Crush the Rush

Once we get out of bed, in a rush to get dressed. It’s a mad dash to get to work and once you get there a lot of time you are running from meeting to meeting. At the end of the day, you rush home, blow through an errand or two, gulp down dinner, blaze through what’s left of your evening, and plop into bed exhausted, just so you can get up and do it all over again.

By Friday you are wondering where the week went. What’s really sad is that the weekend is no better. You find yourself Sunday evening asking where the weekend went!

Rushing has ruined many a day and a frantic morning can set the tone for the rest of your day. You know what they say, an ounce of prevention beats a pound of the cure. So here are a few of my favorite personal tips to help you crush the rush and get success over your stress!

Take Five: I take five minutes (sometimes less) to lay out my clothes and accessories the night before. Get your kids in the habit of doing this as well.

Put It in Its Place: I make sure my keys are on the little high table near my door and that my purse is in the kitchen ready to go. Anything I need in the morning has a specific place and after I’ve gotten my clothes together, I make sure all of those items are where they should be. No frantic searching for misplaced items in the morning. If you have young kids make sure your places are high enough up that they can’t reach them.

Quick Fix: I love, love, love my Steamfresh veggies and side dishes. I throw a bag in the microwave and five minutes later, I have steamed broccoli or green beans or even nice little vegetable medleys. Mmm, mmm good! I’m loving them even more now that I can get rice, pastas and even potato dishes in Steamfresh too. When they go on sale, I make sure I stock up!

Eliminate Morning Emailing: I do not turn my computer on in the morning! Nothing sucks up your precious morning time like a ‘quick check ‘of your email. If you must, add another 20 minutes to the step below.

Ouch: This is going to sound ugly but get up 10 minutes earlier. I know, you are saying to yourself, “I’m not a morning person!” Neither am ! Just 10 extra minutes in the morning can give you just enough time to avoid the mad dash that can color our whole day if we let it.

Little changes can make a big difference to improve your mood and help you enjoy your day that much more!

An Ounce of Prevention

Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In the health field, this is fairly obvious. It’s easier to prevent a disease than to cure one. Better to eat right, exercise and keep a decent weight than it is to treat the diabetes or heart disease that comes from a life time of unhealthy choices.

Of course, the ounce of prevention adage works in other areas as well. Ask the renter who lost all of her possessions and didn’t have renters insurance. Ask the worker who made a very good living but chose to spend everything she made, without even thinking about saving, a few weeks after she gets the pink slip. Ask the frustrated mom on the side of the road after her minivan has broken down, the one who didn’t think getting the oil changed was that much of a big deal.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure but (and I’m on a roll with these old sayings) hindsight is also 20/20. As she stands in the ramshackled living room that $20 a month for the renters insurance doesn’t sound too bad. Likewise, saving and getting routine car maintenance would make a lot of sense in the face of the lay-off or an unexpected breakdown.

The trick is to use that ounce of prevention before those bad things happen.

I think we aren’t concerned about prevention because we just don’t think that bad thing (whatever it is) will happen to us. Sure people are losing jobs but you are okay. They need you. Don’t they? And your car, it’s just fine. Isn’t it?

When that dreaded event happens, we are blindsided. I was one of those people I didn’t have renters insurance. I never saved for a rainy day and I let my car go without maintenance for far too long. Yet after years of being hardheaded, I learned to look for the ounces of prevention because a pound of cure can be expensive!

The ounce of prevention can cost too – in both time and money. Insurance isn’t free and car maintenance certainly isn’t. It does take time to locate and compare policies and to take the car to be serviced. Saving some money isn’t nearly as much fun as spending (at least to me) but these are small costs when you consider the alternative.

Look for areas where you can find those ounces of prevention and when you find them, take action. Because an ounce of prevention won’t do you any good once you need a pound (or more) of cure.

Best of 2011

It seems like ages ago, we were gearing up for Thanksgiving. Now, we've made it through Thanksgiving and Christmas. If you celebrate Hanukkah, you've got a few more days. And, well, if you celebrate Kwanzaa, you're just getting started. However, New Year's Day represents the end of the holiday season. It's less than a week away, so its safe to say that we are in the Holiday Home Stretch.

