Sane & Satisfied

Luck 101 Classes Do Not Exist

2012-02-06T08:04:00.001-08:00

I just spent about 30 minutes reading some articles in the Self Help section of my Zite app. And I am irritated.

Not only did the articles not intrigue me, and not only were the writers not familiar with at least some form of correct grammar, they kept saying things like, "Understand what you want out of life." And "Just get out there and do something." Or in the article titled, Mark Zuckerburg's 8 Secrets of Success, the writer listed "luck" "timing" and "determination" among other ephemeral concepts.

They make it seem like you can take a Luck 101 class or Intro To Determination class.

You learn these things by learning other, more tangible things, like speaking a new language, or how to budget your business account, or learning the basics of marketing.

Determination, confidence, execution and even things like luck and timing are developed over time. Time taken to learn new things and solve real-life problems.

I've heard that basketball players will imagine themselves playing the game and making perfect free-throws on bus trips. I guess I can see the science behind this. Playing a physical game like basketball is as much about your body as it is about your mind. Your brain is like a muscle in the sense that if you think about something a lot you will start to believe it. But the difference between the basketball players and zombies sitting in a self help seminar is that the basketball players have real-life experiences to back up their imagined success.

Yes, instead of sitting on your butt watching tv and wishing you had a patio outback you should probably get up and "do something". But that "something" does involve figuring stuff out, learning how patios are made and practicing using the tools involved.

If you want to improve your life stop trying to be more "determined". Stop waiting for the timing to be right. And for god sakes, stop visualizing your life.

Learn how to do something. Read about topics you are interested in. Write about observations. Oh, and get started right now.

Sunday Pages

2012-02-01T05:54:00.001-08:00

I started a new task management/scheduling system this week. It was actually inspired by my dad. I was upset one day that I felt overwhelmed but that nothing was getting done. He suggested that I clear out my current schedule and just take things week by week.

So that's what I did! And now when I look at my schedule I see a bunch of "free time" to do with how I choose.

I call it Sunday Pages. I started by clearing out everything on my schedule except for appointments and meetings that I still had to attend. Then I wrote down what my outlook for the week is. This week my outlook was good and I focused on consistency.

I wrote down my goals for the week making sure to keep it to a realistic amount. And then based on my schedule each day I wrote down the tasks I needed to do in order to fulfill my goals for the week.

Taking your life week by week is a great way to be productive without getting overwhelmed.

Quiet Questions

2012-02-01T05:36:00.001-08:00

I often wonder what it was like for Americans back when they had to grow their own food and it took days or months to get places...on horseback.

Did they have goals? Did they enjoy their life? While they were slaving in the fields did they have an idea that they just had to build something out of?

It's funny how a lot of us are struggling to get back to a way of life similar to what early Americans had. Even though we are wrapped up in our Twitter and Facebook and iPhones and iPads, even though Google is developing a car that can drive from one side of the country to the other by itself we still long for the simple life. We still crave being in nature.

I've been struggling a lot lately with where to put my attention and energy. And my soul keeps being pulled toward nature, simplicity, making things by hand, being wholesome. It's a struggle every day to keep things in perspective, to not succumb to others complaints, to stay inside myself and not leap into the future.

Did early Americans think their lives where simple? Will humans ever have enough? Do these questions even have to be answered in order to live a happy, enjoyable life?

Hmmm...lots of questions tonight. I'm not surprised. A quiet evening, curled up in a blanket on the front porch with your husband will bring out many quiet questions that hide during busy, loud days.

Sane & Satisfied-Approved Apps

2012-01-16T10:39:00.001-08:00

I've been kind of obsessed recently with apps and tools that help me be more productive and organized. I've also recently realized that in searching for these productive apps and tools I've neglected to actually be productive and organized.

Sometimes what you are most looking for has been in your possession all along. In the spirit of this wise old statement I thought it would be helpful to myself and my readers if I listed my top 10 favorite apps and tools that actually make you more productive, organized and most importantly Sane & Satisfied.

Apps
1. iNoteBox (previously called My Notebook) - $3.99 from Trinkilee: This is by far the best note taking app for iPad. It's greatness lies in how customizable it is. You can create folders and rename the built-in folders much like on a computer. You can type notes, handwrite notes, add pictures and video, record audio and draw. It also has an expanded keyboard that allows you to tab, undo, add the date and time, arrow left and right one character at a time and has a line of common symbols you might need. It also connects with your Outlook calendar. On top of all of this you are able to upload notes to Google Docs, Blogger, Drop Box and email. It's also a sign of the dedication of the creator that each update has made this app easier to use. It's basically got everything.

2. Get It Done - $FREE from marcucio.com: This is a task organizing app that allows you to organize tasks by project, tags and when you plan on getting them done. What I like most about this app is I can organize my tasks and view them in many different ways. If I want to see what tasks I'm working on today I tap the Today group. If I want to see what tasks I have left for a specific project I tap on that project. If I want to see which tasks I've deemed "Important" I tap on the "Important" Smart Group. I've also added a "Recurring Tasks" Smart Group for the tasks I do most days like "dishes", "write blog" etc. so I don't have to rewrite them everyday. I just move the task to the Today group in the morning and then move them to the Inbox when I'm done. This app is FREE but you can pay a small fee to allow you to sync with an account that you can access from any computer. My only complaint is that this app didn't come with a guide so I had to mess around with it a lot before I understood the power of its design.

3. Bread and Milk Classic - $0.99 from Jim Holloway: Another highly customizable app. (Seeing a pattern here?) This is a grocery list on steroids. It let's you organize items by category like "baking", "dairy", "deli", "produce" etc. and by store. You then add items to your "Shopping List". When you get to the store you tap the items as you put them in your shopping cart. This system reduces time it takes to write out every item by hand and allows you to add items to your shopping list as you run out of them without having to keep track of loose pieces of paper. You can also rearrange the categories to match the layout of your grocery store. Produce comes first? Move the produce group to the top so you see the items in the produce isle first. You can also enter prices for each item and the app totals your "Shopping Cart" to help you stay on budget! The only drawback is that I have to constantly explain how to use it to my husband. Men will be men no matter how easy you make things for them.

4. Relax Melodies Premium - $3.99 from iLBSoft: This app is one of my all time favorite apps. We have all heard that music and pleasant sounds help us focus. Well Relax Melodies takes this to a whole new level. It comes with 76 recorded sounds including Humming, Urban Rain, Ocean, White Noise, Fire Camp, Night (cricket sounds), and Whales. It also includes melodies like Tribal, City and India. You can combine sounds and melodies to create your own relaxing experience and add them to playlists for easy play. My favorite combination is Night, Ocean and Fire Camp. Use this app while you study, read or meditate. It also helps you fall asleep. Plus, it includes Binaural Beats which sort of train your brain to enter a particular brain wave pattern that promotes states like Concentration, Pre-Sleep or Dreamless Sleep. So insert headphones and escape from your stressful day.

5. HootSuite - $FREE from HootSuite Media Inc.: HootSuite is a straightforward app that allows you to write a status update and post it on Twitter, Facebook and LinkdIn at the same time. This cuts down on writing and posting time and allows you to keep track of your social media environment from the convenience of this one app.

6. Zite - $FREE from Zite, Inc.: Zite is a customizable magazine interface. You select topics you enjoy reading about and Zite creates a newspaper pulling from websites and blogs. Read about all your interests from this one app. No need to scour the net for articles on design, crafting, business or sports. It's all on your Zite front page!

7. Lynda.com - $FREE from Lynda.com: Lynda.com app allows you to connect to your Lynda.com account and watch instructional videos right on your iPad. It's a free app but you need to have a Lynda.com account to watch videos. Subscriptions are very reasonable for the insane amount of value. You get access to probably thousands of videos that teach you how to use various software including Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Flash and HTML among hundreds of others subjects. Knowing these programs are essential for any designer or designer wanna-be. No need spending tens of thousands of dollars at a college. Pay $250/yr and learn all you ever need.

Since this list is about staying Sane and Satisfied here are some fun Apps as well. After a long day of getting all your tasks checked off you need a break. And since Sane & Satisfied loves entrepreneurship and creativity these two games are the best games I found that incorporate creativity and resource/time management.

8. Fiona's Flowers - $0.99 from Chillingo: In this game you play a young gardener named Fiona who is trying to earn enough money to enter a prestigious gardening competition. Much like in real life Fiona starts out small with only flower seeds. You control Fiona by tapping on various actions to make her plant seeds, water the flowers and eventually cut them and put them in her shop where customers purchase them. As you go through the game you unlock equipment like the Juicer and Food Dryer to help you create more products to sell in your shop. You also receive special orders that you have to deliver in the allotted time earning you even more money. Unlike other time/resource management games you only pay the .99 cents and are not hounded to purchase more Bux or coins in order to progress through the game. Play in "Story" mode or "Free Gardening" mode. When you've won the Story mode you can reset and play again or go back to any level and continue to earn money for endless playability.

9. Eden World Builder - $0.99 from Kingly Software Inc.: This really isn't a game so to speak. You don't unlock achievements or gain skills. You simply build things with square blocks. You can pick from the stone block, grass block, wood block and a dozen other blocks to create houses, castles, amusements parks and bunkers. It's a 3D environment so you can actually walk around your creations. There's also an online community of Eden creators who have posted their creations for you to download and walk through. It's all accessible from in the game. Create as many Worlds as you like and add, edit and get inspiration from other Worlds. It's easy to use and has endless playability.

This next tool isn't an App or a game but it's the best way that I know for being productive, organized and happy.

10. Define, Create & Reflect - $FREE from Sane & Satisfied: You can have all the Apps and tools in the world to keep you organized and productive but they won't be of any help to you unless you define your goals, create the elements that get you closer to your goals and reflect on your life. Clearly define what you want out of life and how you plan on getting there. Create the parts that make up your goal. Write the outline for that book you've been thinking about. Go for a walk to kick-start your exercise program. Attend that conference to learn more about your industry and network with potential customers or business partners. In short "Just do it", whatever "it" is. And lastly, reflect on your life and take a break to have fun and embrace where you are right now.

What are your favorite Apps that help you stay Sane & Satisfied? (If you don't have an iPhone or iPad you can still share tools, programs or organization systems you use to stay Sane & Satisfied.)

Who Are You Today?

2012-01-11T08:17:00.001-08:00

I read about Julia Cameron's Morning Pages about a year ago and I kept telling myself I should start doing them but I never got in the hang of it. I told myself to do a Morning Page again last night and miraculously got up this morning and did one while I ate breakfast.

