Discover Your Bliss

The year of fun

Every year I usually have a theme.  This year's theme is fun. 

Now, I'm not going to stop doing things like paying my rent or getting my eyes checked - yet - I am going to take a serious (yet fun) look at my decisions, what I do and how I fill my time.

Many people will tell you - Just do what you love and the rest will fall into place.  What if you're not sure what you love to do or think is fun?  As silly as it sounds, not knowing what you like to do is a more common problem than many realize.

During the coming year - I will not only make choices to have fun but also examine to what degree of fun I'm actually having. 

I love to take pictures.  For the most part I find it to be fun - yet the thought of being told what pictures to take - just doesn't interest me - so a professional photographer is off my occupation list, yet photography does register a certain level of fun.  Now, this doesn't eliminate me from getting paid to take pictures or have photography as part of my occupation - it's just the sole focus part that I realized isn't for me. 

You might be thinking - Wow, a year of having fun, what's the point of that - don't you usually have fun?

The answer is yes and no.  Yes, I have fun - especially when I'm around other people - yet when it comes to being by myself (or some might say with myself), I often falter to responsibility and a default of the not-so-fun.     

Somewhere inside of me, I must feel like having fun isn't the road to success, yet another part of me knows fun is the key to unlock my creative door of living.  

I'm currently in the process of deciding whether or not to keep this blog or transition it into another blog specific to the year of fun.  I'll let it marinate and get back to you.  After all, choosing which one will be more enjoyable is the year's theme. 

How do you know when you're having fun?  What's one thing you can make more fun today?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

How to make your new year's resolutions stick

If you're in new year's resolution mode, then you might consider creating a support network to make this year's resolutions stick.

Intent.com is an online community that provides the best content to fulfill your aspirations.  

Enter your intention and you are immediately linked to resources, articles and a group of readers, authors health gurus who have a similar intention.  Through this group you can seek support, advice and inspiration (members will be your cheerleaders and leave you supportive messages).  

Just another cool tool to support your intentions and goals! 

On a side note - Mallika Chopra (Deepak Chopra's wife) created the intent website. 

What's your intention for the coming year?  How will you gather support and resources to meet your goals?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Reduce stress in less than a minute

Is your list of "to dos" overtaking your desk, home and mind?  Feel like you'll never climb out from under the endless sea of "to dos?" 

Never fear - a quick and easy solution awaits you...and it's really simple. 

Figure out what the most important thing is that you need to do today is and do that.  Just that one thing before moving into your next in line "to do."  

I've found that I can sometimes do all sorts of things on my "to do" list that are less important - simply because I don't want to do the most important thing (or think it will be too challenging to complete). 

By choosing what's the most important, I've discovered that the residual stress as a result of procrastination begins to disappear.

I invite you to practice selecting just one "to do" today and pay attention to how your energy begins to shift after you've completed that number one important task.  Who knows...you might just get more done as a result. 

What's your most important task today?  How do you determine what's important in your life?

I'd love to hear your insights and discoveries. 

Unread magazine project - part 3

This unread magazine project is turning out to be more fun than I imagined. 

If you don't know what I'm talking about, then you might want to check my two previous posts on the topic:  unread magazine project and unread magazine project - part 2. 

Newsflash - I have all of September's magazines (Martha Stewart Living) read - and I had them read before September!  I also made the following recipes as a result:  roasted vegetable soup, mushroom soup & honey walnut cake. 

Since I completed my September magazines so quickly, I made myself a deal - I could work on August's magazines - as long as - I have them completed by September...and I did. 

Why is this such great news?  This whittles my year-long magazine reading adventure down a month - so instead of completing in July of next year, I will be complete by June (and possibly May if I keep this up).  Yippee! 

After completing all of August and September's magazines, I got to shift my magazines around so that the August/September magazines are filed in a plastic magazine holder along with a sticky note that reads: Unread magazine project - August & September - complete!

I'm looking forward to the next few months of magazines, since the focus will be the holidays:  Halloween, Thanksgiving & Christmas - fun, fun. 

My mountain is beginning to turn into a molehill. 

What's something that "feels" like a mountain in your life?  What's one thing you can do to begin to shift it into a molehill? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Learn from observation

I've found that I can learn from observation.  Here's my latest insight: 

I've added biking into my weekly exercise routine.  My usual ride to the beach takes me one hour door to door. 

When I first started riding my bike, I would shift down several gears to get up hills and wondered why I didn't see the other bikers doing this as much, so I decided to watch and learn. 

My first little gem of discovery - they peddled harder up the hills, while I was maintaining my same rhythm the entire ride - so I practiced peddling harder up the hills and cut out some of my uphill shifting.

 

After I added more power to my uphills, I noticed something else - most bikers get off the seat of their bike and do this powerful standing pedal to get up the hills.  I tried it and found that it gave me one more "ump" during my rides. 

