June 27, 2012

music review: love is a four letter word

If I wasn’t already convinced before, Jason Mraz’s new album has convinced me that the man is surely an old soul. Every single song is filled with so much heart, and the words strike a chord that only genuine feelings can evoke. And, oh, how some of his words make me swoon.

Throughout the years I’ve had various friends who will know the entire melody to a song, but somehow don’t know a single word that the song consists of.

In my mind, listening to music without paying attention to the words is unthinkable.

Music, for me, is something that I feel, that resonates through me, and that I can relate to. It is what I cling to when I need uplifting, what makes me ridiculously giddy on days where I’m feeling on top of the world, and is something I can always rely on to remind me that I’m human.

I feel like every single song on Mraz’s new album serves to remind all of us of what’s important in this life: the people in our lives and our interactions with them. It sounds simple, really. Yet, he does it in such a way that makes it so that you can’t help but smile to yourself as you listen, because you’ve been there, or felt that; you know.

The mixture of slow and fast paced songs is balanced so that regardless of the mood you’re in, there is surely something on the album that is fitting. I do, however, find myself listening to a couple of songs a bit more than the others, so I’ll let you in on what I consider to be the gems of this album.

To start, his song ”Living in the Moment” has this upbeat catchy tune coupled with words that just make you thrilled to be living. Here is my favorite verse from the song:

“I’m letting myself off the hook for things I’ve done
I let my past go past
And now I’m having more fun
I’m letting go of the thoughts
That do not make me strong
And I believe this way can be the same for everyone.”

Now, the next song that I’m stuck on makes me smile every single time I give it a listen because it really is so very swoon worthy. It’s called “The Woman That I Love,” and this verse pulls on my heart strings every time:

“No, I don’t mean to change you
You’ve got it under control
You wake up each day different
Another reason for me to keep holdin’ on
I’m not attached to any way you’re showing up
I’m just gonna love you like the woman I love”

Whether this is the type of music you typically listen to or not, I urge you to give it a listen. I’m constantly surprising myself with new music discoveries that I never would have fathomed liking.

I think if you listen to this album with an open mind, you’ll be pleasantly surprised where it takes you.

So here’s to happy listening.

Take out those head phones, place them in your ears, and allow yourself to feel the words. Every. Single. One.

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May 8, 2012

a not quite mid-year review

“I can’t believe it’s already May!”

I heard that a lot last week. It does seem like this year is flying by. Is it that I’m having fun? Or does time actually pass more quickly as you age each year?

It got me thinking about the year so far, and remembering November and December of last year when I was envisioning the shape of my business for 2012. Did you do that? Did you lay out any plans for this year? Set any intentions? Do the one word thing?

Before the year is halfway spent, this is a great time to do a “not quite mid-year review.”

This is not an opportunity to berate yourself if things haven’t gone as you planned. It’s a chance to do a check-in of your year so far, and do some reflection that will set you up to work smart until you have to remember to write 2013 on your checks.

  • At a glance: What’s working this year? What’s not? What’s going on with the numbers? What are you getting the most mileage out of?
  • What has gone according to your plans, and what has not? Be open to some of the “things that have not gone as planned” being things that turned out in your favor.
  • And finally, do you want to reevaluate your goals and intentions for the year? You get to change your mind and your focus mid-stream if you want. Plans are based on the evidence and energy we have when we make them. Now that you’ve looked at the reality of this year, do you want to change anything as you move forward?

Download a free “not quite mid-year review” planner and spend some time investing in your business – before the year flies on by.

Gathering light,

Filed Under: Buy You, For You, creating action, Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , Leave a Comment
December 7, 2011

your 2011 ‘I Did’ List

Hello You're Awesome from Red Velvet Press

As the year closes we are all busy – busy going into the holiday season and busy thinking about next year. It’s all too easy to think about the things we want to improve and do better in 2012.

