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A bit of fun this FridayNothing like having a few giggles while poking fun at yourself and your own obsessive tendencies… I loved the video comment from SmeadOrganomics This is hilarious Elaine! Thanks so much for posting. You raise some great organizing points in a funny way:)
Meal Planning can be as easy as one two three!I love this time of year where the slow cooker takes centre stage and we can enjoy flavor filled meals that only the crock pot can provide. From corporate boardrooms to casual gatherings the Meal Plan is always a hot topic. A casual mention of a weekly meal routine and I have everyone’s attention. The kitchen really is the heart of the home and when this room rocks it sets the stage for success for the whole day. However…Meal Planning is not always on the top of everyone’s list of to-do’s but when it is suppertime and you have a hungry crew looking for food…right now…without a plan you will spend more money on fast food and in the long run more time. You will find success in the kitchen with a few very easy meal planning techniques.Meal planning for the busy family needs to meet these minimum standards… Organizing is all about planning. Here are 3 steps to ensure meal planning success. 1. Family Meeting Time-Get the family together and ask what each person’s favorite weekly meal choices would be. Make sure the choices meet the meal planning standards! Create a master list of all the choices for breakfast, lunches, dinner and even snacks…this is also helpful for those school lunches. This list can be added to as new meal items are tried, tested and given a thumbs up. 2. Master Meal List- With the list of possible menu items in hand it is time to pull the weekly meal menu together. This can be as simple as a calendar with the healthy, quick easy meal items written in the spaces or you can go virtual with a handy meal planning tool. Post the menu in a spot where everyone can see it and you may be surprised when you head to the kitchen one morning to find that someone has already started the meal…really…kids and significant others do want to participate…let go…you can do it! 3. Grocery Shopping- With a week of meal ideas in hand it is now time to grab the weekly flyers and map out the plan of attack. By paying attention to weekly specials and deals you can stretch your grocery dollars…keeping money in your pocket. Organizing Today in the Kitchen can save Time, Money, add Convenience to your life and can lighten the load of responsibility….especially if there are other people who can share the load. Have fun…test new recipes…let the kids get involved…make meals a family event.
Knowing when that Time will arrive is a MysteryA tree branch grows when it is time to grow. A plant breaks through the surface of the soil at just the right time.
Every business, business idea and entrepreneurial dream has its own germination time…Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. Quotes help us when we need Inspiration, Please share your favorite Inspirational Quote…you never know who you might Inspire today!The Wheel of LifeIt is all about the light bulb moments. Recently I helped facilitate a de-cluttering workshop. Specifically de-cluttering is the process of eliminating the obstacles that prevent us from moving forward. Imagine, you are driving down a road and there is a road block…you have many options. You can sit and wait until someone else move the obstacle on the road, you can turn around and go back, you can find an alternate route or you can move the obstacle that is in your way. Some of the options mentioned are easy, some are difficult and some are just annoying.Here is the thing, what if what you really want is on the other end of that road…you will do pretty much anything to get there. Now you may be saying how does all this relate to organizing…organizing cannot happen until the de-cluttering process happens. The de-cluttering process cannot happen until the true reason for the obstacle is identified…this may all sound a bit foreign to you however at this moment if you are struggling with any part of your life it would help you on your journey if you identified the obstacles. One of the exercises we used during the workshop was the Wheel of Life exercise; if you Google image the term you can find a few examples of the wheel of life. Take a few minutes to print one off or draw your own. The circle is cut into pie shapes. At the end of each pie piece there are areas of life such as; health, wealth, family and friends, playtime-hobbies-fun, relationships, career-job, physical space, contribution-spirituality. There are ones that are common but if you have another area in your life that needs addressing then add it please. The next thing we did was to have a look at each area of the wheel and on the spoke made a mark relative to the contentment or discontentment that is happening in that area. Closest to the inside would be a ’0′ for that area and on the outside it would be a 10 meaning that area of your life is perfect and there is nothing you would change. So for example if you are very happy with your family and friends make a mark at the outside of the circle because you feel good about this area and it does not need changing. Now that you have an indicator of the separate areas of your life attach the marks on the inside of the circle…now you can see the areas of your life that are working and those that aren’t. This is where you can see the imbalances.Next question is how you improve how you are feeling about for example the area of physical space. Let’s say you rated this area low and are very unhappy with the clutter in your home. What is one thing that you can do today to improve this piece of your life? It could be as simple as asking the family to pick up after themselves (I did not say it was easy…just a simple question), perhaps it is time to let go of things that have accumulated and you feel guilt or shame for the things that you have and no longer use. Back to the road example…that guilt or shame associated with the stuff is the road block! Until you address the cause of the guilt and shame the clutter or obstacle is not going to go anywhere. For some it could be an event from childhood that triggers the guilt, for others it could be ego or loss of face about the stuff , for some it may be fear. Fear of the unknown and what is really on the other side of that road block. I love this exercise and I can honestly say when I do this myself I have many light bulb moments that help me to see where I am stuck and what I need to work on to move forward. The participants of these sessions always have them too…the aha’s and the nods…a knowing of why and now a process of what to do next. Please take some time and if nothing else do the wheel and honestly rate how you are feeling in each area of your life…you won’t regret the valuable time you will spend on YOU! Time Management is Bogus…Energy Management is CriticalYes I am back on the Time Bandwagon again. After spending the weekend with the folks out in the country; hanging out, playing cards, napping, watching the birds in the feeder and generally doing nothing I realized that in our overachieving world we do not value R&R. Learning how to do nothing is challenging.Like most people I sometimes have to force myself to slow down. When I do, I feel completely rested and re-energized. Slowing Down and enjoying the moment is good for mental as well as physical health.If you don’t believe that this epidemic of overachieving, energy draining and time depriving behavior is not affecting our health then you need to watch this and take heed…this could be you my friend. Funny but true… I totally heard myself in the last part “2 minutes…can you make it 10″. Save yourself now!