After practicing this power standing pedal pump, I stopped shifting altogether.  Progress! 

Now I'm in another observation mode phase to see how I can improve more aspects of my ride.  What bliss!

Where can you use observation to support your learning?  What's standing in your way of observation? 

I'd love to hear your discoveries and comments.  

Unread magazine project - part 2

Last week I talked about my Unread magazine project regarding my unread Martha Stewart Living magazines and my plan to get through them in one year's time.

I have to say that I had my doubts - in myself.  I wasn't sure if I could do this.  I thought, If I went all this time and didn't look at these magazines, then what makes me think that I'm going to do it now?

Thankfully, I did not follow, nor believe that thought. 

A few hours after that post, I gathered all of my Martha Stewart magazines and sorted them into piles according to month.  Most months had four magazines, some had three. 

I reorganized the magazines so that the upcoming months would be closer at hand and put the August, July, June, May and April magazines further out of reach.  

My first month to tackle - September - with four magazines.  Hmmm...

 

On Friday, I decided to start looking at the first magazine (from 2003!) and had an instant realization - I love, love, love Martha Stewart Living magazine. 

You might be wondering why that was such a realization.  I'd built up in my mind that getting through a Martha Stewart Living magazine ranked up there with pulling teeth or climbing Mount Everest.  Not so. 

I forgot how easy it was to go through the magazine and how much I enjoyed reading it.  Before I knew it, I'd finished magazine number one.  Yippee! 

Magazine number two quickly followed and I'm currently working on (playing on) magazine number three. 

The unread magazine project has also resulted in a few fun side trips as well. 

I found three recipes in magazine number one that I wanted to try, so on Sunday, I bought the ingredients at the farmers market and spent the majority of the afternoon making roasted vegetable soup (majorly labor intensive, yet good) and honey walnut cake.  Jon approves of both so the recipes took up residence in my recipe book.

What started out as a dreaded project has turned into a fantastic adventure.  What bliss!

What's something you're dreading doing that might result in an adventure?  How can you use adventure more in your everyday life?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.   

  

Unread magazine project

I love magazines.  I read tons of them and I love them. 

The most challenging aspect of loving magazines (for me) is keeping up with them month after month and not amassing a huge pile of unread paper.

I have a great system for this - when I'm finished with a magazine, it goes to the bottom stack (my read and unread magazines have a dividing point - so I know where one ends and the other begins).  As soon as the unread stack reaches the top of my chair, then I call the magazine lady and give them to her. 

Now if I have such a great system, why am I writing this?  Martha Stewart Living. 

I love Martha Stewart Living magazine, yet for some reason I went months and months without reading them.  They kept getting pushed to the side and put in other places. 

I have some of those nifty plastic magazine holders that have my subscriptions of past years and I've decided the I will no longer keep them for reference (I haven't referenced them and most stuff can be found online) - however - I do want to read them all before I let them go. 

Thankfully, I no longer subscribe to Martha Stewart Living - so I'm not adding to the unread magazine pileup.  And that's the only reason I no longer subscribe - my unread magazine pileup. 

I've created a plan for myself that will take one year to complete - yet if I decide to shorten the plan, that's also okay. 

I am going to gather all of my Martha Stewart Magazines by month and read them accordingly.  If I start reading one and realize I've already read it, then it will go in the rotation of my nifty plastic magazine holders until I have completed the year and at the end of that year I will give them away to someone that wants them.

Here are my ground rules: 

1.  Read the magazines by month - since this is August, I will start with the September magazines - my fantasy goal is to read the September magazines between Aug. 15-Sept. 15 and then start in on the October magazines Sept.15-Oct. 15, etc. 

2.  If, for some reason, I need until the end of the month, that's okay, yet the minute the month changes - that's it - the magazines are headed to my nifty plastic magazine holders to await their eventual give away. 

3.  I have one year to complete the challenge.

4.  If I take less than one year - that's okay.  

And the big bonus at the end of all of this?  I will have more stuff out of my home!  Clearing clutter opens up more space for good things!  And that's a good thing (to borrow from Martha Stewart). 

Ready, set, read!

What challenge would you like to create for yourself?  How will you keep yourself motivated, accountable and on track? 

I'd love to hear your insights and discoveries. 

How to organize your vacation pictures part 2

Ready to get those vacation pictures closer to the world of organization?  Read on to discover more tips. 

From last week's post, we learned the first three steps in organizing your vacation photos:  delete, rotate and create folders. 

Assuming your goal is to create a photo book from you vacation pictures, the following steps might support you in achieving your goal in a more timely fashion.

I prefer Shutterfly over Snapfish or other online photo retailers.  I am not getting a kickback by Shutterfly for saying this - I love their quality and ease of photo book tools. 

Please note that these tips are for digital photography.  If you prefer to print out your photos and physically scrapbook and organize them, then many of these step will also apply.

