Popular New Year Resolutions

When you search the Internet for the top new year resolutions that people make, you’ll find that getting organized is among the top resolutions. This is because, for most people, getting organized is a fresh start, and a starting out a new year is a good time to make fresh starts.

USA.gov lists their survey of popular new year resolutions and, although “getting organized” isn’t listed among the top resolutions, most of the items relate to getting organized.

In an article at About.com, their top 10 new year resolutions list “get organized” as #10.

Entrepreneur.com suggests people do an annual review accompanied by resolutions for the new year to improve their performance.

These were but a few. And if you want a bit of history about new year resolutions, you’ll find this article “How to Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions” quite interesting (if you can stand the noise from a flash video on the site).

And, for a little fun, visit 123NewYear.com for just about everything to bring in the new year.

Happy New Year!

Cyndi Seidler

Organize a Super Bowl Sunday

The calendar day is circled, and that’s all that matters at the moment.  It’s countdown to Super Bowl Sunday, and the beginning of fanatical eagerness and zealous excitement. Is there really anything else to think about?

Let’s do.

I surveyed a couple people (while doing some light research on the subject) and found out what I already knew: that a typical Super Bowl Sunday is about food snacks, beer, friends, bets, and of course, the actual game.

It all sounds simple, so what could go wrong with this picture?  I came up with a few scenarios.

Distractions from kids.  No designated driver for friends who went over the limit on beer or other alcohol.  An upset spouse who feels resentful that their home has been taken over by rowdy sports fans.  Maybe even fights on seating arrangements in an over-crowded TV room.

The way I figure it, with proper planning, this event could turn out to be all we hoped it would be — a day with friends and/or family gathered together watching the game of the year.

First, I think we should ascertain where to watch it at.  It could be a house or a sports bar with a big screen TV. A house has all the comforts of home.  A sports bar has the majority of  mutually crazed fans, as well as potential of good-looking singles. Your choice.

Next, make any necessary arrangements involving kids.  We love them, but this day isn’t going to convey quality time, so it’s probably best to place them in hands that won’t shove them away or tell them to hush up (which, for some, may not work anyway).

If you’re getting together with friends or family with kids of their own, maybe a joint babysitting provision can be made.  Possibly have the sitter plan an excursion with the kids, or plan some activities, like face-painting and story-reading to keep them all occupied.

The kids may not be the only ones that have to be occupied on this day though.  If there’s a spouse who has other ideas of spending their time rather than in front of a TV, then let’s see how we can please everyone.

In this case, you might suggest something special, like an out of town weekend plan for them, or more simply, a stay-over at friends who aren’t sports fans.

On the other hand, if your house is big enough where they can find solitude elsewhere in it, they can probably just fend for themselves without being bothered by the noise and hoopla.

Either way, it’s nice to ask them and help them prepare.

Then, there’s home logistics, such as drinks and snacks to serve, and if there’s enough seating for everyone.  I don’t need to elaborate on anything here, I’m sure.

Then lastly, it’s a good idea to think about designated drivers — those individuals who are old enough to drive, that is.  We wouldn’t have to concern ourselves with this subject if everyone were drinking soda, coffee,  juices or water.  But, let’s get real.

People who are going to drink will probably need to get somewhere afterwards.  The alternatives are taxi drivers or designated driver friends.  There’s another alternative though.
If the event is at your house, how about a slumber party?

For men, a man’s slumber party could be quite an adventurous concept.  For this, start thinking about the idea of camping out in tents or on the floor of your living room.  The event could hold some interesting memories, I’m sure.

With this plan, you would have to consider the morning after however.  Just remember, you should feel good about yourself for saving everyone from potential harm.  Keep thinking that so you don’t get mad at yourself (or me) for this plan.

Something simple to do in the morning might be serving up some pancakes.  Or, maybe ordering breakfast delivered.  Or, sending everyone on their way after a morning cup of coffee.

It doesn’t matter.  The only thing that matters is they’re all safe because you took extra measures to make it so.

At this point, I ask you to stop and take a moment to think ahead about more than the game.  Yes, go ahead and circle your calendar, but don’t loose sight of other things to think about that go along with it.

Fresh Start to Bring Balance

Many of us try to get a fresh start in a new year by making resolutions that will improve or enhance our lives.  We make a valiant effort with the high hope that the changes we make will last.  Then, life happens.

There is a way to get in control of our lives and make it last though. I finally got through the “been there, done that” dilemma myself, however it did take some rethinking to make my changes stick.

One of the first things I realized was that I needed a valid reason to make a change.  I needed a worthwhile purpose.

A purpose could be anything from wanting to improve our health in order to live longer to wanting to keep our room neat so we’d feel better in it.

