As many of you know -- or don't -- I am a Thirty One Director. I love Thirty One and I love it even more as this amazing business that allowed me to leave that full time mind sucking job I used to have in order to do fun home parties instead. Who doesn't love a party right?? But with this lifestyle comes some challenges.
Mind you this is in NO WAY a complaint. Challenges for me are simply little hiccups that I'm trying to work out. For example, in my previous job, time management was never a challenge. There was an in box and out box. Work came in and I did it and put it in the out box and my assistant took it and she did what she needed to and then it got mailed or filed accordingly. It was seamless and the work steady and there was always busy work to do when the inbox emptied. For 27 years my life was run by that schedule. I didn't much have to think about it. It just was.
Now however, my day starts when I decide to start it. I don't have an inbox so I do what I feel like doing when I want to do it and OH MY GOODNESS - I think I may have ADD. Seriously, I am totally struggling with FOCUS. My inbox in my head is full of 27,000 things to do and never ever are they getting accomplished. I'm going along working on e-mails and my phone buzzes I check my messages, something opens in chat on FB, I check my feed, the phone rings, I chat and then it's lunch time and I sit and eat watch and episode of Law and Order, OH NO my daughter is walking in the door it's almost 3 p.m. YIKES, I wash up the dishes while she starts her homework, it's time to run to dance class, I get home and start dinner or go back in the office to try to salvage some of my day, I'm back at the computer on my e-mail deleting, sorting, need to go on my business site, check my toolbox and downline reports, need to get together a hostess packet, my husband and daughter are home from dance. HOLY CRIPES it's 7:00 p.m. No dinner is made, my hubby fixes it and I decide to make a few calls, I get 20 answering machines and it's 9 p.m. and I still didn't eat dinner. And I'm exhausted but not sure from what exactly. I feel I didn't get anything done. UGH.
That is no exaggeration either, my days are like that really. My friends and I joke that when we work the squirrel wearing a sequin suit dancing disco is such a distraction. You know what I mean, you are working and....ooooh shiny -- there goes that squirrel again. You are distracted.
So in an effort to ward of the squirrels, I've made some strides. Still we are in BETA but at least there is a program started. LOL. So I made a very structured schedule. From wake up to bedtime I have a plan. Now, do I stick to the plan daily. Heck no. But, it's a structure a place to start and in box. And I am working this week to develop the inbox and reorganize the work space. I share my office with my sewing machine, Girl Scouts, and scrapbooking/crafting. And although all this means the world to me, my office needs to be an office, so over the next month we will be redistributing stuff throughout my house. Sewing machine will head to the guest bedroom. Crafting items are well stored in an awesome IKEA wall unit but the scrapbooking stuff is packed into 31 Large Utility Totes and they will go into the garage. My husband will sigh but it must happen. And all the office will be office and I can finally get things moving in a more professional less hobbyist manner.
One hurdle overcome.
What I love about home party business besides I get to party for a living. I work when I want to so my family can come first. I love the products. So adorable and affordable what's not to love. I can create my own income based on my drive, determination and desire. The other job had a glass ceiling. Hated that! But best of all, my daughter adores what I do and participates actively in it. She loves helping at parties setting up my tables, working vendor fairs with me. We have truly bonded over 31 and we are so much closer for it. It's been a huge blessing to my family and me. I recommend it to everyone. Living your dreams is far more fun than Dreaming you Life!
Sunday, March 30, 2014
Friday, March 14, 2014
Reflections
It is interesting how life comes at you from all angles and you seem to only have time to react to it. In that reaction however, seldom comes much notice to anything but exactly that moments needed and required attention. A day goes by with a series of knee jerk gut reactions and we fall into bed exhausted wondering where all the time went and how we managed to get nothing accomplished at all. My days for a few months have felt exactly this way. Recently, I've changed gears, slowed down and really focused on how to manage my time, life and crazy world and get more out of it. This journey led me back to God. Not that God was ever gone from me. I joke a little because I say always I'm not uber religious. But really I'm more than uber religious, I suppose what I should say is more I'm not an in your face, hard core zealot seeking to convert you and get you to speak in tongues while laying hands upon you and shouting Halleiluah at the top of my voice. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Actually, if not for that type of rowdy exciting congregation I certainly wouldn't have arrived at my current relationship with God and my constant fascination with world religions.
