New Year's Resolutions & Bad Habits

The promise of a new year is accompanied by self-reflection and much optimism.

In attempt to avoid letting myself down, I make only a few  simple resolutions. For me, success is a better motivator than failure.

Regrettably, the last 2 years have seen every resolution I've made fail – not healthy for one’s self-esteem. Consequently, my new year's resolution list has grown, out of necessity.  It involves both forming new habits and ridding myself of some recently acquired bad habits, and unfortunately I've developed quite a few of these over the last 18 months. ........ sleep deprivation, indulging in too much chocolate and French pastries, neglecting to exercise, allowing clutter to invade my study, abandoning the pursuits that make my heart sing ........the list goes on. 

One week of the New Year has now passed and I’m happy to report that I’m on track with my resolutions for 2015 ……….. just 51 weeks to go!

Wishing you every success in fulfilling your New Year's resolutions.

Can't help myself , bad habits

Well I'm running wild, lost control

And it's a shame to see

That a girl like me

Has got so many, bad habits

Well I'm off the rails

My resistence fails, tempations got

A hold on me

And I can't refuse

Because I always lose

Can't help myself

Bad habits

Well it just ain't right

That it's something I can't fight

I can't stop going out and having spending fun.......(Christmas sales can be a curse)

Well I tried to be good,

But I knew I never could

Cause i've got more bad habits than anyone

When I get the urge

I just got to splurge ....... (France, books, gardening and technology - if only I could master it)

I'm a slave to all my desires

Well I'm in a mess

Because i can't repress all of these

Bad habits

Can't help myself

Bad Habits

Well I'm running wild ....... (relatively speaking, for a Capricorn who likes being in control)

Lost control

And it's a shame to see

That a girl like me

Has so many bad habits

Well it just ain't right

It's something I can't fight

I can't stop going out being distracted and having fun

Well I tried to be good

But I knew I never could

Cause i've got more bad habits

Than anyone

When I get the urge

I just got to splurge

I'm a slave to all my desires .......(cheese, chocolate and champagne is on the desires list during the festive season)

Well I'm in a mess

Because i can't repress all of these

Bad habits

To Blog or Not to Blog?

I need order in which to function - perhaps it is because I'm a Capricorn, or more likely due to my  INTJ personality. I love spontaneity, just not when deadlines have to be met and there are routine tasks that need completing.   Consequently I usually write my weekly blog in advance. This week my blog was focusing on the images of French photographer, Yann Arthus-Bertrand. However, when I went to comment on someone else's blog , I noticed that it too, contained the work of Arthus-Bertrand! Ahhh.... what now? 
...........Order dissipates. 
...........Schedule disrupted.
...........Solution (as you may have noticed) - upload the blog anyway!

News flash - "lemming hits water today"

The lemming has hit the water with arms and legs flailing. Merde! Chaos EVERYWHERE.

Can't find, my diary, keys, notes, ...............Anxiety eating all hols.............. I'm too FAT to fit into my undies. I look like madam 4 boobs; 2 squashed into my bra with 2 additional jello lumps protruding over the top of each bra cup. Yes, very unappealing! Then there's my wobbling Mt Mount Vesuviarse - far too cheeky to be attractive. I am surreptitiously discouraging The Husband from getting a much needed pair of glasses and rather grateful that he is so tired that he just falls into bed and goes to sleep without so much as a glance in my direction! Definitely not a good "mind space" in which to start the academic year

Work and The Hot Flushes

My mess is morphing as I pulled out all of my draws and 2 wardrobes yesterday, which contained clothes of 3 different sizes, small, medium and large. I have now resigned myself to the fact that large is it for me so, with great reluctance and sadness, I'm clearing out the other sizes. 3 dress sizes in 3 years does not auger well for the future! However, this task is not as straight forward as it sounds because there are some garments which have to be "tried on" (between sizes or out of date) , others which are sentimental, a small pile of garments that needs various repairs and another which I should have sent to the dry-cleaners prior to Christmas. And it is back to the office this Monday. 
Chaos reigns........ No preparation for work has been completed, which initiates lengthening bouts of the hot flushes as I draw closer to Sunday evening......The delights of being "middle aged".....I think it's time to meditate!

Back to Work

I feel heightened tension in my body as my holidays draw to a close. My long list of "must do or else" is still long and the clutter hasn't dissipated, despite the hours I have invested trying to make it vanish. I feel like a lemming running towards the cliff edge, despite seeing the deep water that lies on the other side...............
But I do have a vision!

