¡Prioritize!

There is a time and place for everything. Life is a marathon, but in some stretches you just gotta sprint and learn to push out of your way anything that will distract you from reaching your goals.

These last weeks I’ve been buried in a couple of very important issues.

One of them, a rather difficult and draining beaurocratic process, I did not feel like dealing with, but had to. The other, a very interesting professional challenge, I was excited about.

In order to accomplish both, each day I had to make the decision to eliminate everything and anything that had nothing to do with those two impending issues.

The result was that I missed one of my best friends´ birthday party, wasn’t able to take phone calls, didn’t write my blog posts and the house was a mess. But I got the most important things done, and now I can get on with the rest of my life.

Prioritizing every week and every day helps me achieve my goals, while I also manage to devote time and energy to those I love.  

What is your priority this week and what are you willing to do to stick to it?  

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www.lorrainecladish.com

Tips to Stay Focused

I´ve mentioned in other blog posts that I don´t watch TV at all. Zilch, zero, nothing, nada.

This is mainly how I get things done that matter to me. This is how I write and publish books and blogs, make a living writing and translating, practice sports and raise my kids, plus spend time with my friends and loved ones or keep in touch with those who are far away.

Still, sometimes I feel I don´t have time enough to do it all and do it all well. I´m teaching myself to prioritize and streamline my life even further, so that I´m not swallowed by the constant barrage of distractions of modern life.

Following are just a few tips I use to keep my focus and get the important things done, while not forgetting to enjoy downtime too.

- Turn off my phone when I´m working, or simply don´t answer it unless it´s an emergency call concerning my daughters! Small but constant interruptions add up and make it more difficult to concentrate.

- Set time aside on my planner to work on the different projects I´m handling. I´m my own boss, and a good boss sets expectations for his or her employees, right? I also block time to spend with my kids and friends.

- Turn down too many social invites when I realize that short-term satisfaction will undermine the long-term satisfaction of getting my book written or meeting a deadline with a client (and getting my paycheck!)

- Be protective of my “alone” time. I consider walking or running on the beach just as important for me as eating or drinking water. It´s non-negotiable.

- Be protective of my energy and steer clear of energy drainers: people or situations that suck it out of me. If inevitable, then I do something to replenish it asap!

- Keep a vision-book in which, amongst other things, I write down my achievements on a daily and weekly basis. I´m not anal about it (I´m anal about few things if any), and it helps me stay focused on the positive.

- Block time to pay bills, get an oil change, doctor´s appointments, etc. on the same day. That frees my other days up to do my work.

- Make sure I have time to enjoy my friends, dancing, laughing or being silly with my kids or hanging out with that special someone. Life is too serious as it is!

How do you stay focused?

http://www.lorrainecladish.com/

My kid sets me straight!

When I was 8 years old, I was the shy, quiet, studious child of divorced parents. Now I am the mother of an 8-year old who is an outgoing, confident, studious child of divorced parents. More on my 5-year old in another blog post.
I work from home, and on the wall in front of my laptop, I have my mid-term, weekly and long-term projects listed. On another paper taped to the wall, I have my goals for 2010.
My 8-year old was doing her homework at my desk a couple of days ago, and after she finished and trotted off to take her nightly bath, I sat down to write something in my planner. I looked up at my goals, and found that my daughter had penciled some words on my visual reminders. On one of them, she finished off the title "Weekly Focus On ..." with the word "kids". Under "Long Term Projects" she added the bullet point "Being a Mommy". And under my "Goals for 2010" she wrote "Never ever give up! I love you!" and "Earn a Million Bucks!".
My first feeling was that my projects and goals lists didn´t look so pretty anymore ... but then I realized that my daughter had actually improved my lists! She certainly knows what is important! Thank you, dear Mini-me, and thank goodness, a much improved version thereof!
I don´t know about earning a million bucks though ...
BUT I have a feeling she may know something I am not yet aware of!

http://www.lorrainecladish.com/

Dream Pillow-cases

Two days ago, I did a project with my daughters who are 7 and 4 years old. We each took a pillow-case and fabric markers. We agreed that the only rules were to share the markers (this is a biggie at certain ages, if not all!!), and we all had to draw pictures of our dreams, which would then turn into goals.

Above is my own pillow-case at the top, my 7 year-old's in the middle and my 4 year-old's dream pillow-case is last but not least.

Of course my baby focuses on Barbies and having fun, my 7 year-old already has money as a goal (she knows a tad more about life than I would wish for her at her age), and I drew my own clear-cut adult goals: making the next rank in my jewelry biz., publishing my next book in the U.S., reaching a certain income level, destressing as a way of life and loving and forgiving others (and myself) on a daily basis ...

What was the purpose of this exercise? To focus on three or four things we have as goals for this year, and see them every single time we lay our head on our pillows at night before falling asleep.

There is no magic involved in this, mind you!

This has worked for me in the past, and what it does is keep my goals present and fresh in my mind, in order for me to be reminded to take the ACTION required to achieve them.

16 years ago, when I was writing my first book, I made a mock cover of the published book .... I used to look up at it when I was writing and would carry it with me everywhere. Of course I wrote the book, made the calls, and took the action required to actually get it published. And yes, it was published. 16 years and 15 books later, I can say it works!

Now I am implementing it in every other area of my life where I feel I need to gain or regain focus.

And to reach my goals, as Jim Rohn says, I must become the person who will make those goals happen, or they will not persist. For instance: I run because I am a runner, I write because I am a writer and I nurture because I am a mother ...

What reminders do you use to keep your goals fresh?