You know you’ve been off your game when you log in to make a new post and you’re shocked to see that it’s been almost three months since you’ve even visited your own site! I’ve taken breaks before, but never one that’s lasted quite this long or left me feeling this disorganized.

I’m really glad that the theme for this months NaBloPoMo is “routine” because it’s painfully obvious that I need one. Whether I can find 31 days worth of ideas on the topic or not, I can say that I will definitely be creating a routine for blogging every day. And since I have more than one blog to take care of and get whipped back into shape it’s something that’s long over due.

So, it’s the first day of the second half of the year, my playtime is definitely over, and it’s time to put the butt in the chair and write if I hope to meet even half the goals I’ve set for myself this year.

How’s your year going? Are you where you want to be after the first six months?

Okay, it’s reality check time. This post marks the end of two full weeks of daily posting for me. And it’s a lot harder than I thought it would be coming up with something original to say every day. So far I’ve avoided falling into the re-blogging trap of just talking about what other people are saying, although I may do some of that if I can ever get an hour or two to sit here and catch up on reading everyone else’s blogs.

Today, however, I seem to have hit a wall. My brain is still on overload trying to process everything I learned at the Masters Seminar this past week. I’ve started about a half dozen posts in the last hour and nothing is coming out right. So rather than bore you with drivel and the incoherent ramblings of the sleep-deprived, I’ll just give you a recap of last week’s posts in case you didn’t get a chance to read them earlier.

Sunday – More on Happiness
Monday – Five Tips for Breaking the Procrastination Habit
Tuesday – It’s Time to Stop Drooling and Start Doing
Wednesday – Ten Quickies for Stress Relief
Thursday – What’s Good in Your Life?
Friday – Five Ways To Re-Inspire Yourself
Saturday – Four Brainstorming Tips For When You Need an Idea

Please leave me a comment and let me know if you found these useful. I want to make sure that you’re getting what you need when you visit here, and that can only happen with your feedback. My mind-reading skills are really rusty, so I rely on and appreciate your comments.

My brain is on overload today. I’ve spent the day doing one of two things — fighting through the Christmas shopping crowds, or listening to the amazing speakers at Ross Goldberg’s Marketing Masters Seminar. The seminar’s been great and I’ve got so many ideas from the speakers for products to create, articles to write, seminars to plan, and general improvements to make to my business. So today I have no shortage of ideas of what to create. But there are days that I do need come up with something, and I don’t have a room full of people to bounce ideas off of. I used to let those days really get me down, and I’d just not write anything and go for days without a fresh piece of content. And if you’ve seen any of my old sites you’ll know just how infrequently they got updated.

There are a few tips you can use to help jump start your creativity when you need to find something to write about. For me brainstorming pretty much involves a yellow legal pad and my favorite pen. Some people use software and follow a mind-mapping process, but I’m much more of a scribbler. (If you could see the draft of this article, you’d know what I mean.)

These are some of the things I do to brainstorm when I’m in need of an idea:

1. Write everything down. Turn off yoru inner critic and write down every single idea that pops into your head. Don’t discount anything at this point, no matter how far-fetched it seems.

2. Along the same lines and #1, write quickly and don’t stop to think about what you’re writing. I don’t know about you but when I’m in creative mode, I tend to write a lot faster because my hands need to keep up with my brain. If you can use a voice recorder to get your ideas out, that’s even better because we can speak much more quickly than we can write or type.

3. Let your thoughts flow. Let them wander where they will and you’ll notice that your thoughts flow into one another. One idea may spawn several more related ideas and you’ll end up with something you may never even have seen coming.

4. Once you’ve gone as far as you can, and you think there can’t possibly be even one idea left in your brain, then write for five more minutes. You might be surprised at what you come up with whn you stretch yourself just that little bit further.

Using these tips has never failed to produce at least one idea for an article or report for me. I hope that you can get some use out of them as well.

Leave me a comment and let me know what you think or how you brainstorm. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

I’ve kind of gotten away from writing on the theme of thanks for this month’s NaBloPoMo so we’re going to rectify that tonight. This morning while I was doing my daily round of bloghopping I came across a cool little post by Vanessa Smith at Let Your Life Bloom.

The gist of her post was that we often forget to recognize all the little things that are good in our life. The examples that she used were her bathrobe, the shower, and even the floor.

That got me thinking about the whole cycle of paying attention, noticing the good things around us, and being thankful for them. It’s easy to remember to be thankful for the big stuff. But how many times do we really stop to appreciate all those little things that are good in our lives?

Just thinking about what’s good in my life today brings to mind my favorite pen, peppermint tea, and my mittens. And I’m extremely grateful for all of them.

What about you? What’s good in your life today?

I don’t know about you, but I find that during the holiday season, the closer it gets and the busier everyone gets, the more stressed out and short-tempered I get. There always seems to be somewhere to be, something that has to be done, and someone who wants a piece of my time. And I don’t have a big family!

