Welcome back!

As you may remember we are going through the 30-Day Life Makeover, and yesterday we came up with our dream list that contained everything and anything that you wanted to do, be, have, learn, etc. How did that go? Were there any things that showed up on your list that surprised you?? Did you find the list easy to come up with?

What I would like for you to do next, is to go through your list, and choose the top 5 things that NEED your attentions RIGHT NOW (and for the next 3 months)!!! If 5 is too overwhelming, choose 4, or 3, or 2, or even 1 – just to get the ball rolling. You don’t have to know how you are going to accomplish these top 5 things, but you KNOW that they NEED your attention!!

Your list will look different than mine, but here are my Top 5:

1. I need to lose 100 pounds, and gain energy, flexibility, stamina, and vivaciousness.
2. I need a happy, passionate, and trust-filled relationship with my husband, where we both feel like we are being supported and nurtured equally; or I need to leave and find all of that with myself.
3. I need to have a home that greets me when I come home every day from work, and reflects who I am as a creative, passionate, glamorous woman who absolutely radiates joie de vivre.
4. I need to have my finances in such a way that all of my bad debt has been eliminated, I have at least 6 months of income stashed away for any emergencies, I have a versatile stock portfolio that will continue to grow no matter what the economy, and I need to be living within my means so as to have money left over to enjoy the good things in life – people, and experiences.
5. I need to have a career that is honoring to my authentic self; one that is creative, artistic, challenging, fun, and filled with laughter, great people, and one that I am more in control of.

So my short version would be:

1. Health
2. Marriage
3. Home
4. Finances
5. Self-employment

Now, when you come up with your top 5, make sure you ABSOLUTELY LOVE your list, because this is going to be a b tool in helping you manage your time for the next 3 months. From now on, this list will be known as your ABSOLUTE “YES” LIST!!!

An Absolute “Yes” List is the list that you will use to decide what you want to be doing at any given moment for the next 3 months, and will help you carve out minutes or even hours out of your week to accomplish what you want.

For example:

Say I just got home from a long day of work, and I really feel like I need to relax, so I plop down on the couch and settle in for a nice long television watching spree. At the end of the night I say to myself, “Oh man – I didn’t get anything done, where has my day gone???”

What would have happened if I would have called on my Absolute “Yes” List?

Same scenario:

Say I just got home from a long day of work, and I really feel like I need to relax, and I ask myself what could I be doing that would be both honoring to my Absolute “Yes” List , and still help me relax? My mind answers my saying, “How about taking a mini walk to unwind (health),  asking my sweetie if he would mind helping me cook dinner with his mad-fantastic cooking skills in the kitchen (marriage), crank up some playful music (home)”, etc, etc. Do you see what I mean??

Now, I am not saying that you have to be “On” all the time, no, girls – we definitely need our downtime, and there are days when a long sit with the tele is the only thing that will hit the spot, but where will that get you if that is your norm?? I know where it has gotten me! And holy crap – I need to go smack my younger self and say,

“Snap out of it – GIRL, you have OPTIONS!!! THIS IS YOUR LIFE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT!!!!”

An Absolute “Yes” List is also something that is VERY helpful for someone like me, where I have challenges standing up for myself and saying “no”. I must confess that saying “no” has been a weakness for me – I swear it is genetic!!!! 😉 I am sure there are a few of you out there who have those same “genes” too. So this is how the Absolute “Yes” List helps me.

When someone asks me to do ANYTHING, I usually say “Yes” without actually thinking about what I want. Do I feel like babysitting a bunch of 4 year old banshees, while all of the other women go get pedicures???? Probably not, but I would say “Yes” and then be kicking myself about it the whole time I was watching those adorable, snot-nosed little tricycle-motors!!! However learning to say “no” is really a gift for both you and the asker, because your friend wouldn’t want to have you resentful towards her because you were the one who said “yes”; and by saying “no” to something you don’t want to do will reinforce to you that your TIME is valuable aka YOU ARE VALUABLE!!!

This is where your homework assignment of bringing some 3 x 5 cards, a mini notebook, a journal, or a pad of paper comes into play. For the next 29 days, including today, I want you to write on one side of a card/sheet of paper your Absolute “Yes” List, and on the other side of the paper, I want you to write the day’s date, and write down EVERY SINGLE accomplishment, action, step that you took towards accomplishing those goals. It could be BIG or little! (I have posted a pic of a sample daily card up above!)

This is called Kaizen!!! Kaizen is a Japanese word that means continuous improvement. No matter how small the action you take to continuously improve yourself, the next day you take the same small step, and the next the same small step, pretty soon you will have created a whole new future for yourself by compounding your small steps, into what will appear to be LEAPS and BOUNDS!!!

YOU CAN DO THIS!!!

I recommend reviewing your Absolute “Yes” List at least once every 3 months, because as you grow/learn/change, your list will grow/learn/change too!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me in the comments section above, I do check my e-mails throughout the day. I look forward to being of service!

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow for Day 3 of my 30-Day Life Makeover!

Have a FABULOUS evening!!