Daily Dozen
- Not worrying about paying bills and whether the money will be there
- Horses - coolest animals since dinosaurs (not including humans)
- Talk of becoming a farmer with husband yesterday, lol...
- Having done my part of the job correctly first time around. Guilt-free and blame-free when problem occurred... swimming like a duck through it.
- Fun and loving family
- The rental car is good on gas mileage
- Four evenings off in a row from the restaurant
- Sales part of my job... when it happens, it's always a welcome bonus and easy to manage because it's all remote
- Tea (forget about coffee today, hehe)
- Writing is easy when you actually sit down to do it...
- Facebook, because sharing is caring (right?!)
- Camera on phones - who thought of that first? Genius.
Magic Moments
- Thinking and talking about abandoning all and just traveling... or buying a farm and living an idle, slow life with my husband, raising our boys with adventures around every corner... Even though we know it's a fantasy, it's fun. I just love my family.
- Arslan and Gabriel were practicing their jumps and twists on pulled out couch cushions. Arslan was totally into it and Gabriel was a proud papa. He's training Arslan to be a good skier...
- Oh, this one will make Gabriel so happy. This morning, Arslan looked outside, "Mommy, there's snow out there. Now I can go skiing!"
Lessons Learned
- It's the little things. Like unloading the dishwasher or running it. Loading the laundry... etc. that I do in the morning, which makes things smoother for Gabriel for when he needs to watch the boys on his own in the evening.
- It's hard to separate fantasy from vision when it comes to entrepreneurship. How much of the success is really luck or timing or feasible from a planning standpoint?! How do I figure this out? A business plan is usually the answer to this. But I've done it. It just feels like academic work, removed from reality of the business. I mean, all the financial pro forma stuff just don't feel real. I've been just collecting different ways to fail. I've always been underfunded and short on time (working another job, usually, or right now, I'm working two jobs and have two toddlers... and am trying to run/start a business).
- I need time, money, and to hire help. And then even more time and money to train the help. When I had a VA in India named Victor, I did it wrong. First, I hired the wrong guy... he was very inefficient and needed every little thing spelled out. And still he did it wrong or forgot. I didn't give him important things, but just things I wished got done if I had a lot of free time... so he ended up doing menial things. Maybe the whole gamut of problems and how I approached it were interrelated. So I'm willing to try again. I think I'll be a better boss because I am willing to give someone important tasks that I was going to do myself and give them extra time to figure it out. After all, I always seem to take longer to learn something than I thought, because I want to learn all aspects of it -- so what makes me think I can get quality results from someone who may be the same as I am, with giving them half the time (amount of time I initially think it should take)?
- Doing everything myself isn't sustainable because...
- I'm not good at maintaining the same routine things over more than 3 months of time - my attention moves on and I want to learn more, new things and implement the new things I learned! And there goes what I was doing before.
- There's too much to do and it's overwhelming... a lot of the same things
- I don't have enough time
- Okay, so the reasons to hire...
- My motivation is better if I have others to answer to and am responsible for...
- I will get more done if I hire the right people...
- I want to train and help the people I hire.
- It's not very expensive to get quality people, I'm being told, by people like John Jonas and Timothy Ferris. So why not?!
Daily Dozen
- My son Arslan's greeting when he saw me come home
- The mountains are so tall, imposing, and yellow/orange/red... reminds me of when my brother Altai used to bleach his hair.
- How cute my husband looked having just gotten up from a nap too, tousled hair and all
- Snow coming... because I know that makes Gabriel so happy
- Tamir has such an incandescent smile
- Coffee (makes it on my DD a lot, lol)
- Lots of ideas brewing
- Gabriel giving me time to write at Riverside yesterday
- The fireplace was right behind me... ahhhh
- Voicemails - I know who called and what they had to say, even if I miss them or my phone doesn't show
- Sharp scissors
- Cloud-synced services
Magic Moments
- Started working on my next book last night... Book Marketing Blueprint
- Gabriel came up with a horror novel idea, and it's fantastic
Lessons Learned
- Cooking is a lot easier when there's a helper or part of it's been done before
Daily Dozen
- My idea notebooks... the old one from 2 years or one from 3 years ago are all fresh to me, still full of new things I need to implement now
- Wite-out tape (the liquid kind that dries all weird and lumpy because it gets too thick in dry Colorado air... The lumps are annoying because the thing was supposed to hide an imperfection to begin with!)