My summer holiday of F’ s: continued ……Part 2

Finish, Forward, File, Flick

study clutter

The 4 F’s, finish, forward, file, flick are the solution to banishing the chaos of clutter in one’s life. (see the blog “the New Cost of Time”) Like my weight,  my clutter has slowly returned to reside in unwanted places.  The study, wardrobe and vestibule and garage are so cluttered that they are non-functional. This does not auger well for the start of a new year. According to "Does this Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat?" I have lacked a vision which has impeded the effective implementations of Finish, Forward, File, Flick. The chaos is not about the stuff but apparently underlining issues which I have failed to identify and address. Sadly, I need a magic wand to right my wrongs before work recommences; however, I am starting to come to terms with the fact that I will be begining the new year under less than ideal conditions which will only change, with much reflection and effort over a prolonged period of time. Poop.

Foul-weather

This holiday season these words have to be as one. Tropical weather in temperate climate zones that has made the floor wet with moisture and out bodies in a constant state of glowing. And it has interfered with my holiday routine of getting my flab under control (see previous entry). The foul-weather has also brought floods.

To be continued……………..Part 3

Personal Organisation: The New Cost of Time

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“Nurture ourselves first so we can nurture others” say the life coaches. So I’ve taken their advice and at the cost of $120 per hour (excluding GST), with a 3 hour minimum appointment, I have employed a professional organizer to help pries me out of the clutter that permeates my office and now creeps throughout the house.

I am now suffering a panic attack over my dwindling bank account and stressing - how I can be so “reckless”.

Who have I become? In the past I have been an extremely well organized person, proficient with a diary, to-do lists, time management and filing. But lately  my familiar systems and focus have  been abandoned and replaced by the “Fire Brigade” system: responding to the most urgent problem and then once the “fire” has been doused, I walk away without cleaning up “properly”. Order has morphed into chaos which heightens my anxiety level – I am so overwhelmed that despite the professional time management course I have attended and the relevant books I have read on this topic, I’ve now reached the point of paralysis.

The idea of returning to work in a week brings anxiety attacks.

As a maths teacher I am in a role in which I have to be extremely well organized for others, but my desks and filing cabinets at work and home are pillars of paper and folders. There is less time to sit and reflect on the day and deal with any issues, including filing, as they arise. Technology – the thing which was going to save us - has created a paper trifid and a screen jungle as I try to locate electronic files on one of my many USBs or computers at work and home.

Professional organizers have become the new magicians. Appointments have to be made months in advance. Their waiting lists are long.

It’s reassuring to know that there are many other people need their services but why is it that our lives are so out of control that this new industry of professional organisers is in such great demand?

Why has our external world become so cluttered? We appear to have only one gear – fast forward. Victims of the time robbers, people are constantly “on tap” via email mobile phones, or worst still their sophisticated relative-the PDA.

In order to protect ourselves from our increasing litigious society we have created a paper trail that defies common sense and eats into our time.  Dealing with the red tape of regulations increasingly comsumes precious hours and develops more information that must be filed somewhere- and be able to be easily retrieved. 

Time is money. Translate that as “ do more in less time.”

Television, DVDs and computer games enable us to come home from the office and switch off , distracting us from doing those tasks that will actually let us be better organized and calm.

Retail “therapy”, that great stress-buster brings home more clutter.

The relative affluence and mobility of our society have also allowed us to have too many choices: we over commit ourselves and are constantly “on the go”.

Weekend and 24 hour trading have also interrupted the rhythm of the week. Mundane shopping tasks have infiltrated the “down time” of the weekend. It is interesting to observe life in Switzerland where the shops are closed on Saturday afternoon and on Sundays. People manage their time, as I once did, to shop within the prescribed hours, so the majority of their time in the weekend is free for leisure, the family and to organize the coming week. There is also a stronger sense of community in Switzerland that appears to have been eroded in Australia due to our frenetic lifestyle.

Are the explosion of violence and increased demand for psychological services in the community an indication that our internal world is staring to mirror our external cluttered world?

The cost of being disorganized can be far reaching. With each gain we choose we also experience a loss, and for many it is a loss of physical and emotional clarity. With a minimum appointment cost for a professional organizer of almost $400, it would be reasonable to ask “Do we value organizational skills more highly than other skills?” This is very basic work.  I think what is really prized is the emotional unburdening that occurs when one is physically well organized.

So what have I learnt from my nurture session? The key to success and emotional calm is straight forward, simplify your life by daily practising the four F’s; Finish it , Forward it, File it or Flick it.

And being told this has turned into a luxury item