Lighten Up by Peter Walsh

January is Get Organized Month. According to Standolyn Robertson, NAPO Past-President, “Getting organized is one of the top 5 New Year’s resolutions people make…” What better way to wrap up this month than with a giveaway that’s designed to help you with your organizing goals?

For my Get Organized Month Giveaway, one lucky winner will receive a copy of the newly released book Lighten Up by the charming organizational expert, Peter Walsh. He’s a New York Times bestselling author and host of the new Oprah Winfrey Network Television series “Enough Already! with Peter Walsh.” The subtitle of Peter’s book says it all:  Love What You Have, Have What You Need, Be Happier with Less.

Sometimes the pressure of getting organized or working on your goals is so great that it prevents us from taking any steps forward.  For me, it’s valuable to use the change of seasons to create reflection and evaluation pauses. The goals I’m working on now will bring me through the winter. Once spring arrives, I will look back and then ahead to adjust what I’m doing. In my book, The Other Side of Organized, the seasons help my readers focus on particular ideas at specific times. Winter is about fresh starts, embracing change and taking next steps.

Please make your next step entering the Get Organized Month Giveaway.  The giveaway starts on January 24th. The winner will be picked on January 31st.  Follow the contest rules to win a copy of Peter Walsh’s book, Lighten Up:

1.    Comment on this blog post below with something you love or would be happier without.

2.    Comment about the giveaway on the Oh, So Organized! Facebook page

3.    Re-tweet the giveaway on Twitter and include @LindaSamuels when you do!

4.    Subscribe to the Other Side of Organized monthly e-newsletter for inspiration and motivation!

Do one or all of the above to enter. The more you do, the more times your name will be entered to win (up to 4 total entries!)

I look forward to hearing from you and sharing Peter’s book with the winner. Good luck!

This was a first for me. After having tea and checking my email, I started writing this blog post on my iPad at Starbucks. I arrived too early for my client appointment and had some extra time.

I'm a frequent Starbucks customer, and while I’ve spent many hours at various locations sipping lattes and relaxing, I’ve never done any writing on the premises until today.  I find this funny because I always see other people working on their laptops and wonder how they can focus with all the noise.

My preferred time and place to write my blog has typically been at my desktop, surrounded by the quiet, privacy, and comfort of my home. Starbucks has an entirely different atmosphere. There are many sounds like continual music, steamed liquids being prepared, the buzz of many conversations, beverage requests being taken, feet shuffling, and chairs moving. To add to the activity, the Starbucks where I sat was in New York City. There was as much going on inside as there was outside.

To my surprise, I enjoyed the change of scenery from where I usually write. It breathed new life into one of my 2011 goals of writing a weekly blog post. This month, I’m writing about "Fresh Start," which corresponds to chapter one of my book, The Other Side of Organized.

Beginning again with a clean slate or a completely different slate can be enervating. It's what I experienced this morning. So, as you're setting your goals and making some changes, think about shaking things up. I accidentally stumbled upon this at Starbucks simply by changing the location where I usually write. What slight alteration can you make to bring you closer to accomplishing one of your goals?

I’d love to hear about your best goal-boosting strategies.

I’ve always been a working mother. That helped me learn how to juggle many hats, be more flexible and find joy in the moments. Especially when our daughters were young, life was particularly hectic. Now that they’re both in college, the daily schedule isn’t as filled with their schedules, but juggling, flexibility and joyful moments are still very much part of my life.

Recently, our girls came home for their winter breaks. I worked some, but also took off time to spend with them. For those of you that have college-aged kids, you know that their hours are quite different from most parents. They stay up very late and sleep even later. There are frequent comings and goings between visiting friends, running errands and taking day trips. With our different schedules, it was important to grab time with them when I could, even if it was brief.

When I think back to the girls’ winter break, it was full with wonderful memories of both short and extended exchanges. Time together sometimes included a car ride and conversation on the way to an errand. Sometimes the moments were longer when we had leisurely meals together. This beautiful collage included walks in the snow covered woods, sipping tea and coffee at assorted cafes, snuggling and watching movies, grocery shopping, cooking, listening and dancing to music, visiting family, having friends over, laughing, donating blood, going to our favorite cupcake shop, getting lots of extra hugs and seeing our girls enjoying each others’ company.

Our lives are made up of moments. Joy is present if you allow yourself to feel it. What moments have you recently enjoyed with your kids? I’d love to hear one or two of your favorite memories.

Like a tea bag steeping, sometimes you need to wait and let the flavor get stronger before you can take a sip. The same holds true for our beginning of the year plans. Sometimes we are ready to dive in and go full speed ahead on January first. We are determined to keep the resolutions that we’ve set like saying “no” to desserts, exercising three times a week or finally getting control of our chaos. At other points, we need more time to let our ideas deepen before we can move forward.

There are many possibilities. What if you’re almost half way through the first month of the new year and you’ve already indulged in “several” desserts, you haven’t exercised even once a week and organization is nowhere in sight? Or, what if you find yourself halfway though the month and you haven’t yet determined what your resolutions or goals are?

I’m personally straddling the two camps. Several weeks ago, I made a list of possible 2011 goals. I haven’t officially committed to any of them. I simply compiled a list of things that I am considering. The list includes items such as redo my Oh, So Organized! website, design and build a new desk area, try some new recipes and spend more time with friends. Ideas are still being added. No actual resolutions have been made or goals set because I’m collecting and processing. I’m getting closer, but need more time to decide what I want to pursue most.

An odd thing is happening, though. Since the thoughts are on this list, I’m aware of whether I’m doing or not doing any of them. So, when I say, “yes” to a sweet, I’m justifying that it’s fine to eat because I haven’t yet committed to “no desserts.” I am conscious, but not guilty because I’m still in the deciding mode.

Whether you’ve set your goals and slipped, contemplated your goals but not committed or are working hard to keep on track, let’s remove all guilt out of the equation. Remember that you’re human. There is no perfect, especially when it comes to making changes. Give yourself the time you need to figure out what you’d like to accomplish. Along with that, give yourself a dose of forgiveness as you experience the ups and downs of striving towards your goals.

What 2011 ideas are you contemplating?