- Coffee
- Sleepy boys - so cute
- Altai's advice last night
- I haven't lost keys/wallet/phone for years now... but there was a period back in 2006/7 when things weren't so good in my life. Partying, bad relationship, etc had me losing something important to me every month. In fact, there was a time I lost my phone, got a "borrower" phone while the replacement was coming, and lost the "borrower" phone too... and had to deal with the phone company for losing two phones. lol
- Big portion servings from Zheng's...a meal for one was dinner for me and my son last night, my breakfast, and I still have a large portion left for my lunch today.
- Crazy people. They test and reset our barometers for what's reasonable.
- Plastic glasses. Even though the name is a contradiction, the items are indispensable to me - a mom to two toddlers.
- Google is working to extend human life
- Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People (How does that apply to today's online marketing? Wouldn't that be an interesting book?)
- Having an opinion is so easy... which means having something to write/say is easy. Now the tricky part is having a unique, engaging, and brilliant thing/way to say it.
Magic Moments
- My brother Altai tends to give good advice because he's so down to earth about business and relationships, etc. He has his meter on what makes most sense, when giving advice... even though he's a party animal and will take any dare. I'll vote that he's most likely of all my acquaintances to show up dressed as a woman on Halloween and reindeer at Christmas.
- Glenwood Hot Springs at night is quite a scene. Old people sitting there in front of the bubbling, gushing waters... couples making out and cuddling... workers chatting with the swimmers from vantage point of a pedestal... I had fun with my son Arslan. He never fails to make an impression on others. He waved hi to everybody at the hot springs. When he saw JoAnn and her two-year old son, I told Arslan to say "hi" to her. He did better. Arslan ran up to him, hugged and kissed him on the cheek. It was his second time meeting the other 2 year old, and the last time was 1.5 years ago. So it was purely Arslan's exuberant affection--for everyone!
Lessons Learned
- The bus driver today almost missed me. When I got on, she was not too happy, "You need to wave the stop sign, I can't see you wearing black!" It's true. I never wave the stop sign thing. The stupid sign is chained to the stupid bench, located by the divot in from the road, surrounded by tall hedge. It is virtually impossible for me to see a bus coming or for the bus to see me in advance of passing me. How am I to wave down a thing I can't see?! However, the whole point wasn't about my wish to argue with her... I realized fairly quickly, it was that she was dismayed for almost passing me, and wanted to blame something/someone. The point is she didn't want to pass me and didn't pass me. When people get defensive over little things, it's often an inner perfectionist haranguing them and not about me... Good one to remember, especially so that next time I can just take the blame, apologize, and realize that it's not about me and I just took a load off of them too.
- I bet other bloggers and people would like a series on best blog writing articles compiled over time... looking into best autoresponders.
- Stopping myself from finishing the plate, when I'm feeling full, and boxing the rest is a fabulous way to keep slim and keep my spending trim.
Daily Dozen
- I think the daily dozen is helping me to focus on the positive. I'm glad, because I've been seeing the negative in things a lot lately. I stopped myself from complaining to my husband at least 3 times yesterday.
- Jing - pretty neat little software for training others
- Onlinejobs.Ph - lots of people are looking for jobs and I can hire someone at about the same amount of money as two nights' tips at the restaurant, as full time salary for the whole month. Well, that's two good nights, and the someone is very unskilled. But still! wow.
- Remember the milk - pretty good for when I'm actually using it. Maybe once I get a team going I can take advantage and have everyone on it.
- Email - how did we survive before emails?
- Speed of adaptation to new things/technology by humans (yes, related to #5)
- I have a job.
- Car that doesn't break down on the road, even if there's something wrong with it... cracked pipe, covered by warranty.
- Backgammon
- Highlighters - virtual and real ones
- Alba - our daycare lady is always like "No Problem" to any request and never gets sick.
- Ability to monitor my own thoughts... probably the most important life skill in keeping emotionally balanced about life and refocusing my attention from another direction.
Magic Moments
- A repeat from above, but I loved playing backgammon with my husband last night. Appreciated his comment to my son, "We're playing backgammon, not chess... because your mom's too good at chess."
- Watching Doctor House is always good fun, too.
Lessons Learned
- Making lists can overwhelm you with the things you have to do. But still very useful and necessary. There are so many different kinds of lists to create for an organized life... starting with the basics like a grocery list. Chores list for kids. Shared to do list with husband for house, car, events, social life, financial, medical stuff, etc. Work to do list... heck, the one phone call with the boss can leave you a long to do list to get done that day. Keep it up. Keep writing the damn things. Someday you'll wish you had something to do... NOT!
- Girlfriend 2 girlfriend gifts are always more about indulgence, whimsy, and artsy... crafty... It's a whole different world. Finding something thoughtful, beautiful, and unique is hard!
