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A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To My Blog Post

There was a movie by the name of A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To the Forum from nearly the dark ages (well, not that far back but it was a long time ago).  I don't even remember what it was about, or, for that matter, if I even saw it.  I tell you all of this simply because I've been gone for well over a year and when I got ready to start this post, what came to mind was, "A funny thing happened on the way to my blog post."  And, so, here I am.

What happened was business.  My team and I had so much business we hardly had time to come up for breath.  What is it I tell my clients?  It's critical to keep your blog current--it only takes a few minutes to write a blog post--when you come across something interesting that your clients might like, just drop it in a post with a few words of explanation--how hard is that?  Uh, yeah, right.  How hard is it?  None of them ever said, "If it's so darned easy why haven't you posted anything to your blog recently?"  Chances are they either weren't reading it anyway or they were signed up on the RSS feed and when the feed reader didn't show any blogs they just forgot about it.  Bottom line--I'm back and I plan to be here for the duration--if I'm not, feel free to email me and smack me on the back of my head!

How My Mind Works

I was marveling at how my thoughts (and actions) take me from one place to somewhere completely different but absolutely perfect for me at the very time I "should" be there.  It always amazes me how these things manage to happen.  Did you ever see a television show called Connections?  It started with one thing and led us, item by item, person by person, from something totally unlikely to a discovery, an invention, something that changed the way we view the world.  I wish I could come up with a good example but what has stuck in my mind was the process and how similar it was to how my mind seems to work.

That made me wonder if that isn't the way the world just naturally works and we spend much of our time trying to make things linear when they are frequently totally non-linear.

The last hour is a perfect example of the whole process.  This didn't start an hour ago.  It started, well, actually, it started several years ago when I was introduced to "formal" bartering by friends of mine in Spokane, Washington.  This was, I would guess, at least five--possibly as much as seven years ago.  I got three people to sign up and the company very nicely gave me $300 in trade to use as I wished.  How nice of them is that? 

That really has almost nothing to do with this story except that I hadn't used those $300 and then I moved to the Seattle area and didn't really think about it any more.  Yesterday I got a phone call from Patrick at Tradia telling me they were looking for a new employee to take care of the folks in the Spokane area and he wanted to let me know that there would be no sign-up fee for the time being and for everyone I signed up I would get $150 in spendable barter funds.  Well, what a deal but I'm now about 350 miles from Spokane.  Not to worry, there are things I can use all over the United States--in fact, all over the world. 

I'll shorten this whole process up or I could be here for hours just writing away about this.  So, the talk with Patrick makes me think that I still have that $300 hanging around and it's about time I used that so I could make room for more money in my account (it's a mental game I play with myself, not anything literal) so I went looking for a bed and breakfast (might as well splurge since it's just sitting there waiting to be spent).  No B&B in my area that appealed to me.  Next I thought to look for a seamstress/tailor to make a pair of slacks I've been wanting and perhaps even a pattern to go with them so I could replicate them later. 

As I was scrolling down the categories, "Coaching--Career" and "Coaching--Life" caught my eye.  I had the world's best coach (you've heard all about Deanna Davis in earlier posts) but she had retired from coaching months ago and it was time for me to find another one.  I clicked on that category and discovered there were about 10 coaches willing to use barter funds to do coaching with them.  One appealed to me and I called and left a message with her.  She called me back today.  Her name is Wendy. 

That made me think about the derivation of Wendy.  I learned, not long ago, that Wendy had never been used as a name, in fact, had never been a word, until it was created for the play Peter Pan and Wendy.  Of course I had to mention that to Wendy.  I knew she must have heard this before but I still find it a fun thing to know and talk about and who better?  Yes, she was aware of where it had come from but she didn't know when it had come into existence. 

We both went to the Internet and I came up with the Peter Pan and Wendy site where it not only said that the first time the play had been performed was in 1904, but that there was a commemorative centenary book.  That, of course, led me to Amazon.com where I found the book and discovered it was reasonably priced.   I'm a fan of interesting books like this, especially ones so richly illustrated, so this will soon be on my bookshelf.

What started with barter funds, went to coaching, and ended up purchasing a book about Peter Pan and Wendy. 

What does this have to do with anything?  Perhaps absolutely nothing, but it caused me to think that perhaps, rather than thinking of these little journeys as purely accidental, perhaps they are ways God/the Universe/Spirit (you choose your name) leads each of us to where we want to go--more than that--where we are meant to go.  Rather than thinking of it as a bizarre behavior and one I should try to eradicate from my life so I can think more logically and get more done, perhaps I might want to consider that getting from one point to another in totally logical and linear ways might keep me from experiencing the luscious, juicy parts of life.

