Hi there
For the first time in as long as I can remember I haven’t made any new year’s resolutions. That doesn’t seem like a big deal until you realise that normally I make them in categories (health, career, family, travel, etcetera) and prioritise them, sometimes even adding a budget allocation to make them happen. There was the monthly and quarterly reviews and, anyway, you get the picture.
I was a brand new year geek. Not anymore. I’m a new woman.
This year I just want everything to be a little bit easier – calmer and more predictable. No great big goal kicking, no major life moments. I want to stop answering ‘busy’ when people ask me how I am.
OK, that last bit sounded like a resolution, so I may not be cured, but at least I see the light.
How was your holiday period? Did you make time for ‘palm trees and margaritas’* however you define them?
I love to hear (and publish) your stories of how you are living your life. Please get in touch and share your tips, stories and reflections. Each month, the reader who sends us the best story will win a copy of Palm Trees and Margaritas - Finding Your Oasis in a Busy World.
I love this month’s reader story. Hope you do too.
Karen Morath
karen@mpowercct.com
www.palmtreesandmargaritas.com
January 2009
* Life can’t be all palm trees and margaritas, but there are worse game plans.
The book Palm Trees and Margaritas - Finding Your Oasis in a Busy World is out now, go to www.palmtreesandmargaritas.com to buy your copy.
TIPS
This month’s tips are all about money and battening down the hatches so we can best weather whatever economic storms are brewing.
1. Shop your mortgage and any other loans or major financial commitments. It’s pretty straightforward to save money just by asking.
2. Give up some small things you think you need (magazines, lattes, bottled water) and make a slush fund instead.
3. Start a present drawer so you can buy gifts when you see them at good prices rather than having to rush out and overspend at the last minute. Stash it with cards and giftwrap too.
4. Cut up one credit card – if you only have one, all the better.
5. Collect $5 notes – they add up faster than a coin jar – and pay the lot off your mortgage every month or three.
6. Instead of drinking cheaper wine (heaven forbid), drink less of the good stuff.
7. Give things away. It is liberating in that it is a reminder of how unimportant stuff is and helps people at the same time.
TO ENJOY
Hang on to summer with these -
1. Iced coffee from McDonald’s
2. Barack Obama’s first book ‘Dreams from my father’. It’s poetry.
3. ‘From Russia with Lunch – a Lithuanian odyssey’, by David Smiedt
4. Le Tan sunscreen.
5. Birkenstocks.
6. Living Etc home magazine from the UK (and on the same theme, check out the work of sixx design at www.sixxdesign.com)
Know of any things people should be enjoying? Click here to share.
STORIES
Palm trees and margaritas is not necessarily to be taken literally (although if that’s what you like, cheers!) It’s about seizing the day and remembering you only live once and you don’t know how much life, let alone good health you have left. Continuing our year-long series inspired in part by Bill Clinton’s book Giving, here is this issue’s story about someone doing something wonderful with their life right now.
The givers
Have you been watching The Secret Millionaire on TV? I love it! It’s about rich people under cover looking for good causes to give some money to. They are trying to make a difference, and they invariably do, but it is the impact on them, how they are changed by the experiences they have and the people they encounter that makes it really special viewing.
When our local scout leaders, a thirty something married couple, stepped down last year after something like 43 years between them of involvement in the scout movement (and only after dragging their son to cubs and scouts two nights a week and to camps for the first year of his life), they spoke of how much they had gotten out of their time. The scouts and the parents could only see how they had been enriched by the extraordinary contribution of these two people.
Barack Obama seems genuinely to have developed as a person as a result of his experience as a community organiser in Chicago.
Someone I know works on a soup van and finds the work to be its own reward.
We met a wonderful Australian woman in Cambodia who rather than giving money to a young girl who was begging, gave her a meal, clean clothes and a night in her hotel room before consulting with the girl’s parents the next day and then taking her in as the first member of a street kids respite she started that day. Tania Palmer runs Green Gecko (see http://greengeckoproject.org) and now cares for, feeds and educates more than 60 kids a year.
It’s cheesy, but Jim Carrey’s new movie Yes Man also tosses up some wonderful benefits to people who give.
READER STORY
Thanks to Reannon Hemmings who wins a copy of Palm Trees and Margaritas - Finding Your Oasis in a Busy World for this story last month –
"Here is my palm trees and margaritas for today.
Woke up at 6:30am and read my favourite novel, Max Barry - Syrup until 10:30am. Yes, even though I have read it 8,000 times. I enjoyed 8,001 even more.
I then drove to the Christmas shop in Doveton and 'ooohhed' and 'aaahhed' at the pretty lights.
I then dove to the Christmas shop in Cheltenham and as above, 'oohhed' and 'aahhed'.
I then drove to USA foods in Moorabbin and bought every variety of cherry soda - just because I could.
Here's to a cherry weekend!"
If you are looking for a speaker for an event next year, click here to talk to me about a ‘Palm trees and margaritas’ presentation. I have formats that are ideal for business women’s networks and motivation or work/life balance aspects of conferences or training days. Or let’s discuss tailoring something especially for your needs.
REFLECTION
Would you rather be stressed because of too much work or bored because of too little?