Punctuality

To be punctual means more than just being on-time, it is an action that imparts trust and respect.  It shows the individual or individuals that you value their time.  It is being considerate to others.  We all know how we feel when someone shows up to the party on-time and we also know how we feel when someone is late.  When you are late you are viewed as disorganized untrustworthy and inconsiderate.  There are times when being late is unavoidable but if you are categorically always late then there is a problem.  This problem needs to be addressed.  You need to be honest with yourself and take the necessary actions to correct it.  Making excuses is not the answer.  Here are some steps that can help you with being on-time.

Step 1.  Be realistic about the amount of time you need.   Give yourself 10 minutes for every task that needs to be completed and then add an additional 10 to it.  Let's say you need to be at a lunch date for 12:00, you need a shower, get dressed, do your hair, makeup, empty dishwasher, and drive to the location 15 minutes away.
               a. drive : 15 min
               b. shower:10 min
               c. makeup: 10 min
              d. hair:15 min
              e. dress: 15 min (because you haven't picked your clothes out the night before)
              f. dishwasher : 10 min.
Total time need including extra 10 min is 1:25 min. so you need to start getting ready by 10:35 am. to be on time to your destination.   Do this time chart a couple of times and you will always know how much time it takes you to do all the tasks you need to complete before heading out the door.  End result...you will always be on time.

Step 2. Commit to being 15 minutes early to everything for at least one month.  Bring a book to read for the 15 minutes you are there possibly waiting.  They say after doing a task for at least one month it will become a habit but if you are always late you might need to commit to being early for 3-6 months.

Step 3.   Create a mental time line in your head.  Tell yourself 10 minute shower, 10 minutes to do my hair, 10 minutes for makeup and watch the clock.  Also repeat constantly in your head what time you want to head out the door.  If others are leaving with you, give them time checks.  "It is 11:30, departure is in 10 min.  I like to give the 5 minute warning.  "You have 5 minutes and we have to leave."  It is amazing how quickly people can hustle when they know they only have 5 minutes.

Step 4.  Pick your clothes out the night before.  Keep up on your laundry so you aren't scrambling to find a clean outfit.

Step 5. Be organized.  Always put your keys, cell phone, briefcase ect., in the same place everyday so when you go to look for it, it is right where it is suppose to be.

Step 6.  Set all of your clock to the same time.

Step 7.  If getting up is difficult make sure you go to be earlier so when the alarm goes off you are rested and ready to start the day.

Step 8.  Try and do as much as possible the night before.  Pack the car, make lunch, pick clothes out, go to the bank, get gas etc.

Steps to helping your kids be on-time.

1. Have them pick out their school clothes the night before.
2. Pack their backpacks the night before.
3. Get them up early enough so they can have plenty of time to eat, get dress and relax before school.
4. Everyday make sure they are ready for the bus 10 minutes before the bus is scheduled to arrive.
5. No t.v until they are completely ready.  That includes breakfast, teeth brushed, bed made.
6. Announce time check.  "It is 8:00 am. you have 10 minutes to be out to the bus."  Continue with time announcements until they are out the door.
7. Have them put their things away in the same place everyday after school so when they need to retrieve them in the morning they are where they are suppose to be.
8.  Reward them for be done early by them letting do something they enjoy before they have to leave for the bus i.e. Webkinz, t.v., etc.
9. Reinforce this behavior by making sure they recognize how it makes them feel when they are able to relax and not rush before school.  We all feel a little less frazzled when we don't have to rush.


If you are 5 minutes early, you are on-time,  if you are on-time you are late, if you are late....well be prepared to explain yourself.

"Punctuality is the politeness of kings." 

Louis XVIII King of France

How to Persevere

Persevere:  to stick to a task or purpose, no matter how hard or troublesome: persist (Webster's Dictionary).

To persevere one must have persistence and patience.  You cannot quit, you cannot stop, you must stay the course.  If something isn't working right you have to keep trying over and over again.  Thomas Edison who held 1,093 U.S. Patents, the founder of General Electric was diagnosed with a hearing problem early on.  His mother believed in him unconditionally which was a crucial stone in his personal foundation.  Her love encouraged him to persevere for he did not want to disappoint her.  After 9,000 attempts at trying to invent the light bulb, he was asked by a reporter if he felt like a failure.  He responded, "Young man why would I feel like a failure?  And why would I ever give up?"  I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work.  Success is almost in my grasp."  He was successful after 10,000 attempts.  Kind of puts things in perspective.

Below is just a small list of individuals who have persevered in their lives.

One of my favorites is Ludwig Van Beethoven.  He continued to compose, conduct and perform even after he was completely deaf.  Beethoven published/unpublished over 200 works.  He was a true musical genius.

Ray Charles who was completely blind by the age of 7 went on to win 17 Grammy's and a host of other prestigious awards.

Helen Keller who was both deaf and blind was the first deaf/blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts at the age of 24 from Radcliffe.  She would go on to become a world famous speaker and author.  Helen Keller also met every president from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon B. Johnson.  She never used her handicap as an excuse.  She also persevered in the Woman's Suffrage movement.

Franklin D. Roosevelt our 32nd President, who was paralyzed from the waist down at age 39, went on to serve 4 presidential terms.

Martin Luther King, Jr. who in 1960 was the leader of the Civil Rights movement persevered when so much was against him.  This was a time of terrible discrimination and racial prejudice but because of him, his vision, his perseverance,  our country is a much better place.



NEVER QUIT !


ALWAYS START WHAT YOU FINISH!


KEEP TRYING, EVEN IF IT DOESN'T WORK RIGHT THE 1ST TIME, 2ND TIME, 3RD TIME, ETC...(Remember it took Thomas Edison 10,000 attempts."


