Well, here we are, a week into World Watercolor Month, and I don’t think I’ve completed a single painting so far. That’s not to say I haven’t been working on my painting; just that I haven’t finished anything. I spent most of this last week prepping for a painting I’ve wanted to do for awhile, but didn’t have the nerve.

My real love, when it comes to types of paintings, is landscapes. Unfortunately, though, I haven’t developed my skills enough to feel confident in doing one without a step-by-step tutorial. I’ve decided to take the plunge and give it a try, though, so I’ve been doing all the preparatory steps I need to do: tracing the reference photo, swatching my colors to make sure I know which ones I want to use ahead of time, and doing a quick little test of the color mixes I’ve chosen.

All of that before I’m even ready to paint.

Do I have to do all that work? Well, I guess I could wing it, but it probably wouldn’t turn out the way I want it to, especially with me still being a ‘baby artist.’ Putting in the work ahead of time will give me a better chance of success once I actually start putting paint on the paper.

Prep work seems to be a theme in my life right now. I’m learning (or should I say being reminded of) how vital preparation is to success in many areas of our lives.

For instance, my hubby and I have recently been making a concerted effort to eat more healthfully, and the one thing that has helped us more than anything else is preparing to eat well. There are several things I do that help us stay on track.

First of all, I make a meal plan every week – not just when I feel like it – then make a grocery list from that meal plan.

Once I get the groceries home, I prep the produce and put it in the fridge, ready to be used when I need it. Since I’m doing all the washing beforehand, all I have to do when I take it out is cut it up. I also actually pre-cut some of the veggies we snack on and put them in partitioned containers so we can just pull out one thing and have several different veggies to put on a plate with some hummus or Greek Yogurt dip.

Another thing that helps is to prep some fruit and yogurt parfaits so we can just pull them out, top them with a little homemade granola, and voila! we have a nice, healthy snack that has 18 grams of protein. It can be a little calorie-heavy for a snack, but for me, the nutritional boost is worth it.

I also cook a batch of boneless, skinless chicken breasts every few days because we eat a salad for lunch almost every day, and that serves as our protein. Of course, I don’t do all this at the same time. I’ll usually prep all the produce when I bring it home, then a day or two later, I’ll do the yogurt parfaits and/or cut up the veggies for our snack container. The chicken breasts I do on an as-needed basis, but since they’re just a matter of seasoning and baking them, they don’t take much time or energy to prep.

Last but not least, to help ensure we can have healthy meals when I don’t feel up to cooking, I’ve been making freezer meals. I use The Family Freezer for my freezer meal recipes, and on days when I want to make a freezer meal, I just use the recipe to make two meals – one for that night and one to put in the freezer. You just put the raw ingredients in the bag and freeze it, then when you want to use it, you put it in the refrigerator to thaw the night before and all you have to do is cook it — all the prep work is already done.

See what I mean? A whole lotta prep going on around here right now! But doing all that prep work ahead of time is helping us be successful.

Whether we’re preparing to paint, to eat well, to give a presentation at work…..whatever we may be getting ready to do, doing a little prep work ahead of time can go a long way toward ensuring our success.

Whether it’ll help with this particular painting or not, I guess we’ll find out, but if nothing else, it’s one more piece of the puzzle when it comes to becoming the artist I want to be.

What examples can you think of where doing prep work ahead of time helped you be successful? Please share!