Manic Monday: balancing budgets and taxes

"Do the hard jobs first. The easy jobs will take care of themselves.
Do the thing you fear to do and keep on doing it.
That is the quickest and surest way ever yet discovered to conquer fear."
~Dale Carnegie

I could hardly type the word budget with out gulping. Numbers scare me. I don't really know how to make sense of them. Unfortunately, they are woven into every area of my life. I must make sense of them. Without my numbers in order how do I know if I have met my goals for last year? How can I know if it is even possible for me to accomplish what I have set out for myself this year?

Today's Manic Monday Mission is to get all of my income and expenses organized and ready for April. This is also the day I review my budget for this year and create a regular "check in" for balancing all of my accounts.

One of the questions I asked myself last week was "Who can I contact to help me?" The things I fear doing the most are the things I am not good at. Rather than put them off until the night before (paying extra fees, of course), I will seek out support and wisdom from professionals who can help me.

I have a wonderful tax man. And I have (gulp) scheduled an appointment with him. But, I also need help getting ready for the tax man. So, I have called my wonderful friend who is very good with numbers and very patient with me. She is coming over this week to hold my hand as we wade through the piles of paper that I fear the most.

To do Today:
1. get all papers in order to review and analyze on Wednesday.
2. thank God for friends who are good at things that I am not!
3. be done with the thing I fear the most this first week of February

PlayShop Schedule for 2011

Who Needs a PlayShop?

Women who want to give of themselves without losing who they were created to be.

Women who want to connect with other women in a way that is meaningful, life-giving and fun.

Women who answer, "I don't know,"

when asked, "What do you want? What do you need? What do you love?"

Don't let the word PLAY fool you! You won't believe how much you will learn about yourself while having a very good time. You might even practice some Laugh Therapy!

This year we are offering several PlayShops through the year in the

Nashville/Brentwood/Franklin areas.

Read through the descriptions below and find the sessions that speak to your challenges, your personality and your longings.

PlayShops are led by Jenny Black, MMFT and Jenny Watson, Life Coach.

Session One: Who Are You?

Tuesday, February 22nd

Choose from the 9-12 AM session or the 6-9 PM session

Cost: $55 (includes themed snack and supplies)

Location: Brentwood (directions will be sent at registration)

You know about your physical DNA, now discover the DNA of your desires, your heart, and your soul. Find out what you love and what makes you smile. Get the answer to the questions you’ve asked yourself for years. “So that’s why I do that!” "So that’s why I feel that way!” "So that’s why that bugs me so much!” This PlayShop will give you a place to connect with yourself so that you are able to be your true Self in your relationships, your work and your community.

Session Two – When can you fit it all in?

Tuesday, March 15th

Choose from the 9-12 AM session or the 6-9 PM session

Cost: $55 (includes themed snack and supplies)

Location: Brentwood (directions will be sent at registration)

Is your life so full that it is spilling all over the place? Discover how to show up in your own life. We will take a look at the 24/7 that you’ve been given. Learn to schedule what you love into your day. Who are the people that you want to make time for? Learn the difference between “Time Management” and “Choice Management.” In this PlayShop you will become aware of just how extraordinary even the ordinary can be!

Session Three – What do you believe?

Tuesday, April 12th

Choose from the 9-12 AM session or the 6-9 PM session

Cost: $55 (includes themed snack and supplies)

Location: Brentwood (directions will be sent at registration)

What do your beliefs actually mean to your life? The quiet places of your soul are easy to rush past in the busy-ness of life. Find out how and why to create sacred space so that your soul can thrive. In this PlayShop you will investigate what you really believe about the creator of your soul and identify the promises that are written on your heart.

Session Four – Why do you waffle and waver?

Why aren’t you "fulfilled?" Why do you have conflicts with others?

June (exact date TBA)

Choose from the 9-12 AM session or the 6-9 PM session

Cost: $55 (includes themed snack and supplies)

Location: TBA

Life is full of tough choices. When you become intentional about your vaules, you can begin to live in harmony with who you are created to be. In this PlayShop you will identify the personal rules you live by and the rules you have for others. You will take a look at your personal compass and see how it is directing your life.