DON'T GIVE UP!

"Our greatest glory is not never failing, but rising up every time we fail."  

Ralph Waldo Emerson

De-Clutter Your life One Day at a Time

Have you ever looked around and realized your life was cluttered? Cluttered with stuff and more stuff, cluttered thoughts, clutter actions you name it CLUTTER. This seven letter word has a way of taking valuable, priceless energy and time away from us. It creates a sense of disorder and confusion. With confusion comes frustration, depression and a host of other negative emotions and feelings. We all have some sort of clutter in our lives. Your house may be a neat as a pin with everything in its place but your thoughts are random and scattered. What can a person do to eliminate their clutter: compartmentalize and break it down.

Steps for a clutter free house.

Step 1: Realize you are not alone in this clutter mania. So go ahead and breathe a sigh of relief.
Step 2: Prioritize your De-cluttering. Decide when and what you want to De-clutter. Pick only one-two projects per day.
Step 3: Pick a start date to begin your De-cluttering. Have a De-cluttering party and invite some close friends to help. Offer to do the same for them. Entice them with free coffee and lunch.
Step 4: Set a time line and be realistic. If you are De-cluttering your linen closet 20-30 min. should be ample. Set a timer and focus.
Step 5: Eliminate all distractions: Send the kids to someones house to play or if Daddy is home make him in charge. Make sure he makes you inaccessible to the children- have him act as if you aren't home. Don't answer the phone (including your cell), no computer...TOTAL 100% FOCUS ON THE De-cluttering.
Step 6: If you are De-cluttering a room, make sure you have three bins on hand clearly labeled: TRASH, DONATE, TAG SALE. Or just two if you don't want to have a sale.
Step 7: Once you are finished De-cluttering your room bring the unwanted items to the trash and drive to the donation spot as soon as you are done.
Step 8: Give yourself a reward for a job well done. Treat yourself to an ice coffee or even an ice cream on the way home from donating.

To keep your room clutter free try a couple of these helpful hints.
Take a picture of the room and post it in the room to emphasize your accomplishment.
Set a De-clutter date to go back through and make sure no new clutter bugs have entered your recently clutter free room.

You will notice an instant change of energy every time you enter the room or open the door to a clutter free environment.

Much of the above was eliminating tangible clutter from our lives but how do we eliminate it from our thoughts.

Steps for a clutter free mind.

Step 1. Slow down, sit and relax.
Step 2. Journal...write, write, write....It frees your mind up immensely.
Step 3. Read. Pick up a book about a subject you have been wanting to read about. Visit your library. Quiet is a prerequisite in the library so when the world around you is quiet your mind will slow down.
Step 4. Go on a mandatory walk. No ipod, no cell, nothing but you and nature. Take some deep breathes. Listen to nature, look at nature, and smell nature. It is the best medicine free of charge out there.
Step 5. Meditate if you know how but eliminate this step if you don't. We want to be stress free and not stressed because we don't know how to meditate. It would be very counter productive.

Live with the Clutter Free rules:
One in / One out.
Create spaces that are clutter free zones ..like a hazmat area
Eliminate broken (trash), unwanted (donate) and duplicate items (donate).
Once or twice a week go through your pile of papers and file them or trash them.
Sew items once a week. Replace batteries in toys immediately.
Marry off the single socks once a week. Eliminate that sock box. Who knows what is going on in there. They keep multiplying.

Remember sometimes clutter is just extra stuff...and how much stuff do we really need in our lives...Not much. Some of the happiest cultures in the world live with the least amount of stuff.

Many people asked about the previous blog and the freezer that was standing in the way of my friend. To clarify she is starting a business selling frozen gourmet cookie doughs and she didn't think she could start it without having her freezer empty in the basement. She needed to make the freezer clutter free and now that it is...she is clutter free and focused.

Good luck creating a clutter free house and mind.

Personal Roadblocks

Have you ever sat and wondered what was standing in the way between you and success? First success is something that is measured solely by the individual. What may be successful to one person might be failure to another. I find that it is imperative to decide what success means to you. Is it having a big house, a fancy car, a low stress job, a promotion, losing 1o lbs, etc. After you decide what success is then you must step back and determine what are the personal roadblocks standing in your way. Are these roadblocks excuses or are they real and seem to be insurmountable at this time. A quick and easy way to determine excuse vs. real is to break down the roadblock into small incremental pieces and pick at each one. If it determined the roadblock is an excuse then ask yourself the question "WHY I am I using this excuse not to seek out what I want?" If you are truly honest with yourself, or if you have sought advice from a friend, you might be surprised at the answer. If the roadblock is real, when you break it down to small individual parts and pick at each one you will be surprised as to what you can accomplish. This can hold true to so much in life. The wealthiest people in the world didn't start out that way, when we were all born we first had to learn to situp before we crawled, debt isn't erased if you keep spending.

Currently I am in the process of coaching a friend to start her own business and her roadblock believe it or not was her basement freezer. After a coaching session it was determined that she placed this roadblock in front of her because she thought she could continue to use it as an excuse to postpone what she wanted. The underlying problem....fear. After this was brought to her attention and we broke down her goals to smaller ones she is successfully taking the first steps to starting her business.

Roadblocks are just that...things standing in our way...but the nice thing is that detours exist and roadblocks are eventually taken down. I find reading about people who have experienced enormous roadblocks in their lives only to achieve monumental success inspirational for myself and anyone else I can tell their stories to. Some people worth reading about with some pretty big roadblocks were Abraham Lincoln, Author of "Three Cups of Tea"- Greg Mortenson , Beethoven, and Thomas Edison are just a few that have accomplished success that not only they benefited from but we too are enjoying.

Remember you are the driver, you determine the path, you set the pace, and you can conquer the roadblocks.