I call my Morning Pages "I Am..." pages because I'm trying to focus on today and what I need to do today rather than worry about the future. I was also inspired by the subtitle of Bene Brown's, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let go of who you think you are supposed to be and embrace who you are. That sentence has been going through my head ever since I read it. It's become a mantra for me.

Whether you do Morning Pages or "I Am..." Pages its extremely important to spend some time with yourself each day. In fact, its a required step of being Sane & Satisfied.

I believe the only reason we are unhappy is because we try so hard to be what we think we ought to be or what we think other people think we should be. But that's crap! How can I be anyone but who I am right now? I don't have a doctorate in physics but I'm pretty sure that humans can't be more than what they are at any given moment. So why do we try so hard for something that is physically impossible?!?!

I'll tell you why: because we keep being duped. Every year another 12 Step plan comes out that promises to make us stronger, smarter, thinner, richer. Telling people, "You are who you are and there's nothing to change that but through hard work, sweat and tears" doesn't make people a whole lot of money. But it's the truth.

Know yourself, listen to yourself, stop comparing yourself to others and you will always be the best you can be.

How to Do an "I Am..." Page

If you know how to write your thoughts down on paper and doodle than you know how to do an I Am... Page. There is no right or wrong way to do this but here are some tips to get you started.

1. Take a 12x12 inch sheet of card stock and cut into fourths so you have 4 pieces of 6x6 inch paper. Set three pages aside to use for later. You will only need one page right now.
2. Take a moment to quiet your mind and focus on what you are feeling at this moment.
3. Use markers or colored pencils or whatever writing instrument you have and decorate your page. To get your creative juices flowing you can start by writing the date at the top and doodling around it.
4. Next, journal about what you feeling right now, what your day looks like, what you want to accomplish today, what you are focusing on today. Try to keep it short but don't think too hard. When you start to think too hard about what you are writing those pesky Supposed To's pop up. But you aren't interested in what you are supposed to be like today. You only care about what you ARE today.
5. Last, simply finish decorating or doodling to fill the page as you wish. I find it's easier to write first and then doodle based on what I wrote about.

The great thing about focusing on who you are right now and knowing and embracing yourself is that it's a lot easier to combat those people in our lives who try to lead us off track.

You can also fasten your pages together to make a book and review it throughout the year.

Happy Journaling

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2012-01-01T09:28:00.001-08:00

I've been struggling with decisions lately. What makes a decision a good decision? What makes a decision a bad decision? This struggle has clouded my judgement of my own decisions. It's gotten to the point that I don't trust my decision making skills anymore.

Part of the reason why I'm having this inner struggle is because I, like you, get judged by my decisions. And those closest to me sometimes give the harshest critiques.

To help myself with this good vs bad decisions debate I was going to write down all the "good" decisions I've had. My brain, like most brains, tends to get hung up on all the bad decisions I've made and forget the good ones so I wanted to try to prove to myself that I do, in fact, make some good decisions.

One of the "good decisions" I was about to write down was "deciding to take the temp job at Artisan Scientific". At first I thought this was a "good" decision because I enjoy working there, they have a huge snack room, and the owners are great people to work for. As far as temp jobs go I'm pretty sure I hit the jackpot.

"Wait a minute!" My brain told me. "If you didn't take this temp job you would have had more time to work on your other venture and possibly might be making a lot more money right now." This makes it sound like it was a bad decision.

And then I had an epiphany... Decisions aren't really good or bad until we react to making them. Meaning, we put the modifiers of "good" and "bad" on the decisions we make. But decisions are just decisions. They are based on the information we had at the time we made them.

To my knowledge, no human can really predict the future, so when we are faced with a decision our only choice is to base it on the information, resources and skills we have at the present moment. In other words, we can't make a decision today based on information we might have tomorrow.

So, I guess, in effect, every decision we make is a "good" decision if for no other reason than we actually made it.

The Sane & Satisfied Health Plan

2011-12-28T07:40:00.001-08:00

I hope you had a Sane & Satisfied Christmas. Like me you probably had your fill of goodies. My husband and I made Fondue for Christmas Eve and I won't hide the fact that I stuffed my happy face.

As with every other year, the days after the holidays and the start of the new year bring all kinds of resolutions, mostly centering around eating healthy, dieting and exercising. Sane & Satisfied people should cringe at the word diet, by the way. It brings to mind starving oneself. It's also interesting how the word diet was originally a noun used like "a Mediterranean diet" or "a low sugar diet". Now it's a verb. "I'm dieting" or "I'm going on a diet". Often times people forget to define what sort of diet they are going on.

But I digress...

Whatever your health goals are this year, please don't fall into the same trend as last year and the year before and the year before. Which is to say don't listen to the hype, marketing and propaganda from "health gurus" who bank on the fact that thoughts of dieting and exercise are flooding the minds of Americans right now.

These "health gurus" will make you think their health plan is the "only one" of the season. That it's the "fastest way to lose weight". Some may even claim that you don't have to lift a finger and the pounds will somehow just fall off.

Don't believe a word of it!!!

The foundation of being Sane & Satisfied is to line up your expectations with your efforts. On one hand this means to make sure you aren't putting out more energy than necessary. It also means that you aren't putting out a little energy and expecting grand results.

What health gurus don't tell you is that your bad eating and exercise habits took many years to cultivate. The reason why we are getting more and more unhealthy stems from many, many sources. The only way to get healthy is to recognize what sources are causing you to not be as healthy as you would like. You are the only one who can create a solution.

Making a true change in your life, no matter what that change is, is difficult and requires time and patience. If those health gurus told their customers that do you think they would sell anything? No, I doubt they would either. But it's the truth.

So the next time you hear a "new diet and exercise plan that rids you of all fat in only 5 minutes a day and you can do it from the comfort of your favorite chair" think twice about buying into it.

Instead, follow the Sane & Satisfied Health Plan. It focuses on the key areas of a successful health plan. They are Movement, Motivation, Balanced Diet, Cooking Your Own Food, and Consistancy.

Here are the steps:
1. Movement: Just get up and move. Do the first thing that comes to your mind. Bike riding? Swimming? Yoga? Just do it for at least 10 minutes. Right now. Don't wait.

2. Motivation: Now that you have started moving reflect on how it made you feel. Hopefully you feel more awake and limber. Focus on that feeling. Remember that feeling whenever you think about exercising.

3. Balanced Diet: Now write down your favorite foods in each food group. You know them...grains, fruit, veggies, meat, diary. If you find that one group is pretty short, write down a food that you would like to try. Also list your all time favorite treats. Don't put down the candy bar you buy on a whim at the check line. I'm talking mouth watering, feeling content treats. Grandma's cookies, that cinnamon roll front the corner bakery. One of mine is rice krispie treats. These are the treats you should be eating. Stop wasting your taste buds on crap treats just because they are there. Save your sweet indulgences for food you really, really enjoy eating.

4. Cook Your Own Meals: Make dinner from scratch tonight including your all time favorite treat! Search online for a recipe, write down the ingredients and stop by the store tonight on your way home. Surprise your family with a home-cooked meal, feel the accomplishment of making food with your own hands, and relish in the yummy taste of a made from scratch meal.

5. Consistancy: This is where most people get tripped up. It's easy to start something with gusto but a lot harder to keep it going. The first step is to remember your motivation and understand clearly what you want and what you are going to have to do to get there. And then you must make it a priority. I think the best way to stay consistent is start with one change and consistently ask yourself, "What's next?" Drinking more water is a great way to start living healthy. It doesn't require much work, every restaurant has water and you don't need any special equipment. Plus water makes you feel full and if you are drinking water you aren't drinking sugary sodas.

Don't stop here! Keep asking yourself, "What's next?" "What can I do today to make my body healthy and happy?" "What new food can I try to replace a not so healthy food?" "What new meal can I make today?" My favorite foods to make are foods that I've liked at an expensive restaurant or at a restuarant I can't find where I live. My version is just as good as theirs plus I know what ingredients are going into it and I'm saving money!

I think the real reason why so many people fall off the healthy band wagon is because we are taught that being healthy is a lot easier and faster than it really is. So we start a diet and exercise plan thinking that we will just float through it and when it starts getting hard we give up or think that we must be doing something wrong.

Staying healthy doesn't happen in the space of 30 minutes a day. It may start there but it's much more fun and satisfying to work healthy moments into every area of your life. Not to mention you will be more successful at losing weight and staying healthy.

What I've learned from Extreme Couponing

2011-12-06T18:51:00.001-08:00

I have learned a lot from Extreme Couponing and frugal spending for the last few months. And I'm surprised how much of what I've learned has helped deepen my Sanity & Satisfaction.

1. I've been taught to love, and therefore buy, only certain types of brands. One of the first things you must learn to be successful at Extreme Couponing is to ditch brand loyalty. In order to save lots of money you must be open to using coupons for similar items you usually buy but aren't your favorite brand. It's a bit uncomfortable at first but after a while you stop noticing.

2. I've been taught to think the only way to keep myself looking and smelling fresh is to buy expensive products. Since I don't live in or near a big city I don't get the sweet deals that other couponers get and so I have had to seek other avenues of money saving in the beauty department. My main tactic is to figure out how many beauty, hygiene and cleaning products I can make myself. I have found that most of these items I buy at the store I can actually make at home for pennies. Toothpaste, glass cleaner, counter cleaner, deodorant, face wash, face toner, soap, shampoo and conditioner are just some of the items I found recipes for. I even found a recipe for clay mask (you know, the stuff that you smear on your face and body at expensive day spas). I haven't tried it yet but the main ingredient is plain, unscented, clay kitty litter. I found a huge bag at Walmart for 2.99. Sure beats the hundreds of dollars I'd spend at the spa. The bottom line is that you don't need a closet full of over-priced bath items to feel pampered and look beautiful.

3. Just because a store tells you that you are getting a deal on something doesn't make it true. One of the stores I have started to frequent is Dollar Tree partly because I know that whatever I buy it will only be a dollar. It must be a deal, right? Well, last month I bought some movie candy at Dollar Tree to sneak into Paranormal Activities (terrific movie, by the way). I also stopped at Walmart on my way to the movie and found the same candy for $0.50. I found many other items at Dollar Tree that are more expensive than our local grocery store too.

