For the last seven years, maybe more, I have picked a word to serve as my focus, or intention, for the year. I have shared the story before that I first did this in my yoga class. Kathy, the owner of our studio, passed a basket with words. I chose one, openness, and didn’t really like it. After all the woman next to me picked love, which I thought was so much better. I asked to draw a new word and Kathy told me the word had picked me and I was to go with it. I put the paper with the word openness on the computer where I could see it every day. I was not sure what would happen, but I just started seeing all kinds of things around me. I guess I was “open.”

Since that time I have had lots of different words to guide me through the year ranging from abundance to joy to last year’s word, consciousness. I wanted to live consciously, being deliberate or fully aware in all my activities. Yes, I saw a difference as the year went on. I spent time being conscious, maintaining a conscious living practice each day.

So, why did I make the switch from resolutions to an intention? It came down to the kind of person I wanted to be, not all the stuff I wanted to do or have. Sure, I could have the same resolutions everyone else made – lose weight, get organized, the list goes on. But that didn’t work because I was still “being” the same person. I had to make a choice to “be” a different person. That is what has made the difference, focusing on being.

So here we are, a week into 2014, and I have been thinking of my “word.” I have picked several words to try out, only none really are what I want. I thought of abundance, change, growth, permission, risk, faith, yet none of those words were exactly what I was looking for. Once I thought of trust, I knew I was onto something. It jelled, so to speak. And, as I mentioned it to a few friends, they each mentioned something that I had thought of. For me it is mostly about trusting myself to make the right decisions for my business and my life. Not second guessing myself. Taking chances and expecting them to work out. Knowing that the “how” will show up. It is also about surrounding myself with trustworthy people.

I have a book titled The Book of Qualities by J. Ruth Gendler in which she brings to life a variety of human qualities or emotions. This is what she says about truth:

“Trust is the daughter of Truth. She has an objective memory, neither embellishing nor denying the past. She is an ideal confidante – gracious, candid, and discreet. Trust talks to people who need to hear her; she listens to those who need to be heard; she sits quietly with those who are skeptical of words. Her presence is subtle, simple, and undeniable.

“Trust rarely buys round-trip tickets because she is never sure how long she will be gone and when she will return. Trust is at home in the desert and the city, with dolphins and tigers, with outlaws, lovers, saints. When Trust bought her house, she tore out all the internal walls, strengthened the foundation, and rebuilt the door. Trust is not fragile, but she has no need to advertise her strength. She has a gamblers’ respect for the interplay between luck and skill. She is the mother of Love.”

Have you picked a word to guide you for the year? If you have not, give it a chance. You just need to think of the quality or direction that you want your year to take. Need some help getting started. Think about what you might have resolved to do and ask yourself what quality is necessary for that? Or try a search online for character qualities and go from there. Lots of people immediately come up with a word that resonates with them. Others need a bit more time. Best advice is think of a word, mull it over, and if it keeps showing up (like trust), it’s the one.

What word did you end with? And, if you picked a word last year, how did that make a difference? Feel free to tell it below or on our Facebook page.

Your Best Year Yet!

Jenny Ditzler

Grand Central Publishing; $13.95

One of my favorite planning resources is Your Best Year Yet! by Jinny S. Ditzler. I have been using this little book for years and recommend it each year. It offers a framework to define your personal values, identify the various roles you play and create goals for those roles. Here are some of Jinny’s questions plus a couple of my own:

1. What did I accomplish?
2. What were my biggest disappointments?
3. What did I learn?
4. How do I limit myself and how can I stop?
5. What are my goals for next year?
6. Where do I need to find education or support to get there?
7. How can I make sure I achieve my top goals?

I find one of the most empowering aspects of Jinny’s system is the look at the successes of the year. It allows you focus on your successes and not get weighed down by what did not work. It also lets you get off the treadmill of working on your business to see if you really are on course.

Here is a quote from the book I particularly like: “We must prepare our soil before we’re ready to plant the seeds we want to grow in the new year.”

Look for the book at your favorite book retailer. Here’s a link to www.Amazon.com if you would like to learn more about the book.

How many hats do you wear in your business? I know most of us wear more than one, particularly if it is a relatively new business. We have not had time to put the necessary systems and teams in place, so we are everything from the creative head to the shipping department. While that is how most of us start out, at some point we need to look to shed some of those hats. If we want to create a successful business, it is important to take an honest look at our skills and look at where someone else could do the job, i.e., take some of the hats from you.

In the past couple of weeks I have had conversations with several clients about their plans for 2014, and some have centered around the CEO hat. When you wear the CEO hat, you need to take “yourself” out of your business. That can be hard for many of us. I think it is because what we create is so personal. We don’t want our feelings hurt if someone does not like our art, and it can stop us from getting the information we need to make decisions about our business. We have got to remember we are making business not personal decisions. Yet it is critical to put on that CEO hat if we expect to grow our business.

As you take time to look at where you are in your business in 2013 and make plans for 2014, try to take yourself personally out of the business, put on your CEO hat, and consider what the right decision is to grow your business. Look for those places where someone else can handle the tasks and allow you put your energy where it belongs: having the big vision for your business, selling your business ideas and energizing those on your team.
  