Uploading Photos

Instead of uploading all of my vacation photos to Shutterfly, I prefer to do a bit of pre-organizing prior to upload so I don't get overwhelmed by my choices - plus once you've uploaded your photos, you might not be able to see them as clearly since they will not appear as large on your computer screen. 

I work on one day of vacation photos at a time in order to make the process simpler. 

Step one:  grab a scrap sheet of paper and pen so you can write down which photos you want to upload.

Step two:  decision making time - go through one day's worth of photos to determine which ones you want to put in your album. 

You might think that they all should go in your album (and that might be the case) yet with some careful comparison, you can weed out any repeat and not as interesting photos. 

Let's say you took several photos of the Washington Monument.  How many of the photos do you use? 

I prefer to use one or two - max (unless there is something spectacular about your photo subject or you have a certain theme or style you are creating).  One of my photos would be of the full-sized monument and the possible second photo might be of a detail or special angle. 

What if you took several photos of the Washington Monument, then took several more that also included your husband?  Choose which one looks the best and only include it as your "main" photo focus. 

Constantly ask yourself - Is this photo important to my book?  What's the value of my adding or excluding this photo from my book?  

The more you do this, the easier it will get for you to determine which photos will work best in your book. 

Step three:  write down the photo numbers/jpegs/names that you want to include in your ablum so it will be easy to upload when the time comes. 

Step four:  once you have your day one photos selected, then upload them to Shutterfly (or similar site) so you can select them for your album use.

Step five:  After you've added the photos to your photo book project, then you can start building your book...one day at a time. 

More great vacation photo tips to share next week. 

What's your process when tackling large projects?  Where would you like to ask for support? 

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.  

How to organize your vacation pictures pt. one

So you just got back from vacation and with that - you now have hundreds, possibly thousands of photos to organize.

Sound fun and exciting?  Well, for some people this is a HUGE chore that never gets done simply because it feels too overwhelming after a week or more of vacation time. 

Never fear, help is here.  I will be sharing my easy-to-follow tips and tricks on getting your photos organized so you can share online, in print or create a photo book.

Step one:  Delete, delete, delete. 

I'm assuming that by now everyone has a digital camera - yet this can also work for traditional film cameras as well (it was much harder for me to do this with traditional prints in the beginning). 

Go through your photos and delete anything that's isn't usable.  Horrific lighting.  Heads cut off.  A stranger blocking your subject. 

The one exception to this rule:  don't delete that blurry picture you took of the Loch Ness Monster or big foot - for some reason no one can get a clear shot of either one.  

If this task feels too overwhelming, then give yourself a set number of photos to go through each day until you get this all-important task complete. 

By deleting first, you will save yourself time and frustration later. 

I would have uploaded examples of my bad photography, yet I've already deleted it - so go me!

Step two:  rotate all photos into their proper upright position. 

This step is important for two reasons:  1.  it will save the necks of your viewers - so they're not constantly turning their heads from side to side to see you standing in front of that ferris wheel.  2.  yet another time and frustration saver when you re-visit your photos or use them to create an online album.

Step three:  Create individual day folders for your photos.

Step three is optional and can be accomplished in a variety of ways.  Basically, find a way to group your photos so it will be easier to find a photo or create projects. 

I do this step as I upload my photos to Shutterfly.com so I can create an online photo book that I can order for myself as the ultimate souvenir. 

An example of this might be:  09 7 14 Beijing day 1 (I put the date first so it's easy to search)

Remember - step three is optional, yet might be a life-saver at a later date. 

Be sure to give yourself plenty of time to accomplish each step and break up your work into short spurts of time so you don't get vacation photo burnout on the first day. 

You have one week to delete, rotate and categorize your photos.  Part two to follow next week.

If you need support with this task - please - by all means - ask for it. 

For me, nothing feels as good after a vacation like a finished photo album...except for another vacation!

How does breaking down a big task into small steps support you?  How do you know when you've reached your daily, weekly and monthly limit with a task before it is no longer productive?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries. 

Healthy tools for a healthy lifestyle

If you're looking for a few tools to support you in creating a healthier lifestyle, then look no further.

Weight View helps you to achieve your weight loss goals through hands-on visualization. 

One of their more cutting edge tools is the visualization piece.  You send them a photo and they will give you an image of what you will look like when you lose the weight.  If you've ever heard of - if I can see, I can be it - then this is the tool for you.  It literally lets you see your goal so you can have a better chance of achieving it. 

The Calorie Counter allows you to search the calorie content of thousands of foods.  What's cool about this site is it allows you to search both simple and brand name foods.

The Daily Plate has several cool tools including a food diary and fitness log. 

You never know where you will find support for your healthy lifestyle and the internet can play a huge part in matching a person with the best tool for support. 

What are your most important support tools?  What would it look like to have support for your healthy lifestyle?

I'd love to hear your comments and discoveries.