4.The last and probably most important thing I've learned from Extreme Couponing is that most of the time you are paying for marketing instead of the quality of the item itself. The next time you buy a product, any product, ask yourself if it lives up to the marketing. Did that shampoo really make your hair look like that sexy model on the commercial? Did that hair dye really make you play a better tennis game? So you even need that shaving gel or will your trusty soap work just fine? I've heard many savvy business owners say they don't sell products, they sell confidence or sex, or relaxation. And I guess I see their point. But you can get relaxation from turning your phone off and not checking your email. You can get confidence by sticking up for yourself or exercising. No purchase necessary!

Extreme Couponing is a great exercise to help you change the way you think about shopping and the products you buy. It's also a great exercise in being Sane & Satisfied. You don't have to spend 40 hours a week preparing for your shopping trip to haul four shopping carts of cereal home. (I only spend about 2 hours a week preparing and if there aren't any great deals I'll skip a week.)

Even if you never clip a coupon or know what WYB2 or B1G1 means the more you think about your shopping habits and the more you are aware of what marketers can make you think about certain products, the more you will save and the more Sane & Satisfied you will be.

$8/hr, Splitting Headaches & Possessions

2011-10-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

I just can't get into the swing of things lately. I've had so many ideas for Sane & Satisfied and for my other ventures but my body can't keep up.

Ain't that how life goes, though? You don't regret the things you did, you regret the things you didn't do. Well, I reckon I'll be regretting a lot of things. And here I go getting morbid and mushy.

Anywho...

I've been asking myself a lot lately if I do things for me or for other people. Or if I do things because of my feelings about them or because of other people's feelings about them. And I haven't really come to an answer yet. But I've had two situations that tested this question just in the last week.

One was that this guy offered me a position to run his new screen printing business here in town. I would be responsible for setting up his showroom, advertising, and designing shirts to sell in the showroom. The catch was that he would only pay me $8/hr. He said that I would be able to raise my pay myself if I brought in enough business.

I was "this close" to saying yes. But then I forced myself to be quiet and think about all the things I'm already working on. I realized that I would be doing all of the things for him that I should be doing for my own business. Not only that, but if I accepted his offer I would be going in yet one more direction that really isn't the direction I want to go in. I want to be in the mountains someday not tethered to a brick store.

I knew it was one of those weeks last week when I conked out at 9:00pm right after dinner, in the middle of watching The Office and woke up the next morning with a splitting headache. It always happens that way. I keep my stress and worry bottled up inside until it can't help but force it's way out in the form of droopy eyes, irritability and pain.

If I've learned anything last week it was because I was able to at least keep my head above water long enough to see what the lesson is: That high above our worldly possessions, towering over our computers, Twitter accounts and designer clothes we have possession of ourselves...if we can keep it.

Tea, Opening Days & How to make a Million

2011-10-03T09:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, I've been away for while, haven't I?

Oh, well...let's pick back up, shall we...

So, I'm reading this book called The Tea Rose by Jennifer Donnelly. I usually read sci-fi and fantasy but I was drawn into this book because the main character moves from 19th Century London to America and starts a tea shop. I'm in love with starting new businesses (I've started 4 myself). I was also intrigued by the historical backdrop (Jack the Ripper makes a cameo).

Yesterday I finished a chapter about the opening day of Fiona's (the main character) shop. She actually started her tea venture by reopening her drunk uncle's grocery store. It was a huge success and she attracted the eye of a millionaire named William McClane who gives her advice one night about growing her business:

"You know sweet pastries sell, so now trysavories. Meat pies…chicken pies…those sorts of things. It’s a risk – you maynot sell them – but it’s a calculated one. Odds are you will. Try a selectionof good candy. If people are buying biscuits, chances are they’ll buychocolate. What else? The asparagus sold out, right? I had the most deliciousbraised lettuces at Rector’s the other night. They were new, not full-grown.Maybe people who like fresh vegetables would buy those, too. Maybe not, but youshould investigate every possibility. Anticipate every need. Be the first togive your customers what they want, even if they don’t yet know they want it."

I have a feeling this might be the best business advice ever given. You know how I loath self help and what I loath even more is self help disguised as teaching someone how to start a business. Actually, it's not even billed as teaching you how to start a business. It's usually billed as "How to make a million dollars". But William's speech is the meat and potatoes of how to start a business. I've never met Carnegie or Rockefeller but I would stake the rest of my savings (granted it's not much) on the fact that they both would agree with the above business plan.

Most of my business skills I have learned in the most unsuspecting places. I've learned that sometimes it's best to just use your first idea and get it done than it is to stay up all night finding the "perfect" idea. I learned that from the kids I teach at my after-school program, Entrepreneur Teens Rock. And from watching Mad Men, I've learned that advertising is more about what you are supposed to feel about a product than what a product really does or is. This makes a great show (my husband and I just finished a Mad Men marathon to catch up to the next season) but it doesn't really make for a feasible marketing plan for most small businesses. And from a card in the store I learned that you must "Bloom where you are planted".

That last quote, "Bloom where you are planted", pretty much sums up the passage from The Tea Rose. William McClane summed it up like this: "Use what you know to grow." It's really as simple as that. It's hard to come to terms with but really the only way to learn anything or to grow a business or finish a complex project is start with what you know. The same goes for writing a book or blogging. Part of the reason why I haven't been writing is because I didn't feel like I had a right to. I'm not well-known, I don't excel at anything, I haven't taken writing classes and more to the point I couldn't figure out how to get to my blogging goal, which is essentially to get more readers. Through the confusion I didn't realize that I can string words together into coherent sentences and I do know how to think. Those two skills are really all you need to start blogging. Then from there you use what you know and learn to grow and get you closer to your goal.

That's all for now. I'm working on turning the passage from The Tea Rose into a tool to help me and hopefully you figure out how to grow your business, project, or blogging or whatever you are working on, really.

See you tomorrow!

Writing Prompts & Journaling

2011-08-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

I've planned a Writing Vacation today and I thought I would share some writing prompts I found online in case you want to jumpstart your own Writing or Journaling Vacation.

From A Writer's Workbook:
Describe the following in a short a paragraph.
1. a circle
2. a spiral staircase
3. the color red
4. the smell of a barbecue
5. seedless grapes
6. kissing
7. wet tears on your face
8. the grunt of a pig
9. silk
10. iron

From One Minute Writer:
When (if ever) do you really "let go"?

And this is a really good one for you creative writers out there.
From Writers Digest:
You had planned to attend a friend’s birthday party and plugged her address into your GPS system, but the system guided you to somewhere else. Oddly enough, there was a man waiting...

There's also an endless supply of writing prompts from PROMPT GENERATOR.

Happy Writing!

Shut it down & Put it to bed

2011-08-15T09:53:00.000-07:00

So life seems to always come at me all at once. It seems to never fail that I manage to schedule a whole bunch of responsibilities at the same time. I have a calendar and I check it before I commit to anything but somehow I end up with weeks where my hours are packed with meetings and tasks.

Last week was one of those weeks. I won't bore you with details. I'm amazed I got through it. But I did learn something very important that will help me in my own Sane & Satisfied journey. A lot of my stress comes from not feeling like I finish anything. I think this feeling has stemmed from the fact that I just have too many ideas and it's hard to finish one idea before moving on to the next. But lately I've realized that this unfinished feeling also comes from me not putting anything to bed at the end of my work day.

I leave my laptop on the coffee table in the living room and I don't close out of the windows I used. Sometimes I leave my email account logged in. I leave my binders and notes scattered on the table and the food and dishes on the counter. And I don't have a definitive stopping point.

So I wake up to all this unfinished business every morning and I wonder why I feel so lousy about my productivity.

I've read from countless self help and goal-oriented people that you are supposed to break down your tasks into manageable chunks. And I get this. But when I try to break my tasks down I never seem to account for every detail. Plus that's just not how I roll. I am more productive when I can work on things organically. When I write down a list of things to do for a certain project I either get so involved and OCD about the task list or I get excited about doing a task that I'm not ready for. Either way, I don't follow my meticulous plan.

I'm sure there are more people like me than we realize. We've just been programed to think that task lists and project managing is the only path to productivity. Some people just don't need there life laid out neatly before them.

If you are like me and don't do well with endless lists and planning but you find it difficult to feel finished then maybe it will help to just set an ending time. At 5:00 you will stop what you doing even if you aren't completely finished. You will put everything (or as much as you can) away, exit out of the windows on the screen, turn out the light and go fix dinner (or whatever it is you do after work).

This post has actually taken a different turn than what I had planned but I'm glad it brought me here. Feeling unfinished has been a huge part of my life. It's been this wet blanket hanging over me. I can't get completely comfortable because I always feel like there's something more to do. And there will always be something more to do. I am an Entrepreneur so it comes with the package.

Rainbows & Change

2011-07-26T08:56:00.000-07:00

Rainbows

I remember when I finally came to terms with the fact that it was time to put my first business, Buttons & Rainbows, to bed. I say put to bed because I was open and still am open to the possibility of working on it again in the future. But at the time, I was really saying goodbye.

I sat in my office and cried for almost an hour. Then, for about a week, I didn't step foot in my office. I could barely look at my door. I don't remember how I spent my time, probably doing housework and working on my laptop downstairs. But I just couldn't go in my office.

Then one day I woke up and the pain and confusion was pretty much gone and I was able to sit at my desk once again and figure out where I was going. Since then my business adventure has taken a few more turns, each one getting me closer to my goal.

It's like a puzzle. Sometimes, or most of the time, you have to try different pieces in different ways until something fits. And when you have that piece situated you can move on to the next piece. I finally situated a piece I've been working on for a while.

I won't go into any great detail because it's a long boring story but the short version is that I've been working for my dad as a website designer and marketing director for about 3 years now. This is the longest I've ever kept a job but I've felt for a while that it's been time to move on. I'm not happy designing websites anymore and I have so many ideas for my own ventures and it's just been stressful trying to keep everything up in the air. So a few days ago I told my dad I can't work for him anymore.

Change

I read a book a while ago called Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine. Renaissance Souls are people who can't commit to just one passion or interest. They shouldn't be confused with people suffering from ADD or other attention disorders. They just simply find excitement and meaning in experiencing various things and having various goals and activities going on at once. I'm a Renaissance Soul.

The one thing Margaret doesn't mention or at least doesn't spend enough time on is the importance of allowing yourself to change and move on to something new. You don't have to be a Renaissance Soul to understand what it's like to know that something in your life is wrong but not having the strength or resources to make a change.