Session Five – Where did you come from? Where do you want to go from here?

August (exact date TBA)

Choose either the 9-12 AM session or the 6-9 PM session

Cost: $55 (includes themed snack and supplies)

Location: TBA

Your past does not have to define you, but it is where your story begins. If you try to get through life with out an appreciation for the entire experience of your background, you will stop your own growth and pass on the same story to the generations that come after you. In this PlayShop you will determine how your past has prepared you for your present and decide what legacy you want to leave. Today is someone’s yesterday. Examine your beginning to see how it impacts your now. Redeem it for your future.

Session Six* – How can you connect what you now know about yourself with the demands of real life?

September (exact date TBA)

Choose either the 9-12 AM session or the 6-9 PM session

Cost: $55 (includes themed snack and supplies)

Location: TBA

*prerequisite for this class: must have already attended a PlayShop

You know what you want. You know what you need, but you can't figure out how to fit YOU in between meetings and laundry. In this PlayShop you will develop a vision for your life and learn how to get the support you need in order to make your vision a reality.

Session Seven: PlayShop Leadership Training

October (exact date TBA)

9am-3pm (there will be an afternoon lunch break)

Cost: $325 (includes snacks, supplies and complete curriculum)

Location: TBA

*prerequisite for this class: must have already attended a PlayShop

You think you would be great at leading a PlayShop. In this PlayShop Leadership Training, you will get all the information and the curriculum that you need to start leading PlayShops (and share the fun!) in your community.

To Register:

1. send an email to Unwrittentravels@gmail.com
2. include your name, address, phone number and which sessions you are attending.
3. visit UnwrittenTravels.com (click on PLAY to find the links) and make your payment online.
4. your place in our PlayShops will be reserved once payment has been received. (Limit 12 persons per session).
5. you will then receive confirmation of your PlayShop Session with all necessary information for your particular session.
   

Manic Monday: do the right thing

“If you really want to advise me, do it on Saturday afternoon between 1 and 4 o'clock. And you've got 25 seconds to do it, between plays. Not on Monday. I know the right thing to do on Monday.” ~Alex Agase

This morning I find myself a bit jealous of Mr. Agase.

He knows the right thing to do on Monday?

He is not pulled in eighteen different directions knowing that they all NEED to be done and something that SHOULD have been DONE will be left UNDONE at the end of this day?

These January Mondays have been flying up in my face faster than I can check my list to see what is most essential for me to do. I don't even feel like I have had the mental space to make a to-do list.

Last night as I was on my way to bed,
I walked past the pathetic potted plant in my library
(oh, that's right I have the stuff to re-pot it, must put that on my list),
went to give my kids one last kiss good-night
(oh, I must remember to rent that steam cleaner and clean that nasty stain),
and then I saw the box of hair color on my bedroom floor
(when am I going to get around to coloring my hair?).

"See,"
I said to myself,
"These are the kinds of things you need to write on your Manic Monday list."

So I went into my office and looked under piles for my big blue sketch book that holds my brain. I turned to the Manic Monday Page and oh dear...we need to get a Jen(s)&Tonic sent out, and I must renew my professional membership, and there are those library books that are overdue...

Today, I am going to believe that planning is better than doing. I need to get my list in order. I need to see how I can create space in my life to get these things done (both the urgent and the important). Maybe I will get to one of these to-do things today, but I am confident that the best use of my time will be to set out a plan for February.

Maybe I will make every Manic Monday have a theme?

1st Monday: budget, finances and giving
2nd Monday: business and professional life
3rd Monday: home and family
4th Monday: personal development
(the occasional) 5th Monday: anything that doesn't fit into one of these categories.

• What really needs to be done?

• What can I delegate?

• Who can I contact to help me?

• How can I create a calendar/schedule that supports my goals and vision

(instead of making me crazy rushed and busy)?