In the rush to optimize, tweak, improve, and maybe completely overhaul the way we are doing things, it’s important to take a moment and reflect and congratulate ourselves on all the things we did right and even the things that we tried but could have done better.

Before you sharpen your pencils or fire up your laptop to create a plan of attack for 2012, take some time to make an ‘I did’ list for 2011.

Resist the urge to critique, scold, or berate yourself for things you didn’t get to; you can tackle that stuff (if you wish) next year.

You’ll probably be surprised by all of the things you got done. This will feel good. It’s so easy to keep our sights on the next accomplishment, goal, or milestone that we forget how far we have come.

Give yourself a high-five, a bubble bath, a pedicure, or whatever you do to do treat yourself.

Being creative is hard. Running a small business is hard. What we’re doing here takes guts.

The sense of accomplishment and pride this little exercise generates will restore you, help you enter 2012 with a sense of your own competence, and give you the boost you need to tackle all your new plans with gusto and confidence.

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November 9, 2011

what do i want? what am i doing? and why?

Sunset at Varkala by Koshy Koshy

As the weather turns cold and the leaves fall from the trees, we start to reflect on the previous year and set our sights on the coming one. To reflect and review is a natural, cyclical impulse.

We do ourselves a favor when we stop to assess what we set out to do and why we are doing it and to discern whether or not it still makes sense.

If you haven’t already, take some time to look back on goals, lists and plans you made for 2011 and take a moment to ask:

Your goals: What were the reasons, desires or drivers behind the goals I set? Are they still relevant? How have they changed?

Your scope: Did the projects I set for myself accomplish my goals? Were/are there other things I should/could be doing to accomplish them? Where did I get side tracked? Conversely, did I miss opportunities because I stuck too rigidly to the task at hand?

Estimations and plans: Were the time frames I gave myself realistic? Did I give myself enough time? Not enough? Was I able to have some semblance of balance between work, life, family and everything else? Did I slack too much?

Going through these questions isn’t just an exercise to go through at the end of the year, but a few times throughout it. A good rule of thumb is to review your goals at least twice a year. If you have set up your projects and scope and are planning monthly and weekly you will have a sort of built in defacto review.

Taking a moment every few months to take a step back and ask the above questions while you’re planning will keep you from going too far down a path which may have made sense when you set your goals, but no longer does.

This is harder than it looks.

Life is not static; opportunities arise and must be seized – charts, plans and to-do lists be damned! On the other hand, we don’t want to jump at each bright, shiny object that crosses our path.

I am wrestling with this right now. I look at the past year and can say that I have accomplished much. A lot of these things, however, had nothing to do directly with my business. I did this knowingly and for reasons that were sound, but I fought with myself the entire time.

For example, my Hello Etsy! talk, these posts, and my Steal This Process Project and Time Management Kit were waaaay out of scope. In fact, the whole thing was an effort to get the word out about e.m.papers, ha! But it gathered momentum and took on a life of its own and has been a deeply gratifying project.

Having said that, in the coming year I want to do a better job of really focusing on a few key goals and making sure I prune back unrelated extraneous activities, no matter how enticing new opportunities may seem. But I also don’t want to lose sight of the fact that sometimes the surest path to a goal is not always a straight line.

This involves discipline and a lot of soul searching to answer the questions: What do I want? Why? Will what I’m doing help me get where I want to go? Reviewing helps us figure this out.

‘What do I want?’ and ‘Why’ are the alpha and omega between reviewing and defining goals. Reviewing sounds easy, but it’s not. Make sure not to skip or gloss over this important step.

P.S. As the link above points out, The Steal This Process Kit is now available and ready for download. It’s a 60+ page guide book plus a slew of templates (in both Excel or PDF formats) that walk through and help you implement the concepts I’ve been sharing here and in my workshop, which you can now view here. The kit is 20% off until Friday, November 11; use the code: earlybirdspecial. Thanks so much to all of you who have already signed up to the mailing list!

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