And speaking of calendars, did you know that your calendar is an important tool for helping you rock the universe?!

Here’s how…

Keep track of progress.

To stay focused on a goal, it’s important to track daily progress toward that goal!

Before we moved to the middle of nowhere, my focus was on reducing our expenses.  (The point is now moot since we are far, far away from sources of temptation!)  I wrote down the amount of money that we spent each day and totaled it at the end of the month.  It was phenomenal for helping me see how little expenses are a constant hemorrhaging of our financial resources.

You can use this technique to stay motivated to lose weight, become a better athlete, or even become a better parent!

Write down goals.

It’s also important to keep your goals in front of you, every day.  This reminds us of what is important to you and can help you maintain momentum toward your dreams!

Remember, though, that your goal is not your goal.

Your goal isn’t to lose weight…it’s to be ubersexy or radiantly healthy or able to keep up with your kids.  Those are the dreams that are real and connecting with that will help you change your life.

Use stickers!

Basically they’re the stickers teachers give to kids in elementary school that say stuff like “Awesome!” and “Great Job!”  (At least that’s what my stickers say.)

After I do something really spectacular, like make a ton of progress on a project, I peruse my stickers for the perfect sentiment to display on my calendar.

When I organized my mother-in-law’s office, a massive 12 hour undertaking, I busted out the “Beautiful Work!” sticker with no shame in my game!

I love looking back on the month and seeing the gorgeousness.  Each sticker represents an accomplishment and being able to use them makes me feel a little giddy…and a lot awesome.

Keep track of dates that motivate.

When we take on major obligations, there is usually a date that the process is complete.  That’s an important date.

Like knowing when your home is supposed to be completely paid off.  Or when you’re done repaying a student loan.  The day your kids leave for college.

And because I’m fascinated by it, I also keep track of the end of the world.  Like April 13, 2029 which is that date that an asteroid passes close enough to the earth for us to determine whether it will hit us on April 13, 2036.

I don’t know about you but I like being reminded that there is more to our lives than watching tv.

Be inspired to take action.

Find out what speaks to you, what dreams make you uncomfortable with sitting still and go out and claim that.  Don’t be afraid to use every tool at your disposal.

…and maybe you can hack your calendar to rock your life!

Guess who was excited about starting school every year because it meant fresh and fabulous school supplies.  Guess!  Guess who!!

I mean new packs of paper, new pens, and new calendars, who wouldn’t love that.

Typically I’ve always preferred a standard monthly layout for a calendar so I can see everything at once but that was until I stumbled across…

THE MOST AMAZING CALENDAR EVER CONCEIVED.

I discovered the Weekdate calendar last April and was heartbroken because I would have to wait months to get my own.

But now I am ready for 2010 and have placed my order!  (It’s on the way!)

Just a heads up, a la FTC notifcations, Weekdate is not compensating me in any way for this but if they wanted to send me a calendar to give away on TTi then I would TOTALLY BE OK WITH THAT.

In fact, that sounds like a pretty good idea!  Should I give away a Weekdate calendar?  Would you participate?

Dyslexia is a word I can almost never type correctly the first time.  (Dyselxia!) It’s also the thing I didn’t realize I had until college!

What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a learning disorder that “manifests itself primarily as a difficulty with reading and spelling”.  Scientists believe that it is a neurological disorder, which kind of makes sense because it pretty much feels like you have some wires crossed upstairs.

It is important to note that dyslexia does not indicate either an impaired or advanced intelligence such as Aspberger or Down Syndrome.  Anyone, at any level of intelligence, can have dyslexia!

Signs and Symptoms

The problem, whenever it comes to the brain, is that there is almost never a definitive symptomology for a neurological disorder.

Everyone’s brain “evolves” differently and in large part to individual stimuli.

So while we can point to chicken pox, we can only say that someone appears to be exhibiting behavior indicative of a specific disorder and that behavior will vary between individuals.

(To find a general outline of symptoms by age, go here.)

Does it stop with Dyslexia?

Dyslexia often “co-occurs” with other neurological disorders though the medical community does not know if they share an underlying cause.

• Dysgraphia – writing or typing (I have this)
• Dyscalculia – numbers (also this)
• Dyspraxia – difficulty carrying out routine tasks
• Cluttering -  rhythm and rate of speech

Dyslexia can also be exacerbated by “auditory processing disorder” which is basically where I hit the mother lode.

Auditory processing disorder is essentially when something goes in one ear and comes out mangled because your brain doesn’t always correctly process what it hears.

You can imagine how much fun that was when I was receptionist whose job it was to take messages and write down numbers all day.  In fact, that was when I actually realized I had a problem!