Most people are resistant to change. We make up stories about why we can't change or why we shouldn't change. The story I kept telling myself was, "We need the money, so I can't quit." I'm sure I'm not the first person to realize that doing something only for money only gets you so far. It is true that we need the money. What's not true is that working for my dad is the only way to get money.

I'm beginning to feel the way I did when I set Buttons & Rainbows aside. I'm a little scared, worried, anxious, excited and sad. The only feeling I don't have is regret. Well, I take that back...I do feel regret but only because I didn't do this sooner.

Accept change and allow yourself to let go of things even if it's scary. Resisting healthy change messes with your mind and energy and focus and just makes you miserable. Don't let anyone make you think your decision to change is bad. Remember that most people are afraid of change. They most likely are telling you not to change because they are afraid, not because they think it's a bad idea.

Life & Numbers

2011-07-19T07:28:00.000-07:00

My life has been full of numbers recently.

*Getting places on time.
*Figuring out cost of goods sold for my Farmers Market items.
*Planning my weekly Couponing trips.
*Playing Masters of Venice with my husband.

Numbers are really dragging me down. I guess I'm good with numbers but I'd rather work with ideas, images, yarn, pastels, words, actions...

Numbers are so stationary. No matter how I try to work with them they always come out the same. Numbers are there and that's pretty much it.

Numbers take the fun out of everything. You really can't have a discussion about numbers and have most people motivated at the end.

However, numbers can't exist without the ideas, images, yarn, pastels, words, actions, and the other trappings of our creative lives. Without crocheting a doily there wouldn't be the yards of string. Without selling that doily there wouldn't be the profit earned.

Maybe if I could push numbers to the back, have them come after the fun and creativity I could maybe get through a day with numbers.

Bumber Stickers & Rhetorical Questions

2011-07-16T06:07:00.000-07:00

I saw this bumper sticker on the way back from BloggyCon today that said, "What greater wisdom is there than kindness?"

At first I thought it was a challenge and I immediately started to think of answers. "Well, there's honesty and accepting humanity, both the messy and the beautiful parts and there's helping people provide for themselves..."

You know, sometimes I think I'm from another planet. After a couple seconds I realized that the bumper sticker was asking a rhetorical question. I was supposed to answer, "Why, there's no greater wisdom than kindness. Are you silly?" But that's just not how my mind works.

It is not Sane & Satisfied to take someone else's definition of life. That's how we end up with so many layers covering who we truly are. Even something as simple as holding kindness above all else needs to be questioned.

Nothing in life should be a rhetorical question.

Brands & Symbols

2011-07-15T14:56:00.000-07:00

The problem with brands is they give us a false sense of security and confidence.

Yesterday, at BloggyCon, Debba Haupert from Girlfriendology.com talked about branding your blog. I understand why someone would want to brand their blog. I get the power of branding. But is it the only way? And do brands hurt our sense of self education?

We are all taught that we are busy people. Graphic designers are told that they should design for a 5 second attention span. So they churn out huge, attention-getting headlines add a few emotional pictures and tell us why something is the greatest ever in under 5 seconds all while connecting to their brand.

I'm not saying that companies shouldn't have the right to highlight all the pros of their products and none of the cons but if we as a people would stop being so darn busy they wouldn't have to resort to watered down, loud marketing.

I guess it's a chicken and egg kind of thing. Which came first: uber-condensed marketing or people's short attention spans?

But I think it's turned into something more. Brands are symbols and humans love symbols. Symbols are an easy way to communicate a lot of meaning in a short time. How do you feel when you see the Walmart logo? How about Target's Bullseye? For you readers out there, how do you feel when you see your favorite publisher's logo?

Symbols like logos can mean many different things to many different people. Which is why logo design and branding are so difficult.

I get it, I really do. But I keep wondering what would life be like without logos and branding? What's the alternative? Is it possible to not have a branding phenomenon?

If humans could slow down would branding loose part of its magic?

The Mountains & Bloggy Con

2011-07-14T15:04:00.000-07:00

The Mountains

Driving through the hills and trees to get to the Bloggy Conference in Ohio I realized that I felt extremely comforted. I'm from Illinois where it's flat as a pancake. It feels airy and thoughtful. But over the last few months I have realized that feel most comfortable taking action instead of thinking all the time.

Although I'm naturally an action-oriented person I've been spending much of my life thinking and planning. It's been quite frustrating. Last month I threw away my endless todo list and while a couple times I've had so much going on that I just had to write stuff down I don't have the years worth of tasks and chores anymore.

Being in the hills has reminded me how earthy I am. Rocks and trees and rolling landscape keeps me stable and grounded. And it's only being in this environment that I realize how spacey the flatlands of Illinois makes me feel.

I'm pretty sure I belong in the mountains. Hopefully soon I can start making plans to get there.

The Meaning of Life

We have been trying to define it for centuries and some people claim to have the answer for you. You know who I'm talking about...self help gurus and leading experts and political groups. I don't believe there is a universal meaning of life.

It's interesting how much my definition of life has changed over the years and how much more it's changed in the last few months. I used to think that the meaning of life was to be the best at everything and be liked by everyone. And then the meaning changed to just being yourself. And there's always been that urge to do everything.

I think my meaning of life is changing again. A pattern I'm seeing is that we all try to do more than we are capable of or have the time and energy for. Acknowledging that you can't do something isn't a confession of defeat. It's a confession that you are being honest with yourself.

So much stress in my life has been accumulated from trying to be something I'm not or agreeing to things that I don't have the expertise or the resources for. When I'm honest with myself and say, "I'm sorry, I'm not the most qualified person to do that", I feel a wave of calm and meaning wash over me. Ironically, most of the time I have to say that to myself more than to others.

BloggyCon Theme

It seemed like the theme today at BloggyCon was to behave online the same way you would in real life. Just because Twitter and Facebook and your blog on virtual doesn't really mean the rules have changed.

I know some people won't agree with me on this but if blogging and Tweeting are like marketing and the best way to market is to build relationships than why wouldn't you treat your online friends the same way as your offline friends?

If you would whisper something to a friend at a party don't tweet that same thing to all your followers. Likewise, if you need help from a friend, what would you do? You'd probably just call them up and ask them a favor. Obviously you shouldn't call up a new Twitter follower if you haven't established a relationship yet but you can at least Direct Message them your question.

That's what I did today...what did you do?

P.S. HA! I just typed in "random quote" in Google and the first quote I found ties into another theme of the day.

"Determine never to be idle...It is wonderful how much may be done if we are always doing." -- Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826)

How perfect is that? More on "Authentic Action" tomorrow.

Control & Release

2011-07-13T15:01:00.000-07:00

It has not been a Sane & Satisfied week.

I've been juggling working for my dad and starting my business for a while now and it's getting to me. I try to use the techniques and advice I talk about on here but sometimes there's just too much.

I should be leaving right now, actually, to go to the Bloggy Conference in Mason, OH but I felt the need to journal. Sometimes you just need to get it all out. And sometimes that's all you can do.

But this is how life is sometimes. No great words of wisdom. No magic technique to make things all better. No mantra to make it all go away.

You just have to wade through it and sometimes just lie down and let it all wash over you.

My husband and I ate lunch with some older friends today and our conversation drifted, as it normally does, to politics. We discussed many things but I tend to see patterns in things and today the pattern I saw in all the problems we were discussing was that we, humans, tend to think we can make things better by controlling everything.

If I've learned anything this week it's that the opposite is true. Release control and you will find that things stay the same or get better. And if they stay the same, well, at least you'll feel less stressed.

Frugality, Humanity & Money

2011-07-07T08:59:00.000-07:00

I started reading a book this morning called Frugal Luxuries. I have found many books like this that come to me at the most perfect of moments. It's been sitting on the floor by my bookshelf for a while (the shelves are overflowing at the moment) and I almost forgot I had it until this morning.

For a few years, I've been trying to pay attention to the small comforts of life. My husband and I made a hammock stand last year and I try to relax in it as much as I can (although, I have to admit, it's not as often as I would like.) I've also been making sun tea for ourselves and to sell at our local Farmers Market. And the simple fact that I get to sit outside all morning at my booth at the Farmers Market has become a simple pleasure. I enjoy eating freshly made food at home and singing along with my Jazz CD while I clean or do the dishes.

I think that much of the reason why I've been thinking about Frugality and Simple Pleasures so much recently is a response to the political climate of America right now. There are so many Americans who believe that the American Dream includes XBoxes and Wiis and having a computer and internet access in every home. I know that they also believe that it includes a simple roof over your head and bread on the table. And if you don't have those things than you have a "lower standard of living".

I understand how hard it must be to struggle each day to put food on the table for yourself and your family. I don't mean to say that it's not. But people today act like this is something new. Humans have been struggling to survive ever since we were created. But I think today more than ever in our history humans have started to feel poor. I spoke with an older friend the other day about what it was like for her growing up. She said that her family still had an outhouse and that she received one new dress a year that her mom made out of rice bags. I asked her if she ever felt poor and she said no.

Today most of the poor among us have apartments with running water and they get new clothes multiple times a year. Our homeless even have the ability to sleep at a shelter and eat soup most days. Yet political groups who fight for them will have you believe that the poor and homeless have nothing, that they don't even have ability to make their lives better, that their lives are so horrible that the only solution is for the rest of us to give them lots of money. And on top of that they make the rest of us feel guilty for having more.

I'm all for charity. I believe that sometimes people just need some help. But that is not what these politicians and special interest groups are suggesting. What I hear is that they believe that poor people have no resources or ability or talents or power to make their lives better so the only way they will survive is through handouts. And I think that's a load of malarkey.

I'm getting a bit off track here. To tie things together I will give you a short story about frugality in action. In the book, Frugal Luxuries, it says that the word frugal came from two Latin words, frugalis and frux. They actually mean success. Today we would define frugal as a combination of spending your money wisely and turning the ordinary things into extraordinary things. John, a friend of mine, lives on a street in front of a river that goes through our town. One day he was coming home from work and as he pulled into his driveway he noticed a man sitting in the middle of the road. As he looked closer he realized that the man was leaning against a crate with his legs stretched out in front of him and a beer in his right hand. This man was homeless but at that moment he was completely at his ease, enjoying a beer while watching the sun set. At that moment that homeless man was the richest man in town.

Now, tell me how many times you think Bill Gates or Donald Trump have watched the sun set. With as busy as those two men are I doubt it's very often. And if Bill and that homeless man were enjoying the same sunset at the same time would there have been any difference between the two?

