December 27, 2007 Back to Busy

Somehow this is how I like it – more to do than I can do.  That’s why I don’t worry about time management.  Now, if I spent full time as a poet, I also wouldn’t worry about rhyme management (not really sorry about that, though I probably should be.)

Since I work as a coach, my business is when I’m not coaching, when I’m concerned with marketing, sales, administration, etc… everything you don’t understand when you start — Silly me, I thought my business was coaching…. that’s my fun, my relaxation.  The part I love about my business is the writing – my essays on my website and the tie-ins to my other blogs.

The other thing is that, because I work from my in-home office and Nancy goes to her job, I end up being the home-maker.  There’s this illogical notion that since I work at home I don’t work — I clean and cook and do the laundry -  This lets me appreciate what we used to go through when Nancy did it all and when I finally grew up so that we shared it.

Marketing is not a mystery, yet it is what I study the most – how to get more attention from readers, conversion to subscribers, conversion to clients, massive development and conversion to back-end purchasers, etc.. And because it is what it is, it’s constant.

December 23, 2007 Awards and Playoffs

Colleges make their money from having their teams invited to bowl games.  The players in the entertainment world make their money from even just competing for the Globe, the Peoples, the Oscars, the Indies,…  Makes me realize that we have sub-seasons: Spring, taxes, Summer, camp,school, Fall, harvest,holidays, Winter, awards & playoffs.  I remember when I lived in LA for a while and I thought their seasons – not the same as our Eastern seasons were brush fire, mud slides, flash floods and summer.

My family is always conflicted at family celebrations.  When you grow older, you accumulate in-laws and exes.  I don’t know how you handle these conflicts.  Christmas is relatively easy because my ex is a non-competetive Jew – And this year we’re doing a brunch, so other children can have dinner at the other parent’s.

Ashleigh Brilliant’s Pot Shot fo today is perfect for the hecticness of the season:  My life is complicated enough without trying to introduce organization into it.

Happy Holidays.

December 10, 2007 Reflections on Connections

Well, I just got back on line – It’s 6 PM, Monday.  I really understand on a visceral basis how inter-dependent we are, how much I rely on our connectivity – our vehicle for conversation…also notice of meetings and appointments, so my use of time has been haphazard.

And life has been more than hectic – I’d settle for hectic.  My dog Sadie has had two more seizures this week – We think they were triggered by her having been bitten by another dog – Shock is causative.  My family thinks that because I work at home, I am ‘free’ to use my time to take cars in for service and repair, etc.  I’m stopping now.  Welcome me back…  What am I attracting?

December 3, 2007 The Next Change

Aliya returned to work… And Camron is 2months old today, not yet walking, talking or even changing his own diapers.  So he’s now living in a man’s world.  Help!! And I was designated as care giver while Phil took Diamond to school.    Except Camron was awake and soaking wet.  Who remembers these things?  By the time I figured it all out and had it all done, Phil was back — Camron was warm and dry and I was soaked with sweat… Not really, it was all smooth.  But–

I got this was not a diaper change, it was a lifestyle change.You can’t ‘fit in’ an infant — You have to fit everything else in,  Hmm.  Okay, Michael – Create!

November 29, 2007 The Best Use of Time

Last night my seminar was on making the best use of your time – what people call time management  and others call productivity management.  Seminars are driven by the questions raised by the participants.  I expected that peop0le would want to understand what system they could use  and what tips I could provide (like reading emails only once or twice a day).  But the key questions were about dealing with wanting to avoid things and, of course, dealing with procrastination.

These subjects defeat systemetizing – In fact, they demonstrate that “another system just doesn’t work…”  My suggestion for the procrastinator is that she find an accountability partner – someone to have a 5 minute phone conversation every day: 2 minutes each: “Here’s what I will accomplish today; 30 seconds each:  I did what I said I’d do.  There’s no judgement, just someone who will hold your result.

Avoidance is more difficult – probably very individualized, what are you avoiding? In this case, it was learning technical material.  Seems to me that people avoid that because they’re convinced they can’t do it and have a history that validates that.  So what’s needed is to learn that they can learn.  We all can, though are convinced we can’t by school experiences – by the very place that should teach them they can!!!