It’s especially important for women to make sure that we take the time to take care of ourselves while we’re being pulled in ninety different directions every day. Even if you can only spare fifteen minutes, for yourself, there are lots of things you can do to let off a little stress. Here are fifteen of my favorite stress relief quickies:

1. Go for a walk
2. Meditate
3. Write in your journal
4. Find a friend to vent to if you need it
5. Take a bubble bath
6. Get a foot massage
7. Have a short nap
8. Get outside and take some nature pics (my favorite!)
9. Take a daily multivitamin
10. Go out for a coffee with a friend

Try one of these the next time you’re feeling like you need a break. And let me know in the comments how they work out for you, or if you have any stress relievers you’d like to share. I’m always open to new ideas.

Earlier this morning I was on Twitter moaning about the snow and wishing that I had a truck with 4-wheel drive to make getting around easier. I nearly got stuck three times this morning, and today is only the first real snow of the season. But wanting a truck is nothing new… I’ve been droolin’ over other peoples’ trucks, mostly F150′s and Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cabs for the better part of a year now.

And no, before you ask, I haven’t really done anything about getting one yet except whine about how much I want one. That’s the whole point of this post.

I’ve had a wake up call … one of those magnificent ah ha! moments. As I was about to post a status update on Facebook wishing for a new truck, it hit me. It is so time to stop droolin’ and start doin’ something to get what I want.

My little voice was yellin’ at the top of its lungs, “C’mon, get real Lena. You write about taking action all the time, but you’re not doing it yourself.” (I really hate it when that voice is right!) I’ve been doing this stuff long enough that I know that all the wishing in the world isn’t going to make things happen if I don’t take the action necessary to make it happen.

So starting right now, this minute I am focusing my energies on attracting a truck like this one or something better. And I’m gonna use all the skills and knowledge I have at my disposal to make sure I do my part in making sure it happens. At the very least I figure I’ll end up with a shiny new truck to play in the snow with, as well as a good head start on achieving my goals for the new year too.

If you want to keep track of how I do, feel free to either subscribe to my feed, or follow me on Twitter. I’ll be posting regular updates there too.

I was out shopping today and it really hit me how unhappy everyone in the store was. No one smiled, and every person that I saw was looking like they’d rather be anywhere else. I, of course, was acting like my usual childlike self smiling at the snow, singing along with the Christmas music, and smiling away. No one smiled back, and when I marvelled at that to my son, he said that Christmas is not a happy time, it’s a stressful time so no one’s happy about it.

It’s probably a sign of how far I’ve grown, but I just don’t get it. Either that or I’m extremely naive, and while I may act like a big kid, I’m pretty sure I’ve been around the block enough times to know what’s what. And I still don’t get it… How can you not be happy when everything’s covered in a fresh blanket of white, you’re out with your family, and you’ve got money to spend or at least enough of a balance on the ol’ plastic to give your kids a Christmas?

That trip really got me thinking about what it takes to be happy, and how do we go about finding happiness in our lives.

I think that too many people have forgotten that happiness has to come from within. It’s not about how much money we have or how many cars are in the driveway or whether you’ve got a 42 inch plasma screen on the wall. Sure those things are nice to have, but they can’t make you happy in and of themselves.

I read something the other day, and for the life of me I can’t remember where, but it was that maybe we should be searching for inner peace and a sense of contentment with life as it is now, instead of that all-to-elusive happiness. And that really resonated with me. (If anyone knows who wrote this, please leave a note in the comments with a link. I know it was on a blog but I can’t remember whose it was and I’m really sorry for that.)

So how do we find that sense of contentment?

Well, we can always start with decluttering. Give away the crap that we’ve bought to make us happy, that really doesn’t even come close. Or sell it on ebay and pay down the balance on the plastic with the extra cash.

Another thing that can make us happy is doing something nice for someone else. But think hard before you do a random act of kindness for a stranger. Gretchen over at The Happiness Project has a really good post on why you shouldn’t be doing random acts of kindness, and it’s generating a lot of discussion.

Finally, you can, and should, find something to do that you love and can totally throw your energy into. And if you need more ideas, Marelisa at the Abundance Blog has a great post on tips for being joyously happy.

Oh, one more thing… Go ahead and smile! Your face won’t break, and you might actually like it.

Your comments and feedback make me happy. Please leave one and tell me what makes you happy. Go on… I dare ya

For me, one of the first steps I had to take in experiencing positive personal growth was to improve my self esteem. It’s something that I still have to work on every single day. I’m very thankful for the tips and advice I’ve received along the way to get me to the point where I feel good enough about myself to actually post the articles I write. (You should see my filing cabinet … it’s filled with articles and ideas for things I wrote and never had the self-confidence to do anything with at the time.)

Here are just a few of the tips that have helped me get to where I am today…

1. Don’t worry about what other people think of you. This was my biggie, and still is something I have to work on every single day. Chances are the people you are worrying about aren’t even thinking about you. And it’s such an energy drain to worry about something that’s out of your control.