If money isn't everything. If money doesn't buy happiness then why are we so quick to assume that it's the answer to everything? I admit, I am a capitalist. I enjoy making things that people buy. But really the money is just a side effect of creating things I love to create. There are people in this world who really only care about money but I believe they are few. The plenty are the people who just love to create and give people what they want and need and in return they receive money from their customers.

The ability to create what you love and earn money for it doesn't lie only within the rich and powerful. It lies within all of us for the simple fact that we are all human. Humanity is what gives each of us the ability to grow our own food, cook dinner from scratch, darn our own clothing instead of buying new and enjoy sunsets even if we don't have a roof over our heads. This is what we are capable of. Politicians and special interest groups who tell us otherwise should be removed from office.

Until we all understand the art of frugality and humanity we will always feel poor in one way or another.

Skills That Can't Be Taught & Used Coffee Grounds

2011-06-24T06:50:00.000-07:00

This morning, I was laying in bed thinking about Sane & Satisfied. I realized that most of the things that help you become Sane & Satisfied really can't be taught, only experienced and practiced.

Some of those things include:
Critical Thinking - the knowledge to ask who, what, why, where and how.
Imagination - to see what isn't there yet.
Entrepreneurship - to create things with your brain and hands that helps make others lives better and more enjoyable.
Will - to turn your imagination into reality and to convince that people who do not believe yet.

And if you think about it these are the same things that make people successful. Not 4 years of college, not money, but these skills above that are the very hardest to learn.

Used Coffee Grounds

I sell some handmade goods at a local farmers market. One of the things I sell is a Cinnamon Coffee Body Scrub. A guy was inspecting my scrubs and asked, "Now, is your coffee scrub made with used coffee grounds or fresh coffee grounds?" I said, "Fresh." He inclined his head and said, "Ah, Ok...thanks." And proceeded to the next booth.

A little while later he circled back around to my booth and I asked him if he would have preferred used coffee grounds. He said, "Yeah, I would have...You know...then the grounds would have been used twice. If everyone does their little part then it can made a big difference. Every little bit helps."

This was one of those situations when I couldn't think of anything to say the time but came up with a plethora of witty come-backs after the fact. One of which would have been, "Um...you do realize that coffee grounds are bio-degradable, right? I mean, we aren't talking about Styrofoam Body Scrubs here."

I've been thinking about this guy's Used-Coffee-Grounds Logic and the Sane & Satisfied skills I mentioned earlier trying to find a connection or conclusion. I don't like to buy into other people's opinions immediately but I don't like to turn them down without a good reason either.

I understand what the guy meant. If everybody in our city did there part by recycling their coffee grounds or, for instance, picked up one piece of trash everyday it wouldn't be a huge job for each of us but it would result in a much cleaner city. I think this only works, however, in a concentrated effort. Humans work well together but only when we have a clear, common goal, clear tasks toward that goal and only when the goal is within eye-sight. Organizing a group of 50 - 100 citizens and giving each of those citizens an area of the city to clean in 3 hours does much more good than telling an entire city that every little bit helps and expecting them to pick up trash on their own.

So it got me thinking about the phrase "Every little bit helps." Does every little bit really help?

This brings me to the last two, and I think the most important, skills to being Sane & Satisfied: Balance and Meaningful Action.

Life is balance; constant, tiny movements and accomplishing goals requires big, meaningful action. It actually takes less energy to stay balanced and take big action then it does to run around doing small things that move your goal a tiny bit or even not at all. Sure, I could play it safe and make only 3 coffee scrubs for the farmers market this weekend and if I sell those I could make three more for the next week and if I sell those make 3 more again. Or I could make 9 scrubs now and focus of selling all 9 scrubs this weekend.

Do big or go home.

If you aren't taking the sometimes uncomfortable but big actions in your life, chances are you aren't really moving forward or even living. And much like the used-coffee-grounds guy you probably aren't seeing the big picture either.

I also wish I would have asked him about the government rules that forbid restaurants to give their unused food to homeless shelters or about all the regulations that require packaging to be 50x bigger than the product just to hold the small print or about the mounds of time, energy and paperwork it takes just to file and manage your taxes. These are the big, meaningful, concentrated changes that would actually make a difference.

So maybe instead of waiting for everyone to "do their little part" we could take uncomfortable but meaningful action and change some of things I mentioned above.

And maybe instead of taking baby steps you do something big today and doesn't step you toward your goal but leaps you toward it.

Entrepreneur Games & a New To Do List

2011-06-21T11:46:00.000-07:00

Entrepreneur Games

I just started playing a game on my iPad called Fiona's Flowers. It's a time management/simulation/entrepreneur game where you run a flower shop. You start off with a few tasks like watering, planting and pruning your flowers. You also sell them out of your shed. The goal is to make enough money to advance through different garden contests.

As you earn money you can buy more equipment like an oven and fruit dryer so you can increase your products by selling raisins and cakes.

With this game fresh in my mind, my husband and I went for a walk. Our entire walk was occupied with brainstorming a board game based on entrepreneur simulations like Fiona's Flowers. When we got back I searched online for "entrepreneur games" and found a list of games dedicated to one or more areas of entrepreneurship and thought I would share them with you.

Go Venture- This website has many games for kids to teach them the various ins and outs of running a business. Their game list includes Hot Company and Ice Cream Board Game.

On Noobpreneur.com, Ivan Widjaya, the editor, lists Capitalism II, Rich Dad's Cashflow and Virtonomics.

There's also a Business Simulation game on Income-outcome.com.

Some other entrepreneur-themed games include:
Monopoly
Risk
Hotel
Lemonade Stand

I like playing Fiona's Flowers because even though running a real business is slightly more complicated I'm reminded of the importance of ignoring or setting aside the minutia in order to get to the fun and meaningful stuff.

Reverse To Do List

Speaking of fun and meaningful. The Reverse To Do List is an idea I had last week when I was brooding over my traditional To Do List, wondering why nothing was getting done. I implemented this to do list a couple days ago and I already feel less stressed and more productive.

The general idea behind a Reverse To Do List is write down what you accomplished instead of keeping a list of things you still need to do.

Many productivity and self help experts tell you to break down your tasks into small manageable chunks so you can accomplish them easier. I did this for a while and all I accomplished was getting really good at writing a long To Do List which ended up hanging over me like a storm cloud.

I understand the basic principle behind this technique and it may work for some but I don't believe it's the only way to be productive. I found that it took longer to get to the part where I actually work on something and I also got stuck in the planning stage. If you write To Do lists like this you not only have to manage the task itself but you have to manage the To Do list as well! Also, and I think this is the more important part, you can't possibly anticipate every task that's required to finish a project. Things change and then you are forced to update your To Do list.

To Do lists feed on your fear of forgetting things.

We are intelligent, capable humans but we tend to write 4 pages worth of To Dos because we are scared we'll forget one of the steps.

If you are learning something new or found a process that works well for you then you might need to write down each step so you won't forget and have to work through it again. That's called efficiency.

But writing down every step to clean your home is ridiculous. Most of us know what's involved in cleaning a house. We just need to get to it! So schedule yourself to clean your house this Saturday and stop there. Trust that your body and brain will know what to do when the time comes.

Well then why keep a list at all?

The point of writing down what you worked on after the fact is to help keep you on track without wasting time planning. If you write down what you actually accomplished today and look at that list tomorrow you will automatically know what you need to do. You will know what needs to be done but it won't come from a long, boring, intimidating To Do list. It will come from the natural flow of a project.

I believe our brains want to work for us. That's what they were created to do. Your brain is programmed to naturally understand what comes next and your body is programmed to do what your brain tells it. Writing exhaustive lists of things to do undermined the whole beautiful process.

Simplicity & The Smorgasbord

2011-06-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

I was doing yoga in my living room this morning and glanced at 3 of my exercise/fitness books. I immediately thought, "why do I need 3 exercise books". I also keep 10 exercise videos in my Netflix Instant Queue and have a binder with several teared out pages of exercises and tips I found in various magazines.

I've been wrestling recently with the ideas of Simplicity and Smorgasbord. Everyone tells you that you should reduce the amount of stuff (tasks, food, meetings, news, household items, etc) in your life to make it less stressful. I agree with this practice but it's hard to reduce stuff when you are trying to educate yourself or acquire new skills.

I learned a long time ago (and must continue to remind myself) that I am not wired to follow a strict plan or process. I can get from A to B but most of the time I can't do it using someone else's directions.

Being Sane & Satisfied is like being a carpenter. A carpenter has many tools to complete the job. He doesn't just bring a hammer and nails with him because he couldn't possibly build anything without more tools to choose from.

A Self Help Guru asking you to get through life with just one tool, ie. their program, is like a home owner asking a carpenter to fix their house with a hammer. It won't work for the carpenter and it won't work for you.

So, where's the balance?

Finding the balance between Simplicity and Smorgasbord is a daily battle for me. I know I can't do everything but I really, really want to do everything. When I realize I've put too much on my plate and get stressed I tend to spring back to Simplicity and start throwing things away willy-nilly. But I don't think that's the answer either.

Balance for you is going to look different than my balance. But I think finding balance is a skill like any other. You must work with it and experiment with different configurations.

Somehow I think that Simplicity is found within the Smorgasbord.

4 Hours, Rules & Getting Off Your Butt

2011-06-14T13:26:00.000-07:00

On my other blog, 210 Unread Books I reviewed Timothy Ferriss's, The 4 Hour Workweek. I read it again recently for the 2 1/2 time and realized that Tim's philosophy about work and life gel pretty well with Sane & Satisfied. Tim teaches uber-productivity skills and doesn't put much stock in the term "expert".

The main thing I learned from Tim is to not let rules have so much power over my life and actions. We all have real and imagined rules that dictate our actions and beliefs and most of the time these rules keep us from doing things we really want to do or live a life we really want to live. These rules are imposed on us by others, by tradition, and by ourselves. After reading The 4 Hour Workweek I recognized many rules I made up about myself and my life and tricked myself into thinking they couldn't be broken.

Breaking rules is mandatory for a Sane & Satisfied lifestyle. After all its these very rules that keep us stressed and unhappy.

So what rules are governing your life? If you can take a day to focus on recognizing these rules you will be amazed how many you find. But don't stop at just recognizing the rules and trying to "think differently" about them. You must take action to break the rules. Tim suggests to write down your goal, in this case your goal will be: Break such-and-such rule. Then write down three important, meaningful steps and complete one today, one tomorrow and one the next day. This technique is to ensure that you start right now without excuse.

