Tossed salad

Paralyzed by indecision . . . pathetic, really. Tossing the same few things around and around in my brain like an overdressed salad. And coming up with the same answers. Yet unable to commit to any of them. Do I want to continue along on autopilot doing the same routine I’ve done before, content in my comfort zone? Do I want to turn it all upside down and try something scary and new, exposing myself to risk and failure? Is there ever a happy medium – like dipping your toe in an ice cold lake while bundled up in your sweater?

More than before I am compelled to flip things over and see what is on the other side. Toss out some long time scents or products that never quite catch on? Radically change my show schedule, to try new ones in areas I haven’t visited, at the risk of missing some of most loyal supporters at long-standing shows that just never quite profit like they should? Give up the old snail mail newsletter and go full throttle in the computer online world? Change the whole structure of the seasonal schedule – because really, who cares if the Spring newsletter arrives on Feb 1st or Feb 20th? What if it happened only three times a year? Or two?

Many of the original systems, schedules, products were born out of another context. And they have worked quite well, at least for a while. But now, in this new millennium, new decade, new year -- where we get the chance to recreate everything from scratch and follow what pique’s our interest just now -- do we keep maintaining tradition for tradition’s sake? Am I attempting to satisfy the customer’s expectations or just selling them short by not expending the effort?

So, chasing my tail, asking more questions than finding answers, I still have not scheduled the year ahead. I still have not planned out my seasonal products. I still have not worked out a plan for the newsletters and the web site. I still have not updated anything at all. My desk is clear. My year is wide open. My imagination is fighting with the confines of my own boxes.