The Brain Farts

Until that job, I was never in a position where I so comprehensively dealt with data.  So when I had issues before, I simply chalked it up to a mental slip and kept on trucking.

It wasn’t until I made stupid mistake after stupid mistake that I realized there was something bigger happening.

Head Investigator

The brain is pretty amazing and infinitely adaptable.  This means that it is more than possible to circumvent our mental handicaps!

Difficulty with word retrieval or naming problems. This one drives me absolutely crazy as someone who has a larger-than-average vocabulary.  I can almost taste the word I want, I just can’t…touch it but I can sense what it feels like.

And you can’t just plug in any old word with a similar meaning because the texture and denotation of the original is lost!

Nothing is more frustrating than being stopped dead in your linguistic tracks because your brain won’t work.

HOW I HANDLE THIS:
Immediate use of the internet and online thesaurus.  If I can’t remember exactly what I want, I can usually work my way sideways toward the information I want.

SURPRISE BENEFIT:
I’m an amazing researcher.

Slow or inaccurate reading. This doesn’t usually kick in until I need to read for specificity.  Then my brain goes all foggy and my focus keeps sliding away from the details.

I am actually a pretty fast reader (almost 2 pages a minute) but only because I learned to read in “patterns” when I was a child.  I don’t actually read word for word but skip through a sentence absorbing the ’sense’ of each word that is then assembled into an actual story.

HOW I HANDLE THIS:
If I need to read for accuracy, I have to take notes.  I first use textual clues to create and outline of important information and then fill in the outline by breaking my reading down into organically occurring sections.

I also have found that it is easier to read “paper” than a screen for detailed and technical information.  So I print anything that I have to plow through for detail.

SURPRISE BENEFIT:
I can categorize and organize information quickly and efficiently.  Also, I’m awesome at trouble shooting printers.

Poor spelling. Honestly, this is why writers have editors.

HOW I HANDLE THIS:
Spell check!

SURPRISE BENEFIT:
Learning enhanced methodology.  Write, review, spell check, review on paper, come back and review in an hour.  I always assume I’ve made a mistake which sometimes makes them easier to find.

Difficulty with time keeping and concept of time. I always always always substantially underestimate the time it takes me to do things, drive places, or finish projects.

HOW I HANDLE THIS:
I try not to ever keep projects.  I do them as soon as possible and hand them back as quickly as I can.

Additionally, I try to avoid estimating how long it will take me to do but instead estimate when I will return it.  (Like “first thing in the morning” versus “20 minutes”.)

I also do my best to keep from “cutting it close”.  It’s almost impossible for me to do this without being late and I definitely hate being rushed.

SURPRISE BENEFIT:
People respect my time because I can establish firm boundaries regarding project completion.

Difficulty with organization skills. People will be surprised that I’ve had difficulty with this because I am an organizational goddess.

But the fact is that I had a very hard time with handling my stuff until I went to a foster home and the process of internalizing organizational methodology wasn’t really complete until I left for college.

HOW I HANDLE THIS:
First, I don’t own too much stuff.  It is infinitely harder to organize a lot than a little.

Second, I put things back immediately.  I mean immediately.

Third, I keep the memory of my childhood home as motivation for why.  It was awful and I mean awful.  My father is a hoarder, as is my brother, grandmothers, mother, aunts and uncles.  Every home I lived in or visited was so full of junk there was no room to live.

SURPRISE BENEFIT:
My home is zen.  And I’ve learned how to use systems and methodology to compensate for my mental funkiness.

Difficulty comprehending rapid instructions, following more than one command at a time or remembering the sequence of things.

The most heartbreaking embarrassment I’ve ever experienced occurred when I tried out for our local magnet school’s dance program in middle school.  Not only did I not make it, I flamed out.

The try out consisted of a demonstration of a quick series of steps which we were immediately expected to repeat.

I probably could have saved myself the trouble and just twirled around in a circle until the music stopped.

HOW I HANDLE THIS:
I carry paper and pen, even to the bathroom!  I can’t tell you how invaluable this was at work.  It didn’t matter that you were at lunch or on your way to the restroom if an attorney wanted to make sure you followed up on something.

I also use my waitressing days to effectively assist this process.  When you wait tables, you always recite the order back to confirm that you have a mutual understanding of what you are going to deliver.

Being able to do this from writing has saved my bacon at the office more times than I’m comfortable with!  Remember, the burden of proof is always on the subordinate.

SURPRISE BENEFIT:
I almost never ‘lose’ any of my creative ideas because I have paper and pen permanently on my person.  Also, I know how to CYA like a muthafucka.