The 4 Hour Workweek philosophy that really hit home for me was that success (and productivity) isn't a secret process. 99% of the time it comes down to having a clear vision and getting off your butt.

Fantasies, Lack-Luster Lives & the Superhumans We Long To Be

2011-06-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

We have been taught by our parents, friends, authors, film-makers and media that Superhumans only exist in the minds of their creators and the film we watch them on. They are a fantasy dreamed up for our entertainment so we can forget about our boring, mundane, normal, lack-luster lives. From time forgotten humans have been trying to fill the boredom. From inventing stories about the stars to watching so-called reality TV we have created worlds that far outmatch the one we are forced to live in every day.

The characters that inhabit these worlds are far more interesting than any of us mere mortals. They do things and say things and have things we only dream of. We watch them with glitter in our eyes and try to imitate them. These creatures, hatched from our own minds, who are inspired by our lives yet so removed from them, inspire us to do things and say things and have things that we so long for but are scared to actually obtain. And even though they come from us and who we are we will never hope to be them.

They are a fantasy. And fantasies are sacred. Probably the only sacred thing left in this world.

Supermen, Superwomen, Superlives only exist in creative imagination.

This is what we are taught.

We are taught to look for these Superbeings in space, in the future, in the past, in other universes, in politics, on TV, in books, in news headlines, in mysterious events. A whole genre is devoted to them: The Comic Book. We believe in these fictional characters more than we believe in ourselves. And we let them tell us how to live our lives, what to believe, who to trust. And we let them choose the villains too. And how to fight them.

Superhumans can be a positive influence or a crutch. While believing in them makes you want to be a better person they also make you forget how much power you have already. They also can become so big and amazing that they over-shadow the wonderful things that are in your life right now.

Look up to the Superhumans in your life, both real and imagined, let them inspire you to do great things. But make sure that, above all, they are inspiring you to find the Superhuman inside yourself.

Things Left Over, Responsible Things, & Promises to Myself

2011-05-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

Everyday I wake up and go over in my head all the things I want to do during the day. This list always consists of:
1. Things left over from the previous day.
2. Responsible things like doing the dished, cleaning, exercising and such.
3. Things I've been wanting to do for a while but can't seem to find the time to do like draw something or work on a craft.
4. Things I promise myself I'll do everyday but never do like stay away from sweets or relax on my hammock.

This little routine is very exhausting. From the time I wake up to the time I go to bed I'm painfully aware of everything I'm not getting done each and every day. And these are things I actually want to accomplish. They are things I daydream about when I'm doing less enjoyable tasks like trying to figure out why a website isn't working right or driving a really long stretch of highway.

They are things that when I do finally get around to doing them I feel content and I feel like myself.

In my last post I wrote about self interest and how it shouldn't be as bad as we tend to think. Self interest is what makes our lives work for us It's what keep us alive and healthy and happy. Self interest is also what motivates us to quit a dead-end job in order to pursue our dream of opening a bakery.

So why doesn't self interest come to the rescue on days when I have a list of things I'd really want to do but never can seem to get done? Self help gurus would probably explain to me that I'm fearful of success or that I don't believe in myself. They would proceed to sell me their bright, shiney self help program designed to tackle my fears or a give me a mantra I repeat to myself every morning that's guaranteed to convince me that, "I can do it!"

I say, "Puh-Lease!"

Their conclusions might be correct but is the answer really to sit in front of a mirror willing my brain to do things? Aside from the fact that bad habits plays a big role in why we don't accomplish the things we want (and we all know how hard it is to break our nasty habits) we need to accept the fact that any change we make is not going to be easy. And isn't that what self help gurus are really trying to sell us: A quick fix.

Why do so many people try to over-complicate self improvement?
If you are like me and wake up in the morning wishing you were a published writer or that you speak French or you simply want to eat healthier then stop wasting time talking to yourself in the mirror and just take the first step already. You don't have to put labels on parts of your life. You don't have to follow someone else's 10 step program. Write your own 10 step program and make sure every step is an actual step toward your goals.

In Conclusion
Self help gurus and other experts make it seem like life is more complicated than it really is. And life is dreadfully complicated.

I do need to take my own advice, though. It's really hard to figure out what you want and to hold on to that quite, fragile notion all day, everyday is even harder. You don't have to practice for a better life. You can take actual, real steps right now. And each time you take action by learning a new skill or just getting off the coach you are already living your goal.

Life's Purpose, "Giving back" & Why Self-Interest Really Isn't Bad

2011-05-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

I just read an article on the Huffington Post by Douglas Labier titles, "Why It's So Hard to Find Your Life's Purpose". It's a pretty good read for being self-helpy - mostly because he actually acknowledges that books and programs that promise to show you how to find your life's purpose don't work.

But the main point of his article is that in order to find you life's purpose you must participate in "service to something larger than your ego". This sounds obvious. We've always been taught to help others and give to te greater good. As children we were taught to share with other children.

Labier's article is one of many examples I see every day about the nobility of giving to others. I run an after-school program called Entrepreneur Teens Rock that teaches teens how to start their own business. As part of the program they participated in Lemonade Day, a national organization that organizes young people to run a lemonade stand on the same day. In their kit they give to the kids to help them prepare for running their lemonade stand, the last chapter is called "Banking & Giving Back". It instructs the kids to open a savings account and encourages them to give some of their earnings to a charity for those who don't have the opportunity to run a lemonade stand.

I have no problem with giving to charity or those less fortunate. But I do have a problem with this notion that business, even a small one like a lemonade stand, only takes from its customers and others. I mean, didn't the youth who participated in Lemonade Day make their customers happy? Ok, you could say that it doesn't count because the customers paid for the refreshing cups of lemonade they received. The customers had to give something to the kids in order to get their lemonade.

So I just have one question: When you give to charity, you don't get anything in return? When you donate money to the Red Cross or collect food for the Food Pantry do you walk away with less then you had before?

While giving feels like a sacrifice you wouldn't do it unless it made you happy. Right? And when giving to charity or volunteering neglects to make you happy you either quit giving or you give begrudgingly. This is nothing to feel ashamed about.

Why is making people's lives better in exchange for money not as noble as making someone's life better in exchange for feeling good about yourself?

In his article, Labier does point out that self interest and the ego are a part of being human but in the next sentence he says we should strive to rise above our egos. It's not our egos and self interest that are the problem. Believe me, no matter what you do with your life your ego will be right there with you. The problem is that we don't embrace our self interest as a beautiful tool to judge the quality of our life.

The conclusion that Labier should have reached if he was being honest and respected his own self interest is that people who find their purpose in life are able to satisfy their self interest. The woman musician who starts a non-profit teaching music to inner-city kids is just as noble and in line with her life's purpose as the CEO of a multi-billion dollar company who provides thousands of jobs to people from all walks of life selling widgets that make our lives easier.

Your life's purpose can be anything. Even if it involves making money. Don't turn away from it because people like Labier make it seem less noble.

Honesty, Hogwash & Miracle Whip

2011-05-17T07:41:00.000-07:00

Honesty keeps popping up when I think about Sane & Satisfied. And being honest matters most in the things you tell yourself and the things you think about yourself.

By nature, we tend to think poorly of ourselves. It's easy to believe in something negative about yourself and a lot more difficult to believe in something encouraging. Many people, mostly psychologists and self help gurus, will tell you to stop that negative thinking and repeat, "I am a wonderful person and people love me", while staring at yourself in the mirror.

What a bunch of nonsense drenched in hogwash.

They are forgetting two important things:
1. I don't know if anyone told you but we are flawed beings. Saying a human has a bad habit or a negative personality trait is like saying sunlight will burn you if you stand outside too long without sunscreen.
And 2. Stuffing our flaws in a mental closet and slapping a smile on our face doesn't make us better humans, only humans with repressed flaws.

Why are we so scared of ourselves?

We are taught by parents and teachers and bosses and marketing gurus and experts to hide our flaws. Even social media experts tell us to develop a "social media strategy" so every Tweet and post and status update is planned in perfect synchronization.

I saw a commercial for Miracle Whip the other day. They used a lo-fi technique to record people on the street give their opinion of Miracle Whip. Some people said they loved it but others said it tasted horrible and they prefer real Mayonnaise. This sort of marketing is unheard of. Not only did Miracle Whip point out its flaws but they even gave kudos to their competitor. Risky, ingenious and glaringly honest.

When a company tries so hard to hide its flaws it can miss a golden marketing innovation like Miracle Whip's commercial. The same applies to humans. WE try so hard to contain the perceived negative bits of ourselves that we smother the truth: We are flawed but in and among those flaws are beautiful bits of ourselves.

Your mother was right: Honesty is the best policy. If you want to improve yourself and your life the best thing you can do is be honest about whatever it is you think you need to change. And if you must stare at yourself in the mirror, start by saying, "I am not perfect and here's why..." Honesty just feels better.

Old Sayings, Control & a Fatalistic Human

2011-05-14T14:46:00.001-07:00

Sometimes I wonder if any of us can really influence someone else to change. I think the old saying, "be the change you wish to see in the world" is more to the point than we want to except.

Humans are extremely complicated. Most of us don't understand our own selves so how could we possibly understand another human being?

It seems to me that most human energy is spent trying to control outside forces. We think that in order to be satisfied we have to control our world; make it do our bidding so we can be happy. I'm starting to wonder if we aren't just all afraid of ourselves.

We are afraid to learn new things, afraid to put ourselves out there both physically and emotionally, we don't want people to see our mistakes or quarks. We justify our actions and beliefs with society-approved logic. And all so we can live a seemingly peaceful existence with other humans who are just as unhappy and dishonest with themselves as we are.

Ok, I'm a little fatalistic today but having a week like I've had will do that to you. Probably should go to bed now...

Quests, Reunions & RPGs

2011-05-08T09:23:00.001-07:00

I learn something new every day about being Sane & Satisfied. And today I learned that it has something to do with Role Playing Games. At least in part and at least for me.

I've never really been that into RPGs. The whole turn-based fighting really gets me. I do like being able to play with other people in a fictional world that you can control and manipulate. I really like RPGs that seemingly never end. Plus I love going on quests.

So what do role playing games have to do with Sane & Satisfied? I think it has something to do with the fact that even in real life we all have our Avatars who come out when particular circumstances arise. Certain people whether they are family members or just day-to-day acquaintances trigger particular strengths and weaknesses.