The stress of the holidays should be winding down, so take some time to take a couple of deep breathes. The hard part is over. Since this is the vacation season, take some time to enjoy yourself. See a movie. Get a massage. Play with some of your new toys.

This is also the time, that we have all of the year in review lists. The Best of 2011. The Worst of 2011. The Biggest Stories or Scandals of 2011. The Biggest Names/Celebrities of 2011. It can be fun to look back. So take some time to make your own personal lists. What were your best moments of 2011? What were your biggest accomplishment.

People's first instinct is to say, "Oh, I don't have any." However, I'm going to call you on that. You do have some victories, successes. Granted, it's not every year that you get married, graduate from school or move into a house, but that doesn't mean you haven't had any accomplishments.

Think about what went well. What made you feel good? When I look back at 2011, here are a few things I look back on.

1. I took an amazing vacation to Edisto Island.
2. I accomplished several major projects at work.
3. I made a significant dent in paying off my debts.
4. I published two Get It Together Girl workbooks and have started on the next one.
5. I had my stylist cut some layers into my hair and I love them!
6. I decided to take Latin dance lessons and I start in January.
7. I stuck to my resolution and I will have read the entire Bible by December 31!
8. I reconnected with a good friend.

I don't really need to do a Worst of 2011 list because, like most people, I am painfully familiar with what didn't go well. If I was going to do this list, it wouldn't focus on mistakes and unpleasant experiences, instead I'd probably list the Top 3 (or 5) Lessons Learned instead. Rehashing the past is no good, the only thing we can do is learn from it.

The important thing here is to focus on your successes because we almost never do that. Let's prepare to go into 2012 positive and ready for an incredible New Year!

Plan with a Purpose

Long time readers of this blog (both of you! LOL!) know I'm big on planning and list making. I'm a huge believer that a little organization can go a long way to saving time, reducing stress and just generally making you more productive.

I was thrilled when I came across this video, courtesy of friend, fellow blogger and spiritual coach Diannia Baty. She does some really provocative work on her blog Way Over the Rainbow. Recently, she posted a few videos from Jack Canfield, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soup series. I loved this one minute clip on why a little planning the night before can make a big difference in your day.

An Ounce of Prevention

Benjamin Franklin said, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” In the health field, this is fairly obvious. It’s easier to prevent a disease than to cure one. Better to eat right, exercise and keep a decent weight than it is to treat the diabetes or heart disease that comes from a life time of unhealthy choices.

Of course, the ounce of prevention adage works in other areas as well. Ask the renter who lost all of her possessions and didn’t have renters insurance. Ask the worker who made a very good living but chose to spend everything she made, without even thinking about saving, a few weeks after she gets the pink slip. Ask the frustrated mom on the side of the road after her minivan has broken down, the one who didn’t think getting the oil changed was that much of a big deal.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure but (and I’m on a roll with these old sayings) hindsight is also 20/20. As she stands in the ramshackled living room that $20 a month for the renters insurance doesn’t sound too bad. Likewise, saving and getting routine car maintenance would make a lot of sense in the face of the lay-off or an unexpected breakdown.

The trick is to use that ounce of prevention before those bad things happen.

I think we aren’t concerned about prevention because we just don’t think that bad thing (whatever it is) will happen to us. Sure people are losing jobs but you are okay. They need you. Don’t they? And your car, it’s just fine. Isn’t it?

When that dreaded event happens, we are blindsided. I was one of those people I didn’t have renters insurance. I never saved for a rainy day and I let my car go without maintenance for far too long. Yet after years of being hardheaded, I learned to look for the ounces of prevention because a pound of cure can be expensive!

The ounce of prevention can cost too – in both time and money. Insurance isn’t free and car maintenance certainly isn’t. It does take time to locate and compare policies and to take the car to be serviced. Saving some money isn’t nearly as much fun as spending (at least to me) but these are small costs when you consider the alternative.

Look for areas where you can find those ounces of prevention and when you find them, take action. Because an ounce of prevention won’t do you any good once you need a pound (or more) of cure.