especially on a daycare night. (Please note that I’m defining ‘gourmet’ loosely to mean ‘more than one pot’).

2. In any hard decision, the heart knows best.

3. Being crazy in this business isn’t necessarily a bad thing. (I’m slowly giving up the attempt to appear normal).

4. On any given day, focus more on what you have done, not what remains to be done.

5. One for me, one for the world, one for my girl. (Which basically means that when I’m considering which job to do next, I ask myself ‘which job on this list is most likely to generate income?’ That’s my first job. I then balance this by doing a freebie/community based/organise other artists/sustainbility thing. And the next job is anything that relates to my daughter and her current or future life).

6. Write the subject, not your imagined view of the subject. (Something I learned while writing a series of biographies: it’s actually more interesting to start with fact and use it as the basis of a creative work, as opposed to something that starts and ends in pure fiction).

7. Give yourself permission to enjoy both art and writing. (A lingering idea that having a creative job, and loving what you do, is somehow wrong and something you need to apologise for).

8. ‘Land the first plane first’. (To be said in a twangy American accent: a second hand snippet I picked up from a time management/job prioritisation course attended by a colleague).

9. ‘If you think you can, you’re right; and if you think you can’t, you’re right’.

10. Any rule is just a guideline.