I just spent the weekend in a hotel with my family. It was an impromptu reunion. Normally I'm very outgoing and witty and am relaxed in the company of others. However, around some of my family I'm no more clever than a rock. They suck my energy dry and I can't think of a darn thing.

Now, when I'm around my husband, which is obviously an awful lot of the time, I usually think to myself that I should be a stand up comedian. I mean, I don't even have to try hard to be funny around him. Fortunately, I understand myself enough to realize that while my husband may be falling off his chair laughing that does not mean that a room full of half drunk people would be doing the same.

We all RPG through life. Which got me thinking: Who is the real true me?

I think that we understand unconsciously what skills and abilities we need to equip around certain people. This makes it seem like we are acting differently around them but I think that some of our natural traits are simply more prominent during these moments.

Maybe that's another way that RPG relates to Sane & Satisfied: when you don't know the real person behind the avatar you are fighting or raiding with you don't really know what personal abilities and traits to bring to the front. Most people think that gamers are trying to escape to a fantasy world but I wonder if gamers are more themselves than the rest of us are.

Prophecies, Distractions & Me

2011-04-27T21:53:00.001-07:00

Since I've been thinking, or probably more to the point, brooding over Sane & Satisfied my mind keeps coming back to distractions. I started to read the book, The Celestine Prophecy, and then watched the movie instead. On a side note, that was the first time I ever said that the movie was better than the book. I did enjoy it and not for it's new-age-we-can-transcend-into-better-humans-if-we-just-commune-with-nature-and-learn-to-be-less-angry-selfish-and-greedy sermon. I enjoyed it because it told a story of how human kind has veered off track.

The characters in The Celestine Prophecy (which is a work of fiction, although the author and many of the book's followers will have you believe that it's real) explain that when we began to question the infallibility of God we began to look around our world and define it for ourselves. So we sent out scientists and artists and biologists and such to document this world and then come back and share their findings. Unfortunately while we waited for them to come back we got distracted with every day life and forgot why we had sent them on the quest in the first place.

This part of the story really struck something in me. I find myself thinking about this concept regularly. The more I examine my life I realize that distractions are a big barrier to becoming Sane & Satisfied. Distractions are not only frustrating, they are draining and lead us so far off track that we sometimes can't find our way back.

I believe that most of America is distracted right now. I won't go into specifics in this post (there's more time for that later) but we have gotten to the point now where it seems that smoke and mirrors, misdirection and agendas are reality. That's how distracted we are; we can't tell distractions from reality. Reminds me of the movie, Inception.

As I was coming up to bed tonight I was thinking of all the things I wanted to do today that never got done. And I asked myself, Why is it so hard to be the person I want to be and who I feel I'm meant to be? The answer that came to me immediately was that I'm dealing with so many distractions right now. It's a wonder I get one thing accomplished in a day.

Distractions wear us out and ruin our flow and hide the truth. When you are busy looking that way something is happening over here. It's a matter of physics: when your energy is focused on something it cannot be focused on something else. But distraction makes it even worse by covering the truth.

I always know how to begin posts but for some reason it's a lot harder for me to finish them. How do I finish a post about distractions when I'm yawning to go to bed? I think that distractions are a given in life and when we don't know ourselves or trust ourselves or have a clear picture of what we want our life to be distractions have a greater effect.

What distractions do you have in your life right now? How can you decrease those distractions? And more importantly who are you right now? I know I mentioned earlier that I had asked myself why it is so hard to be who you want to be. But after writing this post I don't think that's the right question. I am who I am right now. I need to realize what's going on in my life right now in order to get rid of some of those distractions and uncover me.

Ahhhhh, the results of self-help making me feel like somehow I'm not me until I go through their step by step program. Well, I have a question: If I'm not me right now then who am it?

Funkland, Standards & a Truthful Guage

2011-04-26T21:04:00.001-07:00

Funkland

I started to slip into Funkland again today. I really thought my time there was over. For those of you who don't know what Funkland is, it's where you are when you question yourself, are feeling sorry for yourself or are generally unsure of what to do next. I used to find myself in Funkland at least once a week. Not fun. And for a while I had managed to stay out. I'm not sure what triggers it but I've found that any sort of action like cleaning or doing the dishes or just working on a different task usually gets me out of there.

For me Funkland is a big barrier to being and staying Sane & Satisfied. I really don't like not knowing what to do; it's a very unsettling feeling. And it usually snowballs into other bad feelings and melancholy. When I'm in Funkland I'm almost able to talk myself into being a waitress again.

I'm beginning to think that maybe Funkland is the place your brain takes you when you are moving out of your comfort zone and your brain doesn't know what to do. The safest place for your brain and for you to be is the past where things are familiar. You know already know what you did yesterday. You know what sitting in front of the TV for hours feels like. But you don't know what starting a business is like or what trying to get a book published is like. The unknown is scary.

What I Learned From Funkland

I think the other reason I go to Funkland sometimes is when I'm trying too hard to do something that I don't have the skill sets for. Today I was working on my business plan and worrying over the financial statements. I'm good at math but I loath working with numbers. Visiting Funkland today reminded me that we don't have to be great at everything.

I wrote yesterday about setting your bar too high. And the more I think about the meaning of Sane & Satisfied the more I keep thinking about how there seems to be a wide gap between what my expectations are and what I'm actually able to deliver.

This realization isn't meant to be a criticism. This is actually a very powerful thing to realize. I have felt like a failure so many times simply because I set my standards too high. It had nothing to do with my abilities.

I don't mean to set your sights so low that you overcome them so swiftly and painlessly that your success is now skewed. Setting standards and goals for yourself should be realistic both in what you are asking of yourself and to what extent. Only with a truthful gauge can we truly measure our success.

Dizzying Heights, The Greats & Gold Medals

2011-04-25T20:42:00.001-07:00

The more I learn about being Sane & Satisfied the more I realize that the goal of life isn't to be a genius or master artist or the best gymnast, dancer or award winning singer. The goal of life isn't to be perfect. And you certainly aren't a failure if you come in second or even third or even 100th. Yet so many people set their personal bar at those dizzying heights.

So many of us believe that if we can't be the best then it's not worth even trying. This is where my head was for the last year. I'd look at all those people who already have successful businesses and I'd think, "well, I'm pretty sure I'll never be as great as them so I should probably just go back to waitressing."

We miss out on our true calling if we think like this. And we miss out on many moments of satisfaction too. When we are constantly comparing ourselves to others and finding (or perceiving) ourselves coming up short we judge and criticize ourselves. This time could be better spent accepting ourselves and just enjoying whatever activity we are engaged in.

The Greats achieve honors and awards because of the work they put into their craft. They weren't "the best" first. They had the passion and courage first and then found success. Their natural talents help, of course. And you have natural talents too. Just because you don't win a gold medal doesn't mean you aren't doing what you are meant to be doing.

The Fittest, the clouds & the truth

2011-04-12T07:14:00.001-07:00

Survival of the fittest is often met with scorn, ridicule and a general feeling of contempt for the person who believes in the concept. Survival of the fittest is generally used to describe the fact that the strongest, most resourceful animals and humans survived when other mammals didn't back when we didn't have the securities we do now like homes and grocery stores.

There are some people, especially in the political environment who criticize and often times criminalize businesses for operating under the old survival of the fittest mantra. They say that these CEOs only care about the bottom line and they get rich "off the backs" of their employees.

Now, I do not support sub-standard working conditions, or discrimination of any ethnic group or sexual orientation. However, what I do support is a business doing what it needs to do, short of scamming their customers and employees, in order to keep it's business running and it's employees employed. And if that involves operating under the concept of survival of the fittest than that's fine too.

What frustrates me about people who demonize the concept of survival of the fittest is that we all have been operating under survival of the fittest and continue to operate under this premise. Regardless of our feelings about it survival of the fittest is here to stay. Call it human nature, call it natural order of things. I call it logic.

If a business was not balancing its accounts at the end of each month, or if, for instance, a business in Downtown Danville, Il where I live, wasn't marketing itself well enough to attract business than those businesses will fail. There's no question of whether they should fail or not, they are going to fail. That's simply how things work.

And while it seems a little harsh to say this, it works the same way with individuals. If you aren't balancing your checkbook each month or presenting yourself well enough at a job interview you will have less money and in turn won't be able to buy the things you need or want. It's not rocket science.

And this brings me to being Sane & Satisfied. We are told every day that it's a travesty of our time that there are still hungry and homeless people on the streets. Some people even tell us that this is caused by the rich and powerful. If by that, they meant that we all effect each other from the poorest to the richest, then I would agree. But they really mean that it's all the rich people's fault. The problem with this is that because so many people believe this argument they approach the solution from this angle. Most solutions I hear are directed toward taking money from or restricting money to the rich people in our country. And because these people also believe that the poor are having things taken from them they think that solution is to just give it back (in the form of government handouts, food and public housing.)

So many times we don't define the problem well enough and that results in our solutions not doing what we expect them to do.

Let's get away from politics for a moment and journey into the land of self help. This is an industry that thrives on not defining the problem well enough. They tell us that the problem is that we are not who we want to be. And maybe on some level that's accurate. But they never seem to tell us that maybe the person who we are is exactly who we are supposed to be. The problem is that society doesn't like certain types of people.

Take me for example. I am a very outgoing and opinionated person. I'm not afraid of conflict, in fact, I believe that conflict is necessary for growth. I also stick up for my actions even when people are telling me I should apologize. These traits were not praised in school, they were not praised among my friends and they are certainly not praised in main stream media or in political and social discussions.

I built up a lot of stress when I tried to conform to how society told me I should behave. This is actually the only conflict I don't condone. Being in conflict with others can help us all grow and learn more about ourselves. Being in conflict with ourselves only leads to frustration, anger, confusion, depression and general unhappiness.

Part of being Sane & Satisfied is defining your problems and barriers accurately. So often everyone else's voice and opinion gets in the way and clouds things. Much like the ongoing discussion about poverty and big business has been clouded and skewed your perception of yourself and your hurdles is probably skewed too.

I truly believe that as soon as we are able to look at poverty through the lens of truth and logic we will find that or solutions toward poverty succeed. I also believe that as soon as we all are able to look at ourselves and our own problems through the lens of truth we will finally find sanity and satisfaction. This will give us the greatest advantage to surviving.