So, take this, leave it, whatever is your desire, but at least think about how things may be far less accidental than we sometimes view them.  Perhaps I am exactly where I am supposed to be right this very minute in order to get the very thing I need most in my life right now.  And perhaps that isn't the case but since it hurts no one to think the more positive and uplifting thought, I choose to believe that is the case--for me--for today.

Until next time...

If We Were More Like Dogs...

While I was reading EM Sky's post on logos, which I discussed in this past Sunday's blog, I had to check out her other blogs--she has three of them.  The logo post came from her Business blog which is always a great read but then I had to wander over to her  Life blog where I discovered the post about what life would be like if we were more like dogs. 

I love a blog post that actually makes me laugh out loud.  I love it even more when it gives me pause to think about my life and what I might want to think about changing because I just may be taking myself a little too seriously.   I would encourage you to not only read about what our life might be more like if we thought more like a dog but to see if you can come up with one or two new ones.  The comments seem to be adding to the list.

As a cat person one of the things I have learned  from my cat is that it's OK to ask people you love for what you want, even if it feels silly.  They won't stop loving you even if they don't want to give it to you.  They just laugh and tell you how silly you are.  Personally, I think we may need to have more people tell us how silly we are at times.

Until next time...

Growing up Dangeriously

My work has been so busy lately I haven’t had time to blog.  It’s good for my bank account but I’ve missed posting so I’ve decided to post whenever I think of something I want to tell my friends, whether I’ve done any research or not.  I think I’d rather stay in touch than feel I have to only write when I have something “important” to say.  Here’s my first offering.

I got one of those email forwarded things yesterday.  Some days I like getting them and other days I really hate it.  Yesterday I was in a mood to take a look at it and I’m so glad I did.  Below is part of the one I received yesterday just because I wanted to share it with you. 

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930's 40's, 50's, and 60's!!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.  They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.  Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.  As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.  Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.  We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING !

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.  No one was able to reach us all day.  And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable (for many of us there was no TV), no video movies or DVD's, no surround-sound or CD's, no cell phones, no personal computers!, no Internet or chat rooms.  WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.  We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.  We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

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Doesn’t this bring back memories?  Actually, the one I received included the ‘70s but my daughter was raised then and by that time, at least where I was living, most of those things just didn’t happen that much any more.  I was a smoker when I got pregnant and my doctors were pretty darned adamant that I quit immediately.  Well, to be honest, after I had her I started up again and I did smoke not only in the house but in the car.  Who knew?

The things that caught my attention the most were more about my very young life.  I definitely related to the part about going outside for the whole day.  I can remember not only going outside but walking down to 9 Mile Creek and spend hours in the woods—alone—and no one thought a thing about it.  Every once in a while my mother would yell at me for being gone too long but that was when she told me to be home for lunch and I lost track of time and didn’t come home until mid-afternoon.  She didn’t yell because she was worried—she yelled because I hadn’t followed the rules.

We didn’t get our first television set until I was four years old.  We got one channel.  When we moved into the “big city” we got three channels.  Eventually we got five channels—the major three, PBS, and one independent channel.  That’s what we had until I was 23 when we got cable.  At that time cable just meant we got the regular channels with clear reception rather than trying to use rabbit ears or an antenna on the roof.  It also included HBO which showed the same five or six movies over and over and over all month long.  Each month there was a new movie.  Yep, that was cable.  Are you old enough to remember that?  My granddaughter was simply amazed when we talked about it.  Oh, and there was no remote.  You went over to the television set and turned the knob on the cable box.  Of course we didn’t mind.  That’s always how we had changed the channel on our television set.

I was just sharing with a friend about how we would pick vegetable out of the garden and ate them right there, without washing them.  What made it funny was that the garden had been fertilized with manure.  We would absolutely cringe at that today. 

Here’s my favorite:  When I was two years old I spent a year living with my grandparents so my mother could work while my father attended baking school.  Grandma and Grandpa lived in an apartment above a furniture store.  They had a “balcony” that was actually the flat roof at the back of the apartment.  Each side of what we referred to as the porch had a brick planter.  The front side, however was open to the loading dock below.  When I got there Grandpa went out and painted a white line about three feet from the edge and told me I was never to cross that line without either he or Grandma holding my hand.  If I wanted to go to the edge I was to go in the house and get them to come back with me.  Then they left me out there to play.  Yes they did.  I never crossed the line and I always went in to get one of them when there was a furniture delivery.  I loved to lie on my tummy and look over the edge so I could watch the beautiful furniture being unloaded off the truck. 