Reversals of letters (b for d) and a reversal of words (saw for was). This is pretty rampant, especially when I am writing or typing in a stream-of-consciousness style.

HOW I HANDLE THIS:
I pretty much know that I will mix up specific pairs of words like know and now, their and there.

So I stay vigilant for these words!

SURPRISE BENEFIT:
Most of the time I can prevent myself from looking stupid and illiterate.

Living with dyslexia isn’t always easy, but it doesn’t have to torpedo your success or inhibit your abilities if you can creatively work around it!

The opportunity exists, right now, to make a difference.  To set your intention to change the world.

In honor of National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, bloggers from across the globe have united to compile their most inspirational and healing posts to support the Susan G. Komen for the Cure foundation.

The book is free but we hope that you can contribute toward this amazing goal, every dollar is important.

The articles touch on many different topics and issues but the goal is the same, to help you change your life when you help others change theirs.

Start here for more information!

You don’t have to be a woman to care about breast cancer either.  Breast cancer affects men as well and can be equally deadly.

This disease could be affecting someone you know right now.  My mother in law has spent 10 years fighting breast cancer (she’s had it twice) and eventually needed a mastectomy.

When I was working on “Needles for Noodles” (a project to knit hats for people going through chemotherapy) I was approached by so many people whose lives have been irrevocably touched by cancer.

And you can help make a difference today.

In addition to the “Blog 4 Cause” e-book that is available, you will also receive a bonus e-book from life coach and author, Tim Brownson.  Tools to help you immediately and dramatically make a difference in your life too!

Ever since the Great Proactiv Debacle of 2007, I have been fighting acne.  As an adult.  An adult with acne.

What made it worse is that my skin has always been pretty fantastic.  Like milk.  Milk.  (My skin is almost the only genetically awesome thing I’ve ever received from my parents.)

I don’t wear makeup, I don’t rock a massive wardrobe, and I don’t spend more than 1 minute on my hair.  I do, however, moisturize.

And exfoliate.  And drink lots and lots of water.  I’m all about the vitamins and antioxidants.  And masks, serums, creams, gels, mattifiers, peels, extracts.  No domain is safe, I often raid the kitchen for beauty supplies!

But nothing I have been able to lay my hands on has solved my acne problem…until now.

It’s called “The Acne Cure” written by Terry J. Dubrow and Brenda Adderly.

I’m ashamed to say that I didn’t even read the book.  I went straight to the what-to-do section and read just enough to figure out what the system is.

I also didn’t bother to write down the authors’ product recommendations.  I figured that I would just pop in the local pharmacy and pick up what I needed.

2 hours later I had recruited my husband to help me track down the ever elusive “glycolic acid”!  Finally we settled on Oil of Olay’s Regenerist Daily Thermal Mini-Peel even though I have no idea how much glycolic acid is actually in the peel.

Even with this little hiccup the solution is working.

They indicate that it may take as long as 6 weeks to completely cure the acne but they promise results in 24 hours (which I translated into)

“You might see results within 24 hours though such results are not typical but you should be optimistic enough about it to buy this book but not enough to hold your breath.”

But I was wrong, I did see results within 24 hours.  Pretty massive results at that.  My skin is looking radiant and just about acne free!

It is important to remember to do everything the ‘cure’ instructs you to do.  I tried skipping something I thought was irrelevant (ice!) and it made a huge difference in how my skin reacted to the system.

I almost hate to get anyone’s hopes up since people who are dealing with acne are pretty much tired of promises and spending lots of money on the next sure thing.

The good thing, however, is that if you have already tried a bunch of products to get rid of your acne, you most likely already own almost everything you need for the program.  (The only thing I didn’t have was the glycolic acid.)

Honestly, I just can’t tell you how relieved I am.  No longer does my face feel like it’s communicating in Braille, no longer do I feel like I am doomed to problem skin for the rest of my life.

At my age I should be focused on an anti-wrinkle regimen, not fighting acne!

Sooo…specifics.

I don’t feel comfortable throwing down the nitty gritty of the program.  In this instance, the program is the book, plus the book has a ton of useful information on the why and how of acne, as well as statistics and case studies.  (I decided I needed to go back and actually read “The Acne Cure“.)

Therefore this may not be the most directly helpful article I’ve ever written.  I’m really sorry about that.  All I can do is let you know that this book has allowed me to finally move on from my stubborn acne.

So you’re staring down a mountain of stuff.  Maybe it’s taken over a table, a room, or – the worst case scenario – your home.

When the damage is so massive, so entrenched it’s hard to know where to get started.

Here’s how the Goddess of Clutter (that would be me ) gets her organization on!