Whatever it is, there needs to be a meaningful reason you want something.
For years, this one friend of mine had wanted to start a new career endeavor. She had made a few attempts to get started in the past but never fully carried through with her plans. Then, once she established why she wanted to do this, what effect it would have on her life, and what benefits it would have to others, she went into high gear to launch her new career.  See, she had the driving force to take off — purpose.

How many of you know someone who wanted to quit smoking?  This one guy I know tried so many times he was at the point of feeling completely hopeless about it.  I asked him why he wanted to quit smoking and he said because he wanted to be healthier.  That’s nice, but why did he want to be healthier?  To live longer?  At first, yes.  But it wasn’t until he ascertained he had a more unselfish motive that finally got him to stop lighting up: he wanted to do it for others who cared about him so he would be around longer–for them.

That purpose carried great weight.  So, I believe if we want something a certain way, we also need a meaningful reason to have it that way.

Isn’t it all too common that we also find ourselves stuck in a situation we don’t want?  When we get into a rut, it’s because we didn’t put our attention on the important things.  In focusing less on the tangible and more on the fulfillment of things you value, you’ll achieve a sense of balance.

To create an ideal lifestyle for ourselves, we need to structure our life so that we have time to do those things that have purpose for us.  But as I said, first we need to determine what our aims are that get us from the place we are to a final destination where we want to be.

Some tips for getting our lives in balance include:

1.    Change priorities.  Priorities should encompass family relations, personal enrichment, health, pursuing passions, working toward long-range goals.

2.    Change the way you operate.  Adjust your normal operating basis to fit in your new priorities.  This could be done by segmenting your day and week with a routine agenda.  Include the time you devote to work, to family, to personal leisure activities and friends, to your health, toward your passions and long-term goals.

3.    Plan your schedule daily.  Refer to those activities that get you from where you are now to where you want to be.

4.    Create a time plan with a master list and daily list.  Limit the number of things to accomplish in one day.

5.    Focus on your lifelong passions and start to really pursue them.  Life is more fulfilling when you’re doing those things that bring you joy. Direct your energies on doing more activities that are in sync with your purposes.

6.    Do less what you don’t like and do more what you do like.  Many things you don’t enjoy doing can be delegated, so make a list and see what you can enlist another person to do, or hire someone to do it.

7.    Learn to say “no” to things that don’t align with your purpose.  Match time and resources to the priorities you’ve chosen.

8.    Don’t make work the center of your universe.  Step off the work highway temporarily to regain a sense of balance.

9.    Make time for yourself.  Do those things that comfort you — a bath, a walk, reading.

10.    Keep agreements you’ve made with yourself.

When you really know what I’m saying, you’ll find that it’s not so much about managing time to achieve our goals and pursue our passions.  It’s more about managing ourselves.  It’s about knowing what we want, and why we want it.

Happy new year.  May things never be the same.

COLUMN: ORGANIZED LIVING
By Cyndi Seidler

Being Ready for Your Future

Often times, the weekend approaches us and we are either asking ourselves or someone else, “What should I do this weekend?”

This demonstrates more than creative initiative at work. It shows a person who is thinking ahead, planning out a short-term goal that usually carries a purpose with it, even if it’s just to have fun.

Many of us seem to be fairly good at these kind of short-term plan-making abilities.  But, what about the kind of planning that extends into the more distant future?  Like, what would you want to be doing in ten years, fifteen years, and so forth?

The way things work on planet Earth is that are bodies get older and we reach a point where we begin to see things differently.  We particularly start seeing ten years from now a lot more threatening than we had “when we were younger.”

I just had a birthday and my daughter offered no sympathy about it either.  At my age, it isn’t like a New Year celebration anymore — it’s more like a mourning of our beloved youth.

Despite my various emotional attitudes on the subject, I’ve been able to remain relatively calm.  Although I’m getting older, it doesn’t seem as frightful as it could.  Probably because I’m looking forward to things I’ve put out there for my future.

So, the thing that keeps people focused and driven, no matter what their body’s age happens to be, is that they work towards a long-term goals.

One of the things this does is it keeps us from withering.  People who retire from work and don’t make new goals go along in life without purpose.  This usually leads to idle oldness and no fun.

If the mind ceases to generate the kind of creative stimulus that typically keeps us young and/or healthy, we wither in mind and body.
Additionally, if we haven’t been planning for the goal of retiring, we’ll often find ourselves in a boat without a paddle.  In other words, we’ve arrived somewhere but we didn’t bring the tools with us to go anywhere from there.

People who didn’t plan or prepare for their long-range future by setting aside a retirement fund know what this is like.  They reached retirement age and then struggle to survive.

Maybe you’ve heard many of the “regret” stories?  I wish I had put money aside in a savings account.  I wish I never bought on credit. I wish I spent more time with my family.  I wish I had, wish I had, I wish I had.

