Why Sane & Satisfied: A Summary

In this video I cover the following things:

Happiness is when you gain a greater reward than the effort you expended.
You don't need to be fixed. We aren't broken, we are human.
Look for tools instead of answers.

$8/hr, Splitting Headaches & Possessions

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...

Shut it down & Put it to bed

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.

Rainbows & Change

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.

Life & Numbers

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...

Control & Release

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.

Simplicity & The Smorgasbord

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.

4 Hours, Rules & Getting Off Your Butt

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.