Higher Education, Self Education & the Ultimate Equalizer

2011-04-11T06:43:00.000-07:00

I just read a post by Race Bannon over on The Art of Self Education about the costs of higher education effecting the decision to attend college. I agree with Race's comment about the increased cost of college has resulted in many young people questioning whether college is right for them. My comment to his post started out as simply a, "thanks for pointing that out, can't wait to read more" comment but as I started to write I thought of the deeper meaning of his post and the discussion he started and how it relates to Sane & Satisfied.

Are Colleges "Too Expensive"?

I can’t say whether most colleges are “too expensive”; I’ve never run a college or researched how much it costs per student. I suspect that state funded colleges are “too expensive” only because, being funded by a government entity, they don’t have much motivation to keep costs down. But I think that if private colleges and universities have raised their tuition over the last years its because of a rise in supplies and other resources needed for the school to function and probably more so, from a rise in demands from the students and their parents. With so many more Americans going to colleges today than 20 plus years ago that brings with it more expense to the school. So while I agree that this increase has caused possibly a beginning discussion about the value of alternative learning I just wanted to point out that it’s not a mystery or conspiracy why colleges have gotten more expensive (as some people would have you believe.)

I also wanted to mention that the mentality surrounding college education changed drastically which resulting in an influx of young people attending college. Parents who wanted “better lives” for their children saw college as a way to get that better life. And then it became common practice to encourage every child to go to college no matter that child’s ability. Some people are not made for a college environment. Nor is everyone in the best position to go to college. Before children stayed at home to take care of ailing parents and grand parents or to help on the farm or the family business. I’m not saying that I expect young people forgo a college education to help out at home but I think there has been so much expectation for young people to go to college that we don’t consider anymore if the child is ready or if the family can even afford it.

So I think all of these factors have resulted in people today realizing that they might not be able to afford going to college. But the other side to all of this are the businesses now who require a college education for a job that doesn’t really require one. I hope that with this rethinking of attending college comes a rethinking of the requirements demanded by employers.

I’m also thinking of this from a political perspective too. I’ve been hearing a lot about equality lately and of course I agree with equality from the standpoint of how the government treats a group of people. But equality does not mean that if someone has the ability to go to college then you have the right to go. I think we need to start recognizing that while we should all have the same freedoms to pursue the life we want we all don’t have the same talents, abilities, skills, motivation, money or luck to make those desires become a reality. And that brings me back to self education: In the end, the degree to which we have all those things I just mentioned doesn’t matter. If we have self education skills and knowledge we can create the life we want no matter where we started in life. The solution to most everything, at least for me, always comes back to self education. Self Education is the ultimate equalizer!

So what does Self Education have to do with Sane & Satisfied

I think that self education is a huge ingredient in being Sane & Satisfied. How can you possibly be happy, content and successful in life if you are ignorant about yourself, your history and current affairs?

The difference between self education and traditional learning (think about your public school education) is that in traditional learning you are reliant on an authority figure giving you the answers and facts and dates to memorize. This is not natural or true learning. It does not help you to develop an understanding about the subject. Self Education gives you that understanding.

The more you understand about yourself and the world around you the more happier you will be because you will have the skills and knowledge necessary to shape your world. You will no longer be someone's puppet and you will realize a lot sooner when someone is pulling the wool over your eyes.

Hammer, Coffee & Birdsong

2011-03-31T06:53:00.001-07:00

I woke up this morning and felt like there was a hammer in my brain. It wasn't a headache but this dull thumping like something trying to get out. I understand now how Zeus felt when Athena burst out of his head. The thumping was unforgiving. I turned on the tv to start my exercise video but I couldn't get over the urge that I had to go outside and just walk until the hammering stopped.

Walking usually clears my head and this morning I had an epiphany. This blog and the whole concept of Sane & Satisfied is to find the life that makes you happy and to get rid of anything that forces you to not be yourself and to try to do all of this in the least stressful way. So yesterday I was working on a website for my part time gig and I was thinking to myself (as I nashed my teeth) that I really didn't want to be working on that website. I went into what I call "Funkland". In Funkland, I question myself and everything I'm doing and I even start to have nightmares of myself working at McDonalds for the rest of my life. Funkland is the complete opposite of Sane & Satisfied.

This is starting to turn into a long boring expatiation. So like my husband tells me, I will think about it and cut straight to the end.

I was in Funkland because I can't seem to figure out what I want to do with my life. And most of the time I figure something out like Academy for Self Education it still feels like the pieces aren't in the right place yet. And that's when it hit me. The pieces AREN'T in the right place. They are scattered all around me in different areas of life.

I realized that I need to bring together all these pieces of things I love to do like drawing, writing, typesetting, books, reading, learning, designing worksheets and workbooks and selling things I make with my own two hands. I have been doing all of those things already for a while now but they weren't connected.

Until today!

Enter birds singing, and light from heaven shining down on me and a choir of angels singing Hallelujah. I'm one step closer to Sane & Satisfied!

Movies, Cars & Ice Cream

2011-03-29T15:32:00.001-07:00

So I just started the process to register my new business, Academy for Self Education. This will be the third business I start in about the same years. The only thing that's going through my head right now is, "what am I doing." Sometimes I feel like this is it, this is the business I've been waiting for my whole life and other times, like today, I'm wondering if it will go anywhere at all.

I think of movies where a character is starting a business like, The Social Network or Sunshine Cleaning and I envy their passion and excitement. I was standing at the County Clerks office today and realized that I don't feel excitement at all and maybe just a little passion. Is that enough?

It seems like everything I try to start just misses by *that much*. I'm sure it's just in my head but I'm pretty sure I definitely do not have the gold touch.

Although another thought did occur to me in line at the County Clerks office: I try to do so many different things for my business. I try to be the marketer, designer, content creator, workshop leader, graphic designer, accountant, executive assistant and owner all at the same time. And I guess this all wouldn't be entirely so bad but I try to be perfect at every one of those jobs too.

I think the hardest thing for an entrepreneur to do is ask for help. I know that I want to do everything. I think that if I don't have my print on everything then the business somehow isn't mine at all. But that's crazy now that I say it out loud. I think in order to be more satisfied and, in turn, more successful I'm going to need to break down and ask for help.

One of the things that would make me satisfied, aside from succeeding at my business venture, is to own a new car. An SUV to be precise. I know, how un-environmental. My current car is a sky blue Hyundai Accent. It's not very professional looking. Plus I plan to have a lot of classes and travel the country giving seminars and talks and I'm pretty sure my sky blue wouldn't be able to handle it.

I also realized yesterday that I need to start setting goals for myself and for my business. This sounds like one of those no-brainer moments, right? If you want to accomplish anything you have to set goals for yourself. But this is how off track I've gotten over the past couple years. I stopped setting goals and just followed what others said.

For example, my first business was the easiest to start. It was called Buttons & Rainbows and I sold handmade children's accessories like bracelets and bookmarks. My goal was turn every day items into creative inspiration for children. I don't remember struggling as much as I am now. I just created the business, made the items and sold them (or at least tried too). I even had a fashion show and used area kids as my models. Then a career counselor suggested to me that if teaching children creativity was what I wanted to do then I should give workshops on creativity. In one month I scrapped Buttons & Rainbows and developed Sara Ortiz Workshops.

I think that was the first time I started to have doubts about my ideas. I don't remember where the idea came from to start Buttons & Rainbows. I know I'm not the only one who had the idea to create handmade children's accessories but I wonder if I've ever done something because I truly believed in it. After all, that's what makes great businesses.

And that's what makes Sane & Satisfied all the more important to me. I've got to get out of the habit of doing things just because or when others accept them. That's probably why Buttons & Rainbows was so easy for me to start. It was my first business and I hadn't read every business and marketing book under the sun by then. It was just me and my creativity.

I think that the Academy for Self Education is something I can truly believe in. It encompasses most every philosophy I have about life, learning, politics and improving yourself and your life. Sane & Satisfied is what I hope to become through the process of building my business and learning from my journey.

I'm glad I figured that out. Now time for some ice cream.

Music, Coffee & Nature

2011-03-28T15:03:00.000-07:00

Music, coffee and nature seem to get me through these days. They aren't a complete cure but they help me through. Starting a business is difficult enough without feeling insane and unsuccessful. It makes me question if I'm even supposed to be an entrepreneur. I think I'm an entrepreneur. I act like one, I think like one (do I smell like one?) I have many ideas and most of the time I act on them without asking permission first. That, I think, is the most basic characteristic of an entrepreneur. We don't wait around for someone to tell us there's a need or that something isn't quite right yet.

I started thinking about the concept of Sane & Satisfied when I was going through my coaching phase. I started coaching women who owned their own business and through talking to these women I remembered why I wanted to start my own business in the first place: to be happy and feel successful and hopefully accomplish those two goals in the least stressful way possible.

From that moment, Sane & Satisfied has taken on a life of it's own and it's teachings have popped up in every area of my life. This concept has grown into a disdain and sometimes disgust at self-help gurus. I'm amazed at the success of an industry that pretty much tells you that you are doing everything wrong. Oh, yeah, and you are also too fat, too angry, too selfish, too self-loathing and generally too much.

I can get an honest assessment of myself from my husband at a fraction of the cost!

I think that what these self-help gurus miss and what you miss if you follow their teachings, is that you are human. And humans make mistakes and are flawed. But it's our society that puts the scarlet letter on those faults. It's society that makes you feel like every fault you have should be engineered away.

Of course that's not to say that if you have anger problems that landed you in jail or drinking problems that resulted in an car crash or crashes that you should write it off as "just being human". But let's face it, most of us are not in that boat and only suffer from your basic, garden variety, human ticks.

Another question, and I think the most important question is: what does Sane & Satisfied mean and how to I become those two things? Well, what it doesn't mean is self help. Self help involves pity parties, and looking ourselves in the mirror, repeating, "I am great and people love me."

Sane & Satisfied is an ever growing concept and will be different for everyone but from what I've gathered so far being Sane & Satisfied is about self-education and understanding who you are and not apologizing for it. Then from there it's simply a way of life instead of a destination.

If we only learn 10% of what is taught to us then it stands to reason that we shouldn't focus on only one program or way of thinking. This is especially true in the case of self-help where the guru's message doesn't evolve much over a long period of time. I think that's why so many people are caught in an endless cycle of attending self-help seminars and reading self-help books. We've already learned the 10% there was to learn but something is still missing. Instead of learning more things we hold on to the charisma of the self-help leader and return for yet another dose.

Sometimes I wonder of I'll ever be Sane & Satisfied. Is it even possible? Well I'm going to try. What other choice do I have?