I’m learning to broaden the scope of my teleseminars.  The next free 6-session seminar nicely starts the new year on January 7th.  Sign up on my website (www.michaellipp.com)

November 28, 2007 Practicing Practices

This morning I drove Diamond to school…a slight dislocation.  Over this year I’ve developed a number of daily practices.  They’re not quite habits (like I don’t think of brushing my teeth as a daily practice – I just do it)  Here they are:

I read a text to meditate on (I’m reading John Randolph Price’s Rhe Abundance Book, which I see as a beautiful way of thinking about The Law of Attraction. There’s always a phrase that catches me – Today’s is that my consciousness of the  Spirit within me… is the Divine power to restore the years the locusts have eaten– I love that.

Then I meditate for 15 minutes. After breakfast (just fruit) I go to the gym, except weekends. Then I log on, check my calendar, check my email – usually 50 or so and write this.  I speak my affirmations and set out my day’s plans.

At night, before I shut down, I fill my calendar with anything from my day that’s not there & quickly check tomorrow.  I again say my affirmations – I think of them as bringing the future present. Then I consciously express my gratitude for my life and go to sleep.

The one practice I’m working on is to include an hour of study each day – can’t figure out how to make that decision real and will today (now that I’m conscious of it) going to make it a goal and corresponding affirmation.  I am repeating yesterday’s invitation:
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November 22, 2007 again Again

Somewhere Imissed a day – I decided that today, Thanksgiving, was November 23rd – Don’t know when – Just saw that  I thought yesterday was the 22nd.  Meaning this journal will have two November 22nds.

What’s ironic is that the next session of my teleseminar is on time management or productivity management or – as I think of it – making the best use of your time. Fortunately, my premise is that we all screw this up from time to time, so I have validated my premise.

I know we all screw it up because we now hear multi-tasking as a very common word — never existed pre-computers.  And, clearly the answer to time management is to do more than one thing at once – too bad it can’t be done.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks.  May you eat all you want without ever getting sick.

October 1, 2007 What Makes Mondays

I just got back from shopping and now, at noon, I’m sitting down to work (though I did go through my email before going)  And I notice that in so many ways, Mondays is the end of the weekend and the start of the work week.  (Not a very astute recognition)

But working – fulfilling my intentions – is not a herky-jerk activity – It wants a certrain continuity of effort.  I notice that I keep noticing this – the need to continue despite changing, to continue despite stopping, to put down your pen in mid-stroke and then, days later, resume writing from the same stroke.

The mantra is to become concious about this.  Abraham says, do Segment Intending.  Werner Erhard says, conciously:  “Stop.  Change.  Start” These are even useful on Tuesdays,…

September 28, 2007 Scheduling Again

Scheduling is one of the most creative things we do — mostly because it’s so delicate… Almost anything can knock it off kilter…Worse, something funny happens to many of us…  We think that we work for the schedule – In some sense, this tool that we have worked so hard to use (whatever you use) has become our boss.  Following the schedule becomes a job. 

I’m not talking of our fixed appointments or meetings.  I’m talking about the times we allocate for different functions:  do this paper work, answer your emails, read Michael’s blog, plan this project, and a million other things.  We often unconsciously resent this as an imposition in our life… who is this task master using MY time.

We really have to own it and reown it again and again.  Scheduling provides freedom, it doesn’t steal it or command it.

September 24th, 2007 The Last Minute

I continually try not to wait until the last minute… And I frequently fail.  I helped myself when I took an art class.  Normally I sketch and turn doodles into drawings, but learning to draw was entirely different.  I just learned how to draw with pencil (I have an unannounced goal to go back and learn oils or watercolor – I love black and white and get bored.)  Anyhow I trained myself to do a little bit every day. 

That’s not how I normally work.  It comes from having grown up smart – I never had to study or work so I never learned how to study or work.  One of my grandsons is like me, but he’s started out by being a cut-up in class, already discovered in kindergarten – boredom expressed differently.

The thing is, creativity is fast for me – but following through is where my hard work is needed.  And it’s useful that I know that… finally.