Do You Have A Baseline?

I was in a meeting about Social Media the other day and the speaker was talking about having a baseline, starting that day, I needed to write down and know how many Twitter followers do I have, how many people like my Facebook pages and how many Blog followers do I have. Knowing these numbers today and comparing them to the same time next year allows me to know how much my business and social media presence has grown.  When I was 40, I had to have a mammogram so the radiologist would be able to see if there were changes from one year to the next.  When you are in 3rd grade, you take a test at the beginning of the year and the same test at the end of the year to see what you have learned.  How do you know if you've achieved anything if you don't have a baseline?   

I am constantly reminding my organizing and life coach clients to remember where they came from instead of always looking at how much work, organizing, and changing they need to do.  
Many of them have forgotten the reality of their life circumstances or the reality of what their life used to look like.  When you forget, you end of up not giving yourself any credit for your accomplishments, only grief at not reaching your goals.  

Take a baseline today of where you are in your life.  If need be, write it down, take pictures, whatever you have to do to remind yourself of your starting point.  Then write down where you want to go and you can eventually look back and see how far you've come while at the same time continuing to "have faith in how far you can go!" 

To Be Known

“What we hunger for perhaps more than anything else is to be known in our full humanness, and yet that is often just what we also fear more than anything else. It is important to tell at least from time to time the secret of who we truly and fully are . . . because otherwise we run the risk of losing track of who we truly and fully are and little by little come to accept instead the highly edited version which we put forth in hope that the world will find it more acceptable than the real thing. It is important to tell our secrets too because it makes it easier . . . for other people to tell us a secret or two of their own . . . ” 

― Frederick Buechner, Telling Secrets

I love this quote from Frederick Buechner.  I think it is so true that we want to be fully understood but.......not really.  We want to be loved for who we are but sometimes we are working so hard at being lovable that we lose ourselves. 

Seeing ourselves for who we truly are, warts and all, is not an easy thing to do.  It can be a painful process because we are exposing ourselves and others to our reality.....not the masks that we so often put on to make ourselves look better and feel better about who we are. 

Keeping it real, being honest, and digging deep; all are part of the process of being known in our full humanness.  

How do you feel about people knowing the real you? 

Finding Clarity in the Clutter

Clarity in Clutter???? How can anyone see or feel anything but overwhelm and a mess when they look at clutter??

Going through the de-clutter process can be very freeing.  It is like a physical weight has been lifted off your body.  While you go through your clutter, piece by piece, bit by bit, you become very clear about what you want to surround yourself with and what you value in your life.  

Clutter clearing is an extremely psychological process and not only will the clutter clear physically but you will see clutter falling away emotionally.  It is amazing the avenues that clutter clogs and the avenues that are opened up, in your physical space and in your mind, when that clutter is no longer around.  

You don't have to be clear about everything right now but the more action you take to clear the clutter from your space and mind, the more clarity you will have.  

The Noticer Returns by Andy Andrews

I am reading a book called The Noticer Returns by Andy Andrews.  This book is all about perspective and how a person thinks.  How do you perceive and think about what is going on in your life?  

I have had the conversation about perspective with a number of people lately.  Perspective and the way you think have more impact on your life than most people ever realize.  In The Noticer Returns, it says "the way a person thinks is the key to everything that follows, good or bad, success or failure.  A person's thinking - the way he thinks - is the foundational structure upon which a life is built.  Thinking guides decisions..  Thinking - how a person thinks - determines every choice."  The author goes on to say "a person's thinking is what he is."  

Proverbs 23:7 says it like this: For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.

Your thinking can have such a huge impact on your life. One of the examples, given in the book, is about a man who was in financial ruin and his credit was shot. The main character asks the man, in financial ruin, if an extraordinary life would be to live debt free and of course the man answered YES. The main character (the noticer) explains that the man's circumstances have made it so that he can't get a loan, because of his credit score, therefore allowing him to live without debt. So, he turned what appeared logically to most as a bad situation into a lesson on perspective.

I love this book because it reminds me to notice things in my life that others may overlook and try and look at things in a new way.......a little perspective in life can make life even sweeter!

Seasons.....A Time For Everything

Yesterday, while talking with my sister-in-law, I was reminded of this verse.  What a great verse to remind us all that there are seasons of life and that we cannot stay in one season of life forever.

We all grow older and can't stay young forever. 
We all have very hard seasons of life that we go through and we weep and mourn, then it is time to laugh and dance. 
We all have times we can give more than receive and times when we must receive more than we can give.
We all have times where we must be quiet and other times we know we should speak out 
We all have times we should plant and other times we have to uproot.
We all have times we have to keep things and people and other times we have to let people and things go.  

Seasons are a part of life........you can either fight them or go with the ebb and flow.  My contention is that it is much easier to ride the waves than it is to fight the current.  

How do you feel about the seasons of your life? 

Wedded Bliss? 29 Years Married and Still Going

 

(photo courtesy of  Arvind Balaraman/freedigitalphotos.net)

Today is my 29th wedding anniversary.  29 years ago, when I said "I Do", I had no idea what life would hold in store.  Choosing who you do life with is no small matter.  When you are a wide-eyed, naive 25 year old, you have no idea what you are saying "I Do" about.  Oh, I know.....they give you a heads up in the vows with the words in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer and for better or worse.  However, until you have had to live those words, you have no idea what they really mean.  

"I Do" are two simple words, just three letters, that are packed full of punch.  Those three letters are hard to conjure up when the rubber hits the road and better goes to worse, richer goes to poorer and health moves into sickness. Wedded bliss?  No.  But doing life.....yes.  

I'm certain that 29 years ago I found a great man to do life with.  It hasn't been easy, it hasn't always been fun, but what part of life really is?  What it has been is together.  Together, we have fought, persevered, laughed, romanced and imperfectly loved our way through.  My forever years are his......as long as he will have and hold me.

Ever Had a One Sided Fight?

                                    (photo courtesy of foto76/freedigitalphotos.net)


Several days ago I got my knickers in a knot wondering why someone hadn't done something they were supposed to do.  Then my mind started racing.  Had I done something wrong?  Did this person not want to work with me?  What was I missing?  Why hadn't she called back like she was supposed to?  

Do you ever do that?  Have things running through your head because someone didn't text you back, email you back, call you back, invite you somewhere, posted something on a blog, FB page or Twitter?  

Those are one sided fights and conversations.  You end up pouring all your energy into something that is probably nothing.  The person probably forgot to call, email or text or didn't see the need for a response. The person probably had something else come up or life just got in the way.  Your perception of their post on FB, the blog or twitter is completely wrong based on preconceived notions or ideas you have.  Rationally I know all these things are possibilities, but instead I let my mind get going and before you know it I am in a full out, full blown fight.......in my thoughts and in my head! 

One sided fights are usually really only one sided - the other person has no idea there is an issue of any kind and the fights are usually a huge waste of time and energy.  It pays to take the time to wait some things out, wait to see the real outcome, instead of the imagined outcome in your head, and deal only in facts, not perceived or imagined conversations or emotions. 

So what happened to my one sided fight?  The woman finally called back, her husband had a medical emergency, all was resolved and I felt......stupid.