Quilt Art 2014 Engagement Calendar
ed. Klaudeen Hansen
American Quilter’s Society; $13.95

Have you started looking for your 2014 calendar? They’ve been arriving at my office for a while. I love choosing one for my home and one for the car. Yes, car. The Quilt Art 2014 Engagement Calendar is headed for the car. I keep it on the passenger seat, where I use it for my travel log. And, when I’m stuck in traffic, I will often thumb through the pages looking for inspiration. As for what will go in the house, I think I have settled on the 2014 Calendar of Award-Winning Quilts featuring quilts from the International Quilt Association. What calendar looks to be your choice for next year?

Look for the book at your favorite book retailer. Here’s a link to www.Amazon.com if you would like to learn more about the book.

This week’s article is a letter written by Kat Tucker, a quilter from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She was taken with the article last week and wanted to respond.

“I was sorry to read about those that feel that they are not where they think they should be. Oh boy, can I ever relate to that.

For me it has been a meandering journey. From the time I sold my quilt store with a five year clause of only being able to Internet sell, to losing my husband and having to go back full time, instead of staying part time, in our business, to closing the doors and semi-retiring, to procrastinating during the five years, to OMG the five years are finished and now what do I do? Oh, I know, sign on as Treasurer to the Canadian Quilters Association and use that as an excuse not to work hard, if at all, on my quilting business.

Well, the working not hard became taking course after course about learning about myself, my business, other peoples’ businesses and how they got there, and repeat, especially learning about myself. It got so comfortable taking these courses that the procrastination and the ‘fear of success’ lasted five years plus one more year.

Then one day, don’t ask me when, I decided to go to Quilt Market. Why? I finally got tired of saying, and I’m certain that my quilting friends also got tired of hearing me say, ‘I’m working on my business.’ So now, I’m walking the walk instead of talking the walk.

I go to market. It all seemed too easy to get there and be there. I wasn’t nervous or anything. In fact, I said to the universe, if I get one order I’ll be a success. Well! I got one order. LOL. Thinking back, perhaps I should have asked for more orders. On top of that order, I made lots of contacts and my friends introduced me to contacts with possibilities. One of which has been successful and is a step in the door.

During this journey I’ve always had in the back of my head that this is what I want to do. The journey to get to this point may have taken longer that it should have, not because I didn’t know my business or what had to be done, but because I was standing in my way. ‘Get out of your white man’s head,’ as a friend of mine keeps reminding me.

All that being said, today, I’m a person that has and still continues to trim garbage out of my life. I’ve finally seen that I cannot do exactly what another person did in their journey to become successful and then get upset because it didn’t work for me. That is their journey and this is my journey. Best of all, my journey will probably still meander but it can also be tweaked as it moves down the path.”

Please share your thoughts on this blog below. . .

I’m enjoying a vacation as well as a business retreat this week and getting to both involved flying. Of course on the flight, I heard the safety warnings, including the following:

“If cabin pressure should change, panels above your seat will open revealing oxygen masks; reach up and pull a mask towards you. … The plastic bag will not fully inflate, although oxygen is flowing. Secure your own mask first before helping others.”

When I first heard this years ago, my initial thought was that it seemed selfish. Shouldn’t we take care of those who can’t take care of themselves? Of course, if I don’t take care of myself first, I’m useless to those I need to help. After all, you’re no good to anyone if you are not conscious.

I saw two good reminders in this. First, I need to take time to secure my own mask. Immediately for me that would be the vacation. I think self-care fits here for most of us. It’s easy to neglect that mask with all we have going on. For those of you who are going to Quilt Market or Quilt Festival and have booths or anyone who is getting ready for a show, I know you can relate to taking care of yourself now so you can be at your best at the show.

My second reminder was “the plastic bag will not inflate, although oxygen is flowing.” I think that is why we need to keep growing by taking classes, going to workshops, attending business retreats. While we are receiving the information, we don’t always see the impact it is having in our lives.

Please share any parallels you see in your life or business below.

Do you ever wonder if you can actually have zero emails in your in-box? Well, I do know some people who have empty in-boxes. I’ll admit I never have. I fully expect my in-box to be full when I die. If you’re trying to move in the direction of an empty in box, here are six tips that might just help.

1. Send less email. Doesn’t that seem obvious? If you send less, you’ll get less.

2. Acknowledge receipt of the email. I do this with my clients when they send in prep sheets before a call. It lets them know I got their email and they don’t need to follow up. It’s a quick “Got it. Talk with you later.” This lets the original sender off the hook.

3. If you don’t expect a reply, indicate that. I got one such email last week with NNTR, online code for No Need to Reply. It was great. I just read and deleted.

4. If you get marketing emails that you no longer read, consider getting off the mailing list. Or learn how to use “rules” in your email program and route those emails to a separate folder so you don’t see them all the time in your in-box. Then set aside time to look at them, or if you find you don’t get to them, trash them. If you rarely look at the emails, it might be time to stop getting them.

5. Don’t check email all day long. Set a routine for handling your emails. If you allow time at the beginning of the day, mid-day, and the end of the day and stick to it, you’ll do a better job at not letting the email get out of control. I’m not suggesting you do it three times a day; I’m suggesting you create a system and stick with it.

6. Follow David Allen’s “Two-Minute Rule.” Allen of Getting Things Done fame suggests that if it will take less than two minutes to handle the email, do it now, even if it’s not a high priority. (Remember you are setting aside time to do emails; you are not checking all day long.) He has lots of other good ideas for productivity in his book.

7. Get or use a spam filter. I use SpamSieve, and I can’t believe what a difference it has made. Now the spam heads right to the junk folder.I think it works better than the filter that came with my email program.

Please share your tips for handling your email in-box on the blog.