I loved my holy roller church and all those in it very much. My choice to leave many years ago was multi faceted but never about the people or the message, it was just time to journey on. God wasn't finished with me yet.
Here I am, writing this blog - okay marginally writing this blog. LOL for years while in a drawer sat a manuscript written in 2 days more than 128 pages that I struggled to edit and publish but that I knew needed to be and that God was urging me to get done. Yet, I kept procrastinating and God let me, adding to the story page upon page. I guess I hadn't found my way quite yet.
Well, I'm back to writing. Really writing. The past weeks have been spent learning to create schedules and to-do lists. It's laughable how bad I am at this. I have a team of women who do Thirty One with me and I am their director and we spend hours discussing lists and time management and I am such a fraud cause I never took my advice, choosing instead to live in the chaos I created. Well, this week, I broke it down into bite sized portions, ate my own advice and created a weekly plan and to-do list that can be added to as things come up. I have Monday - Me Day!! This is my writing day. Tuesday To Do Day - This is working down that list and once a month this is my GS day. Wednesday Woo Hoo Day - This is the day I do all my contact stuff for my 31 business for customers, hostesses and my team! Thursday is my Follow Thru Day - This day is about organizing, to do list, writing, Friday is Freedom Day - This is about focus and intentional planning, doing that which is important be it to God, family or myself and Girl time for myself, my daughter, my friends, and my aunt. Saturdays and Sundays are divided into work and family days every other week. Allowing 2 hours each day for work and writing.
I've been reading a lot. Fiction, self-help, bible, you name it. I belong to a book club so I have that looming each month, then I have something I'm reading that is just because. Stephen King is my guilty pleasure so I'm reading Doctor Sleep right now - the sequel to The Shining. I also am reading Prayer of Jabez and I'm on the hunt for the book club selection and I'm reading Mitch Albom's latest on my Nook. I'm a multi book reader always. The Prayer of Jabez, I initially read it only long enough to garner the prayer and basics and put it aside. Cool, got it, pray!
I pray the prayer daily. "Dear God, Bless me abundantly, Expand my territories, Keep your hand upon me and keep evil from me." That's it! Simple, concise, easy to remember. From this simple prayer, Jabez changed his life forever with blessings from God more numerous and profoundly reaching than Jabez could ever have imagined. This simple prayer is supposed to open your life to blessings so huge and wonderful. I was in, sign me up!! So I prayed and I did see blessings and doors opening and life changing but not exactly what I anticipated or hoped for. My plan was God would book me a bunch of parties and my business would expand and blow up and be amazing and I'd have a team of 1000's and I'd make a million dollars and life would be good and YAY GOD!! LOL. That wasn't exactly how it happened though.
God did bless me and I was able to retire from my job that I hated - see previous posts for details on that delightfully horrid environment. It was great. Got to be there for the Bat Mitzvah Girl, my business was booming, so exciting. But daily, when I prayed I knew that I was missing a bigger picture. I kept thinking it was about the book I wrote that I needed to finish. Then this morning, I picked up that little Prayer of Jabez book and read it - really read it. Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhh!!!
So, yes pray and pray and pray and God will bless you and me and anyone who asks for His blessings. That is true and undeniable. Little detail though is if you truly want HUGE blessings beyond your wildest imaginations, then you have to ask Him to work THROUGH you and Bless you so that you may bless others and share HIM through those blessings. AH HA!! So yes, the book is part of it. No doubt and it is a priority but even there I struggled for I thought the story was about miracles, but I was writing it about me. Me - not so interesting, right?? But Miracles and God working in the lives of everyday people like me - real biblical miracles today and everyday? Yes, that is far more compelling. So, today things are changing. Can't wait to see what tomorrow will hold.