Can you imagine what we would do if we saw a two-year-old playing on a rooftop “porch” with no supervision—well, even WITH supervision?  Oh my, CPS would be there in seconds!  Neglect, endangerment, abuse—it would not be pretty.

So, enjoy the memories. 

Until next time…

I'm Still Here

Where have I been?  I've been right here, just very busy.  My Virtual Assistance business has taken off at a rate I never anticipated it would and some days I barely have time to take a deep breath let alone write a post for my blog.  Of course I feel guilty about not posting.  I love my blog and I love posting to it and I keep hoping I will find more time to do that.

So, here I am, making my excuses, and hoping you will understand. 

Oh, just one quick note.  I got a client because he did a search on a book I had written about in a blog--that led him to my web site--the next thing you know, we're working together.  So, even though I don't post often and my web site is a mess that needs a lot of care, I got a client from it.  The moral of the story is, whether you have a huge readership or none, don't feel your blog or web site never make a difference--they do!

Smoking Progress Report

You may recall that I reported on quitting smoking a few weeks ago.  I wanted to check in and let you know how that's going.  You really don't need to read any further, do you?  I wouldn't be telling you how it's going if I had started smoking again, would I?  You're right, I'm still not smoking, but that's not what I really want to tell you about.

First there's this whole thing about the law that was passed in Washington state about no smoking in any public place, or within 25 feet of a door or window that can be opened.  This is one of the most stringent non-smoking laws in the country (who knows, it might be the very most stringent).  At any rate, I've had people ask if that was why I quit smoking or if that was the impetus for doing it when I did. 

NO!!! Not even close.  I've been wanting to quit smoking for at least the last five years.  I found it to be a dirty, filthy, disgusting, expensive, limiting habit.  My clothes smelled, my car smelled (well, they still do but it's getting better all the time), the odor I emitted to other people when I had just smoked a cigarette and got close to them was very unappealing, and people looked at me with disgust when they saw me smoking out on the sidewalk. 

That was bad enough but the worst of it was how many things I was restricted from doing the way I wanted to just because I was dependent on having a cigarette every hour or two.  I couldn't sit through an entire movie in a theater without having to either go out for a cigarette or be uncomfortable for the last half hour or so.  For years I drove to visit my family in Minnesota (a 24-hour drive each way) more because I couldn't imagine flying and not being able to smoke for that long at one time than the fact that it was more economical to drive.  Now that gas costs over $3.00 a gallon, flying is actually cheaper but if I were still smoking I might consider driving just so I didn't have to face six hours without a cigarette. 

Conferences and classes we another place I fervently hoped would give us breaks every two hours.  Instead of going to the bathroom, getting something to drink, chatting with fellow attendees, I was outside puffing away on a cigarette so I could sit for another two hours.  I hated being tied to that all the time.

I had decided to quit when I moved into my new apartment and when I found my hypnotist, that just made me all the more determined to do it.  When I discovered that the two tenants directly above me on the 2nd and 3rd floors had severe problems with my cigarette smoke (one is allergic and the other has emphysema), I was even more determined to make it work.  Did I quit for them?  Absolutely not!  I quit for me.  It was time.  I was done.

Now, here's the most interesting part.  I've quit smoking before.  I've stayed off cigarettes anywhere from a few months to five years before starting again.  Each time I would love to be around smokers so I could enjoy their second-hand smoke.  I never minded if people smoked in my house when I was a non-smoker, and I honestly didn't notice the smell of smoke in my clothes or anywhere else.

This time it is totally different.  I don't know if it's the hypnosis or if there is something else at work here but I can't even stand to be within 10 feet of someone who just came back from taking a cigarette break.  Every time I open my clothes closet I wish I had my own washer and dryer so I could just wash everything I own all at once.  Oh, and fabric--let me tell you about my quilting fabric.  I was ironing fabrics for a class I was going to take and the fumes coming from either the fabric or the ironing pad literally burned the inside of my nose.  It was horrible. 

While I don't know if this is the cause of the hypnosis or if something else is at work, what I do know is that this is the last time I will ever have to quit smoking because there is absolutely no way in the world I could bear the thought of smoking another cigarette no matter how stressed I get.  Sure, I still reach for one at the "trigger" times--on the phone, getting into the car, just finished a meal--but it's not a serious craving and a reminder that I don't smoke any more is all it takes not to need that cigarette.