Regret is the kind of thing that changes nothing.  It only sits there making you wrong for something you have the power to make right.
Regret dwells on the past, and what we should be doing is creating the future.

The future is a minute from now and a year from now.  It is something ahead of us that we need to continually create and put goals on.
So, every year, I list all my goals for that year.  And, every day I list my goals for the day.

It gives me a sense of accomplishment when goals are reached and, as soon as they are, new ones are made.

We don’t have to wait until we reach our goals to make new ones either.  It’s perfectly okay to want to accomplish a lot of things in the future.

But a goal is only as good as it’s plan and actions on carrying it out.  Just thinking about something you want to be, do or have in the future isn’t good enough.  It requires action along those thoughts.

It’s a simple drill: Look at where you are today and where you want to be in next month, or next year, or in the next several years.  Write it down, read it every day or every week.  Take some action on it.

If that seems too complicated or hard to do, you can sit back and be a victim of your future, rather than the creator of it.  But, only one of those choices has more fun.

A Room with a View

As an organizing expert, I try to be careful not to do that preaching thing. It really bugs me when people sound off advice with this sort of conceited authority and act like they are better than you. They probably are, but I strive to take my authority less seriously.

It’s kind of like when you were young and your parents sat you down and started telling you how important it is for you to do your homework, or keep your room clean, or practice your musical instrument every day. While their talks had some merit to it, they usually lost me at, “Hello, please sit down, I want to talk to you.”

So, just think of me as a person who happens to know a heck of a lot about a particular subject and wishes to impart some words of this wisdom. And, to prove I’m not overly authoritative on it, I want to begin by letting you know I’m not perfect.

With that said, I won’t be telling you that you should keep your room clean, for one thing. I personally tend to pick up a cleaning person rather than pick up a dust cloth. So, that’s an article for a housekeeping expert, not me.

Then again, to have an aesthetic room that you love and enjoy spending time in, that’s something else. Take my living room, for example. It’s one of my favorite rooms in the house, although I’ve made each of my rooms a special place. But my living room is the first place that welcomes me when I come home and we have a special bond.

When I walk into that room, it greets me with a smile. I’m convinced it’s actually happy. That mood usually then transfers to me (unless I just came in from an hour in heavy traffic, in which case it takes longer for me to feel the immediate joy my room wants to give).

This is not to say I typically walk into my living room unhappy and it has to cheer me up. I’m often too tired to know if I’m even in a mood. I’m just saying that the mood of the room is uplifting, no matter what sense of serenity or numbness or even drama I may happen to be experiencing at that moment.

How can a room be happy and be capable of making you happy, you ask? For one thing, it’s the view. And beautiful views can make us feel happy.

In the space of a room, I like to surround myself with things I like and be able to look at things that are appealing to me. Thus, each room in my house is a view.

It’s similar to being there watching a view of the mountains or ocean or any of your favorite scenic views. Some people call each of these types of spots “a happy place.”

Conversely, a cluttered and messy room is stressed out. Distraught furniture sitting in needed pathways isn’t so friendly either. And having all those beautifully framed photos hiding behind a not-so-beautiful stack of papers can be downright sad.

There is a real mix of emotions going on here. We have some overall anxiety mixed in with a dash of antagonism and a pinch of sadness. It’s interesting to see the emotional well-being of individuals that happen to be in that space.

Now, I’ve actually seen really messed up people with all kinds of emotional issues start out with a room just described (since these seem to go together like hand and glove). Then they clean it all up and get organized and make it aesthetically pleasing to them, which subsequently makes them become happier people, at least when they’re at home.

Now, that’s what I call some therapy!

I met someone once who was stunning in her physical appearance. I mean, she looked like she spent an hour on her make-up and equal time selecting the perfect outfit she dressed herself in. This was a lady I was supposed to give organizing advice to on television without a second take. After meeting her, I must say I wasn’t prepared for what I saw next.

Her home was a total and complete disaster zone, from top to bottom, every square inch of it. Miserable and ugly were not the right words for this environment. It was more like, condemned, which is what this woman would be herself if something wasn’t done about it.

I really had a difficult time adjusting to the two different conditions in front of me: a woman who did everything she could to look beautiful, and a home that didn’t match the woman.

Naturally, I wanted to run. This isn’t like me, but I really wanted to bail on this one. All I can say is, good thing I had an acting background so I could pretend I wasn’t mortified.

One can only imagine what this woman must feel when she occupies any space of her home. It certainly wasn’t joy. Essentially, we have a woman who places importance on beauty for her body, but not on her home.

Bottom line, the therapy is the same: make her space as aesthetic as she makes her body. After that, she can take in the fine view and sit back with a glass of wine to go along with the new mood at home: tranquility.

Lucky for me, my friends never seem to notice the dust. Their eyes are usually on the view.

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