And as for you my readers, and this little blog!! I've rededicated to writing weekly. I know - you must all be shocked. But it's on the new schedule and to do list. I feel like this is going to be great fun!! Talk to you all again really soon!!
I loved my holy roller church and all those in it very much. My choice to leave many years ago was multi faceted but never about the people or the message, it was just time to journey on. God wasn't finished with me yet.
Here I am, writing this blog - okay marginally writing this blog. LOL for years while in a drawer sat a manuscript written in 2 days more than 128 pages that I struggled to edit and publish but that I knew needed to be and that God was urging me to get done. Yet, I kept procrastinating and God let me, adding to the story page upon page. I guess I hadn't found my way quite yet.
Well, I'm back to writing. Really writing. The past weeks have been spent learning to create schedules and to-do lists. It's laughable how bad I am at this. I have a team of women who do Thirty One with me and I am their director and we spend hours discussing lists and time management and I am such a fraud cause I never took my advice, choosing instead to live in the chaos I created. Well, this week, I broke it down into bite sized portions, ate my own advice and created a weekly plan and to-do list that can be added to as things come up. I have Monday - Me Day!! This is my writing day. Tuesday To Do Day - This is working down that list and once a month this is my GS day. Wednesday Woo Hoo Day - This is the day I do all my contact stuff for my 31 business for customers, hostesses and my team! Thursday is my Follow Thru Day - This day is about organizing, to do list, writing, Friday is Freedom Day - This is about focus and intentional planning, doing that which is important be it to God, family or myself and Girl time for myself, my daughter, my friends, and my aunt. Saturdays and Sundays are divided into work and family days every other week. Allowing 2 hours each day for work and writing.
I've been reading a lot. Fiction, self-help, bible, you name it. I belong to a book club so I have that looming each month, then I have something I'm reading that is just because. Stephen King is my guilty pleasure so I'm reading Doctor Sleep right now - the sequel to The Shining. I also am reading Prayer of Jabez and I'm on the hunt for the book club selection and I'm reading Mitch Albom's latest on my Nook. I'm a multi book reader always. The Prayer of Jabez, I initially read it only long enough to garner the prayer and basics and put it aside. Cool, got it, pray!
I pray the prayer daily. "Dear God, Bless me abundantly, Expand my territories, Keep your hand upon me and keep evil from me." That's it! Simple, concise, easy to remember. From this simple prayer, Jabez changed his life forever with blessings from God more numerous and profoundly reaching than Jabez could ever have imagined. This simple prayer is supposed to open your life to blessings so huge and wonderful. I was in, sign me up!! So I prayed and I did see blessings and doors opening and life changing but not exactly what I anticipated or hoped for. My plan was God would book me a bunch of parties and my business would expand and blow up and be amazing and I'd have a team of 1000's and I'd make a million dollars and life would be good and YAY GOD!! LOL. That wasn't exactly how it happened though.
God did bless me and I was able to retire from my job that I hated - see previous posts for details on that delightfully horrid environment. It was great. Got to be there for the Bat Mitzvah Girl, my business was booming, so exciting. But daily, when I prayed I knew that I was missing a bigger picture. I kept thinking it was about the book I wrote that I needed to finish. Then this morning, I picked up that little Prayer of Jabez book and read it - really read it. Ooooooooohhhhhhhhhh!!!
So, yes pray and pray and pray and God will bless you and me and anyone who asks for His blessings. That is true and undeniable. Little detail though is if you truly want HUGE blessings beyond your wildest imaginations, then you have to ask Him to work THROUGH you and Bless you so that you may bless others and share HIM through those blessings. AH HA!! So yes, the book is part of it. No doubt and it is a priority but even there I struggled for I thought the story was about miracles, but I was writing it about me. Me - not so interesting, right?? But Miracles and God working in the lives of everyday people like me - real biblical miracles today and everyday? Yes, that is far more compelling. So, today things are changing. Can't wait to see what tomorrow will hold.
And as for you my readers, and this little blog!! I've rededicated to writing weekly. I know - you must all be shocked. But it's on the new schedule and to do list. I feel like this is going to be great fun!! Talk to you all again really soon!!
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