Begin with ABC

The very first step to getting your clutter under control  is to make sure that no one in your home is contributing to it!  Otherwise, you’ll never get anywhere.

If you spend all your time cleaning up after everyone else, you’ll never be able to clean up after yourself!

Getting it Under Control

The secret to getting started is to start with the trash.  Trash is easily identifiable and there is no question about where it belongs.  (It goes straight in a giant garbage bag!)

Don’t stress about getting every piece of trash, just start with the obvious stuff.  You’ll find more when you start going through your paperwork, but there is nothing like “seeing” your progress as you fill up the bag to keep you motivated.

Combating Decluttering ADD

The fastest way to torpedo your motivation is to spend your time putting every little item away.  (Assuming it has a home in the first place.)

Decluttering ADD will leave you looking around, hours later, wondering why it doesn’t even look like you’ve done anything!

What do I mean?

You’re going through a pile and you unearth your stapler which you know lives in your office, so you go over there only to discover a letter that you meant to respond to and 25 minutes later you’re still on hold with customer service with your letter in one hand and your stapler in the other.

Maybe you’ve put away 25 more items by the end of the day but the truth is your hot mess still looks like a hot mess and now you’re totally discouraged!

Keeping a List

It is important that you keep paper and pen on you as you go through this process.

THIS IS KEY TO YOUR DECLUTTERING SUCCESS

During your adventure, you will discover things that you need to do.  This happens to everyone.

You’ll find papers you need to mail, pictures you need to scan, checks you need to write, people you need to call, et cetera.

You need to resist the lure of running off to do these things.  Once you’re off-task, it is extremely difficult to get back!

Just remind yourself that whatever-it-is has gone undone for however-long-it’s-been and it can wait until tomorrow.  In fact, if you jump at your first to-do, you’re probably missing more important items that you’ll only discover if you carry on!

Getting Down to Business…

Our stuff usually breaks down into some fairly basic categories.  In my home, it goes a little something like this…

• cooking stuff
• bathroom and hygiene stuff
• cleaning supplies
• electronics
• personal paperwork
• business paperwork
• books
• DVDs and VHS
• clothing
• home maintenance (basically anything that goes in the garage)

Usually the items in each category live in a specific room.  Cooking stuff goes in the kitchen, home maintenance items like the lawn mower go in the garage, beauty supplies go into the bathroom and so on.

The down and dirty way to jump start your organizational mojo is to just group everything by room.  Once you have your piles, you just throw the pile into its corresponding room.

Decide which rooms have to get organized first (usually family areas, otherwise you’re asking for trouble) and then go down your list.

The Magic of Sorting

Once you’re in a specific room, you’re going to be doing a lot of sorting.  The key is to go from general to specific!

What do I mean?

If you are organizing your office you don’t make a pile for every kind of bill, you just make a pile of bills.  You’ll get around to sorting them later in the process.  Right now just put them together.

So you probably have some stacks that look a little something like…

• office supplies
• bills
• actionable items (e.g. stuff you need to do!)
• notes
• computer and/or camera equipment

…and these piles are a whole lot easier to tackle than a mountain!

Getting Down to Brass Tacks…Literally!

What trips up most people are the little things.  It’s the stuff that ends up in the junk drawer or the office supplies that manage to end up everywhere.

The problem is that people usually don’t put things away unless the process is super easy.

The solution I’ve come up with for my office supplies, for example, takes this into consideration.  I tricked out an over the door shoe organizer and it is awesome.

Binder clips go in one pocket, scissors in another, rubber bands in yet another.  Everything is drop-and-go and easily visible!

Remember, if it is hard to do, you probably won’t do it.

Got Labels?

How many times have you created a mess simply because you were looking for something specific?

Even if you are triumphant in your search, it’ll look like a hurricane went through your house!

The key to making sure this doesn’t happen is by being able to figure out where your stuff is!

Some people prefer clear boxes – which is great if you can see clearly into the box – but I find life is a lot simpler by rocking labels…but not on the box!

Never label a box.  It starts to get confusing once you start reusing your boxes.

The secret to getting around this is by using FedEx pockets!  (Basically it is a clear plastic, resealable pocket that adheres to a box or package.)

I identify what’s inside the box in big letters, place the paper inside the pocket so it is readable, and seal that bad boy up!  When the content of the box changes, so does my paper.

As long as you stack all your boxes label end out, you shouldn’t ever have to go through everything you own looking for your birth certificate.

…and speaking of Personal Filing

Almost everyone’s filing breaks down into two categories:  stuff that you will always need and bills.

Stuff that you will always need is basically your “evergreen” paperwork which includes your birth certificate, tax filings, medical information, etc.