2. Learn to like yourself. Another big one I had to really learn how to deal with. When you have low self-esteem, it’s a common occurrence to beat yourself up every single day. More than once a day if you’re anything like I was. This is another big energy drain that you want to get rid of as soon as you possibly can.

3. Practice positive thinking. If you’re used to feeling bad about yourself, that cloak of miserableness is really easy for everyone else to see. You will push away the very people you want to be around because your negative attitude will begin to affect them too. It takes some conscious effort to practice positive thinking at first, but believe me… once you get started it’s so much easier to be positive about things, and you’ll be surprised at how much better you feel about yourself.

4. Stop being a perfectionist. Waaaaay easier said than done! But you don’t have to be perfect… you just have to be you! Let me repeat that with emphasis… You Just Have To Be YOU! I spent years of my life trying to be someone I wasn’t and trying to live up to other people’s visions of what they thought I should be. When I stopped, it was amazing how much my self esteem improved because the only person I really had to worry about making feel good was myself.

5. Play nice with others. Just because I said you only have to worry about making yourself feel good that doesn’t mean you can be mean to everyone else. Think about that universal law that says what goes around comes around, you get what you give; like attracts like… there are a thousand ways to say it, and everyone of them means the same thing. Be as nice to others as you would like them to be to you. You don’t want people to insult you or put you down, so don’t do it to them. And remember my mama’s favorite saying… If you can’t say nuthin’ nice, then keep your dang mouth shut!

Raising your self-esteem can be done, if you’re willing to do the work. I won’t lie and tell you it’s easy because it sure wasn’t for me. But I’m living proof it can be done, and I hope these tips help you to get to where you want to be too.

As always comments and feedback are welcome.

While I was writing up my goals for the upcoming year, I came to the realization that my vision for the future is somewhat cloudy, especially where it relates to my business aspirations. Doing that exercise was a real eye-opener for me because while I know what I want in every other area of my life, I really don’t have a clue what success in business looks like for me other than it involves a lot of writing (interspersed with lots of time off for golfing, of course).

Finding that vision of success is really important for me. I can’t really know how to plan for achieving success without having at least some idea of what it looks like. Fortunately, or maybe not so fortunately, there’s a whole personal development industry out there that’s only too happy to tell me what they think my success should look like. And while I’m very thankful for their words of wisdom and their willingness to share their ideas with me, in the end it all comes down to one thing… the only person who can define my success is me. And the only person who can define your success is you.

That’s not to say I’m not above borrowing the words of the experts to help me figure it all out. I keep a whole folder full of quotations just for that express purpose. Here are a few of my favorite “success is” quotes.

Success is loving life and daring to live it — Maya Angelou

Success is doing what yo ulove, loving what you do, and helping others to learn how to do the same. — Bob Burg

Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. — Winston Churchill

Success is a toll road … pay now or pay later. — Steve Siebold

Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome. — Arthur Ashe

Success is not so much what we have as it is what we are. — Jim Rohn

Success is creating a state of mind that allows you to obtain whatever it is you really want. — Mark Victor Hansen

Success is relative. It is what we can make of the mess we have made of things. — T. S. Eliot

Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction. — Al Bernstein

Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go. — William Feather

What does your success look like?

Personal balance is something that a lot of people, me included, have a hard time achieving. We often allow ourselves to be pulled in many different directions as we try to balance our own needs with those of the people around us. That’s especially true during the holiday season when there’s always somewhere to be and something that needs to be done.

Here are a few tips that I’ve found helpful in maintaining a sense of balance when things get too hectic.

1. Practice some basic time management skills. Take some time out to really look at your schedule and notice when you’re trying to fit more into your day than is physically possible. Make sure that you are leaving enough time in between appointments that you don’t get caught having to be two places at once. What I find helps is to schedule a fifteen minute buffer zone around each appointment so that if I’m running late I’m covered, and if I’m on time I actually have a few minutes to myself to relax and catch my breath.

2. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. In other words, know your limits and stick to them. I know I’m not really one to talk here because I consistently take on more than I should. But hey, I’m trying to break this habit even as I write this. It’s really important that you take care of yourself by knowing what you can handle at not allowing yourself to be stretched beyond that point.

And that brings me to my final point…

3. Learn how to say no. Don’t allow yourself to get hung up on the idea that people will be mad at you if you don’t jump to do their bidding at the expense of taking care of yourself. Too often we allow ourselves to become “yes” people because we worry about how others see us. If you allow yourself to say no instead of overwhelming yourself by taking care of everyone else’s needs you might just be surprised at the outcome. You’ll feel more self-confident and happier when you’re taking care of yourself. And after they get over their initial upset at you saying no, other people will realize that you’re happier and more relaxed too.

So there you have it. I know it’s sometimes easier said than done, but you are the only one who can find the balance that you need in your life. By keeping these tips in mind and acting on them when necessary, you will find yourself one step closer to having the balanced life you deserve.