| IN THIS ISSUE | Welcome
| BOOORRRING
| Book Review
| | Inspiration for Hard Times |
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RECENT BLOGS
| Pick a Mantra for 2009
| 10 Reasons to Create a Great Retirement
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The Secret Life of You
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Welcome to my new subscribers and to 2009. I have always liked the New Year season because it means I can put the past year to bed and look forward. Whether you need to move beyond a difficult year or celebrate a successful one, the new beginning means a chance to start again. Be sure to send me your mantra for 2009 by commenting on my blog. (see posts and the link at left)
For those of you who missed the announcement over the holidays, I will continue to offer a 90 minute Dreamer's Dialogue for $100 for January and February (a $40 discount.) This consulting session is designed to help you figure out how to move forward on a dream or stream of income idea. It includes a free e-book copy of the book, Finding Your True Calling: The Handbook for People Who Still Don't Know What They Want To Be When They Grow Up by Valerie Young.
Take the first step to a bigger, better life by trying a free 30 minute consultation to see how a coaching session works. Go to my website for details and request a time via e-mail. Web-site Link
Or If you are interested in becoming an "outside the box" creative career consultant, Changing Course.com has a new self-directed study course available for 2009. Follow this link to find out how you can begin to build an independent business that will use your creativity, imagination and fulfill your desire to help others. Changing Course Link
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We've all heard it from the young people around us - it's generally said with great disdain in response to a suggestion from a parent or grandparent. But what about you? Did your new year start out BOOORRING last week? Back to the same old, same old - job, commute, bad boss, senseless running around, endless repetitive chores? Are you stuck in the proverbial rut?
I wonder sometimes if those people who leave their Christmas decorations up until March do it just because it is a change - something different to look at - and taking them down means going back to the boooorrrring usual life and look.
Do you drift through work all week just to get to Friday and the freedom of the weekend? Do you get to the evening and wonder where the day went because you spent it doing busywork? Do you look ahead six months and see nothing new on the horizon? Is there any idea floating around in the back of your mind that never quite makes it to the front because there's not enough quiet time to contemplate it?
I distinctly remember the year I got to New Year's Eve and wrote in capital letters in my journal - THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT! The year was 1996 and I meant it. That was the beginning of my own life/work makeover.
Is it time to redesign your life and/or work? Do you want a change - really want a change? Here are three things you could try this month.
1. Buy a journal or a sketch notebook and name it New for 2009. This can be an actual chronological journal or you might use it to jot down ideas for possible new endeavors and add information to them as you can. Put each idea on its own page. This is the place you can come return to as time allows to get your mind back on the track of your changes. Too often we get a great idea, but the hustle and bustle of everyday life soon pushes it aside and it gets lost.
2. Draw a mind map of your possibilities and obstacles; If you don't know anything about mind or life maps, go read an article HERE for some examples. This is a great exercise to get the ideas flowing and is a visual way to "dump" all the ideas, problems and thoughts in your head onto one page where you can see how they affect each other. Requires only a large sheet of paper and a set of colored markers.
3. Make a list of things you want to change, accomplish, see, do or learn. You might start with two lists - "What's Right in my Life?" and" What Needs to Change?"
Use the month of January to gather your thoughts - turn off the car radio or cell phone while you are sitting in traffic or on the train or bus and just think. Forego one evening of TV each week to work on this assignment.
Make this the year that you change your life from BOOORRING to exciting and challenging.
Schedule at least 1 hour a week to complete some or all of these suggestions and I promise you will end the first month with a new attitude toward the possibility of change.
Next month I'll suggest ways to start working on one specific goal.
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Instead of reviewing a new book this month, I'd like to recommend some old favorites for starting your year off right.
- For wannabe writers - get Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg;
- For aspiring artists - try Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way;
- if you have lots of passions The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine is excellent;
- for the over 50 crowd, Encore by Marc Freedman or the new edition of
What Color is Your Parachute for Retirement are both inspirational reads;
- If you just need to get started, This Year I Will by MJ Ryan is easy to follow;
- if your goal is to get involved in something that improves your community or
the larger world, read Making a Living while Making a Difference by Melissa Everett.
There is a Book tab on my web-site that will take you to my bookstore on Amazon.com. My store contains all the books I recommend making it easy to choose good, useful titles.
You can purchase directly from that page for the same price and no-shipping policy of the main Amazon site - but I get a small commission -so you can help me while you help yourself. I appreciate the support!
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Inspiration for Hard Times
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I am completely aware that this new year may bring some pretty hefty trials and tribulations to some of you. I've already heard of several lay-offs among my readers and clients. The world and our nation, as well as each of us as individuals, are facing dramatic changes in life as we have come to know it.
As one of the "elders" I have learned that we will survive and I have found that I am always stronger when I come out the other side of a bad situation. We can get through this period and we will be better for it. I offer the following quotes from some wise folks.
The longer we dwell on our misfortunes, the greater is their power to harm us.
Voltaire
There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless
about them. Clare Boothe Luce
If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire - then you've got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. Robert Fulghum
My e-mail box is always open if you just need to chat... lifeworkdesigner at me dot com |
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