Manic Monday: make my bed

"When the solution is simple, God is answering."
~Albert Einstein

Have you ever eaten scrambled eggs and brain? I think I have. Or maybe the image was so vivid, that I imagined myself seeing it, eating it, gagging...what a lovely image I have painted for you. I hope you are still reading.

I have had one severe case of scrambled brain since the beginning of December. Today's Manic Monday task had to be something simple. Something that would make me feel accomplished with minimal work. Something that set the tone for my day. It had to be something that made me feel pampered and refreshed.

Aha!
Make my bed.
Do you make your bed every day?
I suppose if I did it would not feel like such an accomplishment.
Or maybe it does feel this wonderful every single time and that is why one would make her bed daily.

Maybe.

My brain is still a scrambled mess, but my tidy bed invites me to take the next simple step toward clarity: an afternoon nap. (No, I don't care that it will mess up my throw pillows.)

To do today:
~make my bed
~take an afternoon nap in my fresh clean sheets

Manic Monday: support a cause

There are many embarrassing on my to-do list. Not that the actual things on the list are embarrassing (okay, a few are, but I don't want to gross you out.) It is the amount of time that they have been on my list that qualifies me for some kind of impressive procrastination award.

Have you ever heard of Snow Leopard Trust? If you have then you are way ahead of me. One day, ummm 3 or 4 years ago, my daughter was determined to save the snow leopards. She saved her own money, found loose change around the house and car, and she shared her concern with friends and family who also donated.

This is the kind of thing a mom like me dreams her child will do some day. I was amazed and proud and also extremely busy. I did manage to keep all that change in a special place (pat back) and then I actually deposited it in my bank (pat back again) so I could make the donation online.
And then I completely forgot about it.

Occasionaly, my daughter would say,
"Did you ever give that money to the snow leopards?"

And I would say,
"Oh yeah, I will try to remember to do that this week."


To do Today:

~place online donation to the Snow Leopard Trust

Folks, if it were not for Manic Monday those poor little snow leopards would never see the money my sweet daughter saved up for them.

And because of Manic Monday, it is done!

Manic Monday: rethinking normal

normal |ˈnôrməl|

adjective
conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected

I wonder how many NORMAL weeks actually happen in my life. You know, days without sick kids, snow, holidays, dentist appointments, traveling, trainings...
Oh yeah, this is normal, isn't it? What is usual, typical and expected around here is the unexpected.

To Do Today:

1. get kids report cards turned in
2. organize schedule (and brainstorm plan B) for this week
3. help daughter with journals that are due (if she does in fact have school tomorrow)
4. get kids organized for (fingers crossed) school tomorrow
5. figure out how I am going to be okay if (gulp) my kids don't go to school tomorrow

How do you deal with life when it doesn't go your way?
Does routine bring out your best?
Or are you the queen of spontaneity?
Are you able to adapt when plans keep changing?

Any tips or hints for surviving cabin fever would be appreciated.

Manic Monday: Etch A Sketching

"In the late 1950's, a man by the name of Arthur Granjean invented something he called, "L'Ecran Magique," the magic screen, in his garage." ~from Etch A Sketch History

Oh, how I love January.

It is that wonderful time of year where I feel like my life gets shaken clean. I have 12 months to create something that did not exist last year at this time.

So, this first Manic Monday of the new year has a broader purpose than simply getting things done. (Especially since I am on vacation :)

This is the Monday of all Mondays. The Monday that impacts how the rest of my Mondays the rest of this year. Today I will be working on my goals for 2011.

I am a moving ahead kind of person, so although goals are easy and fun for me, it takes me some discipline to look back on 2010 and take notice and pride in what was accomplished last year.

To-do Today:

1. list accomplishments, both big and small from last year
2. ideas for how to make the good things from last year GREAT
3. list 25 goals for 2011
4. choose 1 goal to focus on in January

The only thing more fun to me than setting my goals for the new year is to hear about your dreams and goals.

What are you most proud of accomplishing this year?
What is one thing you would like to see happen in 2011?
What kind of support would help you to accomplish these things?

Can't wait to see the sketches we all create.

Happy New Year!