I never put bills with my evergreen filing!

Let’s say you have a cell phone through Verizon.  You’ll likely have two types of Verizon paperwork:  bills and your initial account information.

As long as you have a Verizon account, it is important to keep your account information!  But you shouldn’t need to keep any bills longer than 1 year.

This is why my filing is bifurcated which is basically a fancy way of saying “divided in two”.  My evergreen filing lives in its own box while my bills are collected in an expandable file.

I file all my bills by company (instead of by month) and label the exterior of the file with the year.  At the end of the year, I store it away and start a new one!

Sooo much easier than mixing all that into my evergreen filing.

Voila!

Getting your stuff together doesn’t have to mean losing your mind.  Just remember to start big and work your way to the nitty-gritty!

Also keep your organizing style in mind when setting up your space.

For those of you who don’t know, I kind of live in the middle of nowhere.  (Temporarily!)  It is, essentially, a “family compound”.  One person moved here 20 years ago and family-by-family my husband’s relatives trickled in over the years.

It’s been…interesting integrating into the family culture and it has been a challenge that I have been wrestling with.

Today a jackass stranger in a black Jeep Cherokee clipped one of the family pets, a beautiful black lab puppy by the name of Tink.  The driver of said Cherokee tore off afterward without a care in the world.

While Tink, a rescue dog already wary of humans, shied away from anyone who came near her.

So the family decided that putting her out of her misery was the best way to go and brought out the shotgun.

Culture Clash

I think what upset me about the whole thing was just how easy it all was.

How easy it was for the driver to drive away.  How easy it was to give up on Tink.  How easy it was to decide to kill her.  How easy it was to move on.

Pets v. Food

There are plenty of places where dogs are not considered pets but a food source.  And if it came to a choice between feeding your family or feeding your pet, Fido would probably starve.

And yet mankind has spent centuries domesticating wild animals to be our companions.  To be our teacup yorkies and labradoodles, our hypoallergenic kittens.

Rest in Peace, Tink

Was killing Tink the right choice?

I don’t know.  I only know that if it was a child who had been hit, we wouldn’t have given up after 5 minutes.

And maybe I’m the wrong person to ask…I spent hours in the dead of winter looking for our kitten after she fell off of our balcony.  I’m not used to killing anything more ‘advanced’ than a cockroach.

Of course, I do eat.

Being a Conscious Consumer

I’m not a vegetarian and I’m not likely to be one anytime soon.  That doesn’t mean, however, that I don’t respect life.  Or death.  It also doesn’t mean that the way much of our food is processed doesn’t bother me.

Tink’s death has moved me towards a decision that I have been mulling over for some time, a decision about the food choices I make for my family.

About being more mindful of where my food comes from and how that food was treated while it was living.

Until now, it’s been easy to ignore.

Apology

We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.  I just needed to…think this through.  About why my heart was aching.  Anyway, don’t forget to hug your loved ones today, even if they’re furry.

We believe that our greatest support and encouragement will come from family and friends, yet it is often our family and friends who are the least optimistic about our chances for success.  Or making a massive impact.  Or changing our lives.

Did Gandhi’s parents ever imagine he would lead the peaceful revolution of his country?

The flip side of this is that it can be hard to celebrate the success of people in your social sphere, of your family and friends.  We feel that anyone in our circle is a peer and that their success should have been attainable for us.

The key to this feeling, this flash of jealousy and insecurity, is our idea of our self-worth.  That deep down (or not so deep down) we aren’t good enough.

In order to change this belief, we have to first realize it’s existence!

The other basic component of the ‘familiarity factor’ is that the people who know you well believe that they know you well.  They believe that they know your capability and abilities, that they have a good idea of what you can achieve and how far you can go.

When you challenge this idea, their idea of who you are, you inadvertently challenge their worldview.

How?

The truth is that everyone’s world begins with their being-ness.  A child’s inner world begins with the vague understanding of whether they are tired or hungry or wet and our own understanding typically expands from this center.

Our ’self’ center.

It’s important to remember that how we perceive others is a simple reflection of how we perceive ourselves!

Everyone else is simply a mirror.  The encouragement and support that you give others is really the support and encouragement that you are giving yourself.

It is equally important to remember that your success will often flourish in your secondary social sphere, the group of people who know enough to know you’re awesome but don’t know you well enough to see your mistakes as an integral part of who you are.

THIS INCLUDES YOU.

Know yourself well enough to know you’re awesome.

BECAUSE YOU ARE AWESOME.

Know that you are not your mistakes.  While your mistakes are an integral part of your path and your experience, they are not who you are.

BECAUSE YOU ARE AWESOME.