10 people, 10 success stories

So how did the Somedayers do? We had 10 people with 10 projects and 30 days in which to crack them. Each person was trying something they had always said they’d do “someday”. They started at the beginning of January. We had three writers, two piano players, two singers, a table tennis player, a learner driver and a start-up business idea.

Donegal-based teacher Dolores Francis wanted to give French lessons over the phone. She had a nifty name – Francophone – and a plan. “Doing it every day was no problem. The biggest challenge was to restrict the amount of time so I didn’t spend all day at it.” Much of her time was spent mastering the computer skills. “The group initiative was wonderful and to be able to touch base on a regular basis was great.” Her sister has advised her to keep a diary in which she will “plan, do, review, day by day or week by week”. You can find her on Facebook under Francophone2013.

Loyola Browne’s home in Dundalk echoes to the sound of her piano-playing after a long absence. She was talking to a friend before Christmas when her friend remarked how sad it was that she no longer played the piano. “I just burst into tears. I realised I’d given so much of myself I’d forgotten something important to me.”

So in January she played almost every day. “It felt like reconnecting with my younger self. I just love music. It calms me. There’s far too much stress in my life so it’s a safety valve. When I’m playing, it feels like I’m conscious and grateful for the wonderful people in my life.” Making music is helping her through an incredibly difficult time. “If you’re walking with your head up, you see the signposts that life gives you. And it’s enormously empowering to realise that sometimes the most important voice you hear is your own.”

Our second piano player, Sheila Robinson, in Cork, found the support group “made a huge difference”. She “fell off the wagon a bit in February” as work got busier and it’s now up to her alone to sit down at the piano. Did practicing every day help? “It probably did help to change my attitude. I think I need to do it consistently to keep up the skills.”

In Dublin, Samantha Long no longer feels like she’s “going to throw up” when she sits into the driver’s seat of a car. Thanks to another Somedayer (Edward Darcy) she found a driving instructor who made the lessons enjoyable, not least because he had tales of teaching Maeve Binchey and Colin Farrell to drive. Did the daily discipline help? “I can’t say I did it every day, but when I wasn’t doing it I was thinking about it, or reading the rules of the road.” Her children were “remarkably supportive”, sitting quiet as mice in the back of the car. At the end of one journey, her nine-year-old son said he was so proud of everything she’d done on the drive, “but particularly the roundabouts”.

Doing it so intensively brought a huge reward. “I feel like I’m a driver and I’m much more confident in what I’m doing,” Long says. She’ll keep us posted on how she does in her test on her blog Samanthaelong.wordpress.com

Another Dublin-based somedayer, Glynis Stanley, packed her table tennis bats in a suitcase to bring with her to Spain towards the end of her 30 days – to the amusement of the hotel receptionist when she fished them out of her bag. A breast cancer survivor, she wanted to get back to playing the game, and to walk in between games to improve her fitness.

“I want to get my grandson, who’s now 12, into playing. We are already walloping the ball to each other up and down the diningroom table. It wasn’t just something I took on for the month but I needed to build my stamina. It gave me confidence to be told, with coaching, that I had potential.” In the Dundrum Table Tennis club she can get coaching and play regularly. “It’s incredible for fitness and speed. You use every muscle from your toes to your shoulders and neck.” As someone who couldn’t stand the “relentless monotony” of the gym, she has found her sport, not least because it comes with a lot of interaction with other people.

Journalist Christina Hession wanted to get a short story written and found she was “very gung-ho in the first two weeks”. Then it became a bit of a lonely road without any signposts. “I needed someone to tell me if I was doing it right, where to go with it. I would have loved to have had a published short story writer to guide me.” After that, she found it hard to carve out the time to write. “I need to have to report to somebody, like a Unislim for writers.”

Despite all that, she got her story written, won a newspaper short story competition and has signed up for a writer’s workshop.

In Rathfarnham, Edward Darcy has finished his book, filled with memories of his late wife, Ria, and stories of her childhood from her family. “It’s quite short, a small book with a lot of photographs. But I never would have completed it without the challenge. It was always the thing I’d get around to some time.” Did doing it in January help? “It did.”

It felt like being part of that general stirring feeling in the days after Christmas when we make lists of things we want to do or get finished, he explains. Having finished one project he’s got several others in mind. He’s got an idea for a novel and is taking a skiing holiday. He has also booked a course of French lessons over the phone with fellow Somedayer Dolores Francis. “She’s a very good teacher.”

In Waterford, Norma O’Meara, who wanted to take up singing, is planning to join a group class. Did the discipline of doing a little every day for 30 days crack it for her? “Success is too big a word,” she says. “I started. That’s the main thing.”

Nichola Elliott is taking singing lessons in Dublin and enjoying them, although her goal of singing an opera aria for her sister’s birthday still looks ambitious. “The whole experience is uplifting and joyous.” As a working parent of three children, she thinks she might have to shelve some tennis playing to focus on her singing. What has she learned? “To always give it a try. If there is something you think you might like to do in life, you have nothing to lose by just giving it a go.”

Librarian Teresa Carley is working on the short story that she wrote over the 30 days. “Without the someday initiative I would possibly never have tried and now I know I can do it if I put my mind to it.” She loved the feeling of achievement, “however that honeymoon period is now over and I am into the real world of trying to create something on an ongoing basis. As with everything, it will take time, patience and regularity to be truly successful.”

As their mentor, it was a hugely positive start to the year for me. It was fascinating to see a group of total strangers becoming a support team for each other. In a way, I shoved the boat out into the water and they all started rowing. Occasionally I shouted encouragement and waved from the shore but the real pull and heave of effort, and the achievements, were all theirs.

Catherine Cleary's book, A Month of Somedays: How One Woman Made the Most of Now , is published by Londubh books, in bookshops and at londubh.ie