This is what Charlene SanJenko said about her valuable time, ”Bottom line – life is all about the experience. So go ahead – without putting too much thought into it, what are the first three words that best describe the experience you are most looking to create? ” Read the rest of the article here. Being vulnerable makes people FEEL uncomfortable…It is not the people that are vulnerable that are uncomfortable so much as it is the people around them that are feeling uncomfortable. I love what Brene says…”in order to connect we have to allow ourselves to be seen…to be really seen“. Being seen is being vulnerable.This video is 20 minutes and it is worth every minute of your time, watch it. Perhaps it is time to embrace your vulnerability and FEEL alive! Please share your experiences of being in vulnerability here…
Statistically Speaking 80% of what we have we never useStartling as it may be, our closets are a testament to the truth in this number. While we are waiting for that ‘ideal buyer’ for our home we are identifying and eliminating the 80% of what we really don’t use in our closets and are striving to live happily with the remaining 20%. This will also make it easier when the sold sign does hit the lawn and we only have to pack what we love, has a use in our life today and will fit in our future ‘right sized’ home. Smaller home = Smaller closetsThe linen closets were quite easy. How many towels do you really need? On average two to three per family member. The same goes for hand towels and facecloths. As far as bedding goes some people have winter and summer sets, so two sets of each per bed. Our linen closet looks great and we can see everything easily…making it very simple to find what we need when we need it. The boy’s closets were quick and almost painless.They don’t seem to have the emotional attachment that makes decluttering challenging, so in less than hour we went through the closet and dresser drawers. For the youngest one it was easy as over a year ago we took the dresser out of his room. It was a useless piece of furniture that always had the clothing either hanging out of the open drawers or laying on the floor next to it. For him we just had to open the closet and going shelf by shelf we were able to edit out about 50% or so that has not been worn in the past six months. My daughter had more difficulty clearing the Closet Clutter.She is more attached to the clothing and the fun she has had in the shopping adventures with her girlfriends. I am sure with some motherly guidance in the next few weeks we can thin it out again to an amount that allows her to have variety without the anxiety that accompanies too many decisions. Anyone who has a teenage girl will understand what I am talking about. The master bedroom closet was last on the list but posed it own challenges.It is not a large closet, a standard double door closet that I share with the skipper. I set aside a whole morning for this job because I needed to try everything on, after losing over 10 pounds some of the clothing is now too big and it is not staying around. That may not seem like a lot but on my short frame it is almost two sizes. I am so happy with the results and I can see everything I own. It is organized by categories. Pants are with pants, shirts are together based on type and style, sweaters and the like are together and all my yoga gear is all in one spot. So whatever I choose now fits well, looks awesome and makes me feel great when I wear it. A friend who was over to see the finished product laughed as she though I had more purses that I had clothing…that is partly true. With the weight loss I am eliminating clothing as it gets too big and when I reach my goal, according to Bruce Sweeney my health coach I will be at that magical place of optimal health in 2012. When that happens and I have great cholesterol and blood sugars I will celebrate with a new wardrobe. In the meantime I can still have great purses. All-in-all the closet decluttering and organizing took less than 8 hours.We have five garbage bags for donation. It feels good to know that our clothing and linens will be passed on to someone who needs it more than we do. Your Clutter could be someone else’s Survival! Having empty space also means that we are well on our way to simplifying this area of our life. I thought this quote fit perfectly for this theme “The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.” Elise Boulding Do you prefer Right Hand Turns while Driving?Although I make light of the whole Right Turn Obsession there is a diagnosed phobia that is loosely related to this obsession called levophobia. Personally I do this for safety and efficiency, not out of fear of turning left. Some people may say making right hand turns is an obsession, perhaps it is being efficient.What do you think? Do you prefer to make all right turns as you are doing errands?
If you are watching this video you must have survived the most Depressing Day of the Calendar year!According to an article in the Montreal Gazette there is a specific formula that was used to come up with the Blue Monday date: (W+D-d)xTQ÷MNa, where W = weather conditions D = debt d = ability to pay off debt T = time passed since Christmas Q = time passed since breaking New Year’s resolution M = motivation levels Need help with Intention setting?It is never to late to start the year off on the right track, set intentions for the rest of 2012 with the New Year Article read it here.
This one Word Theme Concept is not new or novelHowever if you have never undertaken this Visioning exercise you will thank Dana for suggesting it. Enjoy this video.
So many of the happy, successful (well they look it on the outside) people I follow use this Vision Board technique. Mari Smith the Facebook Marketing expert has been using this one word theme technique for the past 5 years and has done just what she has set out to do. Her passion for what she does and how she does it is evident in this passage from her website, “I’ve found that by also selecting just one word as a theme for my whole year, all manner of new opportunities and experiences show up. The Universe responds to your decision. Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project, the book I am currently reading also thought a one word theme was a great idea. You can watch her Happiness Project video about a word theme here. Create your Own Vision Board with your one word ThemePerhaps you would like to create a Vision Board for 2012. If you live in or near the Rothesay NB area you can join me on Monday January 23rd from 7-9 pm for a Vision Board Workshop. I will be hosting this event at Crystals & Karma, please follow this link for more details. For Personalized Vision Board help.If you do not live in the area and would like some direction with this activity please contact me at elainebusinessmuse@gmail.com
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