Is this all going anywhere?  Not really.  I just wanted to share with you that I'm still not smoking and that I'm thrilled with the fact that I really know I will never smoke again.  That's the best part.

Until next time...

Moving Time!

I haven't been very communicative lately and part of the reason is that I'm moving.  Actually, I'm moving today and tomorrow!

As I've been getting ready for this move I realized how different a move is when our business is in our home.  In the past, when I moved, the only thing I really had to worry about was whether I had access to sheets for the bed, a few pots and pans, and clean clothes.  Now I have to be certain my Internet and phone are hooked up at exactly the right time, my files get set up, my computer is working properly, I have enough room around my desk to work on client work almost immediately, well, the list goes on and on. 

By this time Sunday everything will have made its way from the old place to the new place and I should be just about ready to get back to work on Monday morning.  I've been busy envisioning a smooth, stress-free move, filled with laughter and joy.  I'll let you know if my Law of Attraction work paid off for me.

If you haven't already gotten a VA for your business, think about it.  I really could have used my own VA to help me plan this move to be as efficient as possible.  There are always so many things to do that I just have to find time for--changing addresses, organizing the transfer of services, setting up the moving crew, finding qualified help--the list goes on and on.  Of course, all of this is on top of packing and still keeping my business going.

Until next time...

How did time get away from me?

I just received an email from a former client telling me a couple of links no longer worked so I went in to make the corrections and realized it has been over two weeks since I've posted anything.  How in the world did time get away from me like that?

Ah, right, I have two new clients.  Well, that explains why my time has been taken up with other things lately, but it's no excuse for ignore my regular readers.  I promise to have new content here in the next few days--let's say by next Monday, OK? 

Thanks for your patience.

Until next time...

My Focus

After looking back over my posts for the last couple of weeks it has occurred to me that I've been spending a lot of time recommending products.  There's a reason for that.

First of all, I'm working my business full time, now, and I have time to check out all these things I've been wanting to take a look at for the past year or two.  Before I didn't have time to do everything and checking out productivity tools was down towards the bottom of the list.

Secondly, I know how valuable these tools can be to help you make your business run better, more smoothly.  It's something I try to share with my clients whenever I can.  I want to help you make your business run as effortlessly as possible.  I'm just glad I have the time to check these tools out so I can share them with you.

What productivity tools do you use?  What are your favorites?  Let me know.  I'll check them out and report back to the rest of my readers.  You always get attribution, of course, so be sure to link to your blog or web site.

Until next time...

It's Gratitude Time!

I've been thinking about whether or not I want to post about this for the last week.  I decided this is the perfect place to talk about what is going on in my professional life and when I'm excited I want to share that.

So, what's so exciting?  I got fired.  Yep, fired.  This is the first time in my entire life I've ever been fired and I can assure you the actual event wasn't even a little bit fun.  In fact, I was in a tail spin for a couple of days.  Part of that was the shock of being fired when I wasn't sure why (seriously, I don't know what I did, but that's another whole story, one that could probably get me in trouble for saying bad things about my former employer).  The other reason was our old friend, fear.

I had tons of thoughts running through my head:

I'm not ready to start my VA business full time.  I'm still working on my web site for crying out loud.

Oh-my-gosh, what will I live on until I get clients?

I'd better run out and get another job right this very minute!

You get the idea.  Fear was running amuck.  I was stuck, too, in that whole "getting fired" thing.  It took me a couple of days to just get past that whole concept.  Did I say I've never been fired before?  Not once, in...well, a lot of years.  OK, so that was a big thing for a couple of days.  This was a time when the counsel of friends was imperative.  Oh, and my coach, Deanna Davis, was absolutely fabulous!

OK, so let's get back to the fear because once I got over the whole getting fired thing, the fear was still there.

A dear friend and fellow Virtual Assistant pointed out to me that I had put out into the Universe that I was going to have my business up and running and ready to quite the aforementioned job by April 1 of this year.  Had I thought, she asked, that the Universe might be helping me out by allowing me the opportunity to have more time to devote to the business?

Well, that was the day after the firing so, no, I hadn't given that any thought at all.  Once she planted the seed, though, I did give it some thought.  The more I thought about it, the more sense it made.  I now have those nine hours I was away from home every day to devote to my web site, my blog, client recruitment, and personal development. 

How cool is that?  So, where I was living in fear and panic, I am now living in gratitude and abundance. 

So, let the games begin!  I'm looking for a few good clients.  Do you know anyone who could use a top-notch Virtual Assistant?  I'm available.

Until next time...