YOUR LIFE A-Z: MULTI-TASK

MULTI-TASK IN A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT

MULTI-TASK

There is no better time that now to become proficient in the art of MULTI-TASKING.   To MULTI-TASK is to live in optimal organization in order to squeeze the zest out of life.  As you make your to-do list, (and you are doing that now aren’t you?) think in terms of organizing your list in ways that you can accomplish several things.  What gets done while you are doing laundry?  What three activities can you sweep together into one?  For instance, when doing your taxes it a good time to do a budget review and tweak the budget for next year, making sure there are plenty of dollars saved for that vacation.  In the United States we over-work and under-play.  It is time to reverse that but in order to make a dent in the amount of time and energy we waste each day, it is important to MULTI-TASK.  Organize your day, your week, your month and your year with key MULTI-TASKING actions that keep you moving forward and saving valuable time for playing while MULTI-TASKING your chores.  Think about adding music to the background of your chores to enhance your mood.  Add some humor and laughter into the mix of daily activity to boost your morale.  MULTI-TASKING does not have to be all about hard work, it can be about play too.  If play and laughter are not on your to-do list, it is likely that it won’t happen.  You must plan for it just like you plan for dinner.  It is the balance of MULTI-TASKING that fills your day with positive opportunities.

YOUR LIFE A-Z:NESTING

MANY STORIES WILL BRING CONNECTION

NESTING

NESTING is a necessity for a well-balanced life.  During our busy lives where each detail of our day is demanding our attention it is important to push the off button and stay home for the day.  Don’t just stay home, NEST at home.  Turn off your cellular devices and electronic apps and curl up by the fireplace, pool, or sofa and enjoy being home.  As you begin to notice your space allow gratitude to settle in around you.  Be grateful for what you have.   As you allow the essence of the day to open up to you do whatever it is you want to do in the comfort of your home.  Cook a great meal or order in Chinese food.  Read, write, even write old-fashion letters to people you have been meaning to say hello too.  Listen to music, chant, meditate, sing, dance, or relax into a bubble bath.  Learning to do nothing but NEST is often a challenge because you are not use to having a whole day to do nothing but be.  However, if you put a NESTING day in your calendar once ever six weeks you will learn to look forward to it and you will enjoy making sure that you have some special things around to help you enjoy the NESTING day.  I suggest having a basket full of crayons, paper, fun magazines, candles, bubble bath, and teas to help you move naturally from one thing to another, developing a natural rhythm for being present and relaxing.  Your NESTING day will recharge you.

YOUR LIFE A-Z: JUGGLE

IT IS IMPORTANT TO JUGGLE ALL OF YOUR EMOTIONS

JUGGLE

JUGGLE is a fun word for multi-tasking.  Our lives are complicated and it is our job to Simplify them.  I believe that learning to JUGGLE can help us simplify our daily lives and allow us to have some fun along the way.  You can learn to JUGGLE at http://www.wikihow.com/Juggle.  First, it requires focus and practice.  Allow yourself to get use to just one ball by keeping it at eye level and letting the body learn what it feels like to have mastery of the one ball.  From there, a second ball is added and the task of mastery begins again.  Here, a sense of competence takes over, and you will find yourself excited and interested in adding ball three.  You can go up to as many balls as you choose only after you JUGGLE the existing balls with ease.  This simple exercise demonstrates that multi-tasking should not be a chaotic and disorganized way of getting through the day.  Multi-tasking needs to be a JUGGLING act from the beginning of the alarm clock in the morning until you list your daily gratitude’s at night prior to falling asleep.  JUGGLE by adding tasks in the appropriate cycle and only after mastering the previous task.  Life has to be JUGGLED so you might as well focus on mastery the art of JUGGLING in ways that empower and enhance the quality of your life today.  Make a list of what you need to learn to JUGGLE and get started today. Enjoy. 

YOUR LIFE A-Z ZANY

COLORFUL, ENERGETIC AND ZANY, A ROAD RUNNER WILL ALWAYS MAKE YOU SMILE

ZANY

Today is play day.  Yesterday you yielded and took a look around your personal landscape and progress for the year to date and today you are going to take another break.  You are going to get out of your box and do something different.  If this day falls on a work day for you, no problem.  It is important to learn to play on work days too.  So let’s find some ways to express your zany, eccentric inner you that you always wanted to express.  Wear red to work or another bright and bold color.  Find your wildesttie or craziest earrings.  Wear miss-matching socks.  For lunch have something very different.  If you take your lunch choose a breakfast food or a can of spinach for your lunch.  Change it out.  After work do something totally different. Go to a movie.  Drive down-town and walk around. Discover a comedy club and buy a ticket even if you can’t go today.  Go get a manicure with the wildest colors ever.  Play with eccentric ideas.  If you are working on a project, what would happen if you imagined zooming in on one piece of the project and playing with how to do that piece differently than you are currently imagining?  Give yourself permission to be unconventional, odd, bizarre, and eccentric.  Eat backwards.  Walk backwards.  Play in ways that you never dreamed.  Get out of box and do it differently today.  You have been working hard but the goal from this day forward is add a little zany to each day.

YOUR LIFE A-Z EXCELLENCE

IF THIS LITTLE GARDEN MYSTERY HAD A  HAIKU FOR YOU WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Excellence

One definition of excellence is a quality that is unusually good.  When you think about your own excellence, what is it that you are unusually good at?  You cannot escape this word.  In order to live your best life, a rich and meaningful life it is important to own your own excellence.  Name one thing and perhaps write a haiku about it. 

            Here is a sample:

                        Bake one rich muffin

                        Store chocolate chips within

                        Touch, smell, taste, digest

A Haiku does not have to rhyme and does actually read kind of choppy and awkward, but it is the simple math of three sentences of 5-7-5 syllables. 

Play this day with your excellence and quit taking yourself so seriously that you don’t allow your soul to claim its excellence.  Be excellent at something and own it fully.  Yes, it may seem awkward and choppy, not particularly pretty, but it is your and you enjoy creating it.  That is all that matters. I will never make a living as a Haiku artist, but the joy of creating seventeen syllables in three sentences is an expression of my excellence of being willing to try something completely outside of my comfort zone.

You can never obtain excellence if your inner judge stops you before you even start something.  Anyone that has created something of excellence has failed more times than not and each time they try again, correcting what did not work before.  However, the joy of trying and discovering new things is a journey of inner excellence.  Enjoy yours.

Your Life A-Z CURIOUS

Really Look, Observe, Wonder. What is this?

Curious

Young children are curious by nature.  They love to explore, observe, mimic and try to emulate the actions and behaviors of the adults around them.  That is why it is so important for adults to remember we are role models for young children. But what are we modeling for ourselves?  Have we stopped exploring and asking questions? We started just a couple of days ago with the word of the day, being aware.  We get to choose what to focus our awareness on.  Go back and look at what you wrote.  Look through the open window again and ask yourself, “What is it about this picture that makes you curios?"  What questions about this New Year rise up within you?  

I know it is not always what you hope to hear, but only you can answer the questions about your life.  No one else can answer them for you. You get to choose and the more curious you become the more you will be able to open doors that looked as if they are closed.  If you let yourself come to today with a sense of being curious, like asking yourself, “What will happen if do_________________, instead of ________________________?”   You won’t know if you don’t try or change it out.  What is the worst thing that could happen if you tried being curious?   What is the best possible thing that could happen?  Be curious and see how anticipation and excitement build up within you.  Take some curious steps to explore your current circumstances and see what you can change right now as a result.

Photo: Pam Smead