Routines, Success and Vacation

Ahhhhh, this feels good.  I haven't been able to write in a while and I am surprised at how much I missed it!

I never ever thought of myself as a writer.  Mostly, because I don't feel it's my strength.  However, I had been writing consistently with my Daily Affirmation for Mindful Leadership blog since March.  I was very consistent until I went on vacation, during which, I had no time to write.  It was spent with my family and doing many many activities and when we weren't doing something we were visiting.

Now don't get me wrong, vacation is great and necessary for many reasons.  In our family, travel is very essential.  It is educational and time together without the pull of everyday chores.  However, vacation gets you out of routine and can take you away from things that are important.  Vacation is good for the brain.  Getting out of routine can give you insight and a fresh perspective on your life, work and family success.  It's like how an artist will step back from their work to see how it is coming together.

It usually takes time for me to get back into routine.  I've been home since Wednesday and I've only been able to sit down and write for the first time today...Friday.  I found that I even got a little stressed about it.  I find that funny.  Like I said, I never found myself to be a writer, nor did I think of myself as habitual, but, I think I did go through some withdrawal.  I'm finding that as an extrovert, downtime to think is becoming more important for me to communicate better.

The good thing about that is I'm motivated so, perhaps my usual long windup to get back into the groove of things will be shorter than in the past.   The lesson here is that I need to be better prepared for vacation by finding time to pre-write for blog posts and make sure that I carve out time for writing while on vacation.  Lessons for everyone is to figure out what routines you might miss or need and incorporate them into your vacations!  Happy Summer.

Cheers~

5 Helpful Hints to Better Communication in Writing

Miscommunication happens all the time. A lot of it can be laughable. Most often, however, conflict or issues will arise. Some of it can be detrimental to your business or family!

Recently, I wrote an email to my EPMA colleague, Mary Ann and some dates got mixed up because I did not write clearly what I was trying to say. It was interesting because my first reaction was, "She didn't read what I wrote." But that really wasn't accurate. Even though what I wrote was clear in my head, it didn't come across clearly to her. My bad. Before I said anything I looked at what I wrote from her point of view and it was NOT clear at all. I apologized instead of blaming. Luckily, it was not serious and we could laugh about it.

In communication, it is BOTH parties responsibility to understand the message but most often there is blame. Either we say, "you didn't tell me" or "you don't listen/read." Both are right and both are wrong.

Now, I am not the best writer. I consider myself a good writer but by no means am I an excellent writer. I aspire and work on it constantly. Being a good communicator is the utmost important in business. It showcases your credibility. If you communicate poorly then you are seen as less credible in the business world and vice verse.Today, with the sheer amount of writing that we do, whether it is emails, blogs, websites, brochures, case studies or old fashioned business letters - your abilities are on display.

1. First and foremost. Make sure your sentence structure is correct, especially watch for any misplaced modifiers (i.e. "Last night I dreamt I shot an elephant in my pajamas. Why he was wearing my pajamas I'll never know.") and typing their or there for they're, etc.


2. www.drgrammar.org is a great website to help when you are writing. It is a collection of FAQ's regarding grammar and spelling.


3. I also recommend a writing class - for many of us it's been several years since we last took a class in writing and it's not like a bicycle, there are many things we forget if we don't practice. Look to your local community college for a class or workshop.


4. For goodness sake, PLEASE have someone proof read important documents that you hand out for marketing or to sell as a product. I recently received some training materials that has typos and missed words! I paid almost $1000 dollars for the materials! (She's an attorney, too!)


5. The most important, however, is remembering to be clear and concise. Less is more.

Happy communicating and before you blame others for not listening or reading - make sure you are clear in YOUR writing or talking.



Cheers, Lorin

Focus

Opus=Work * Vesta=Goddess of family * Ego=Self/Conciousness

I've had some trouble focusing lately. I have so much going on that my attention is too easily diverted. I wanted to write for the last few days but I couldn't figure out what I really wanted to write about. My mind was jumping from topic to topic to topic. Not a good read.

I sat down today, opened a word document and started to type words, not sentences, just words. This was the only way I could find a reoccurring theme to write about and it was funny what I came up with:

Focus

Or the lack there of -

Time is one of the biggest complaints I hear about a lot. Lack of time, time management issues, time goes too fast or too slow. No one is happy about the rate of things.

If we can not get focused then we loose time. It's something we can not get back once wasted.

Here are 5 tips for getting focused:

1. Sit quietly for a couple of minutes and see where your mind takes you - go in that direction.
2. Make a to-do list. Many times this will get me to prioritize.
3. Read a book or magazine for half an hour. The FIRST thing you think of when you "return" is the first thing you do or give attention to.
4. Call someone and tell them you are having trouble getting focused. Tell them to ask you questions. When they ask what kind of questions, say "any kind." This will get you thinking.
5. Do what I did earlier - write words and see what the main theme is...that will help you go in a direction.

Wow! I was dreading this blog post today and it took me only 5 minutes to write it...now only half an hour to edit...lol

Have a great week, month, year, life! Come back! Oh, and I've posted my recent Entrepreneur and Professional Moms Association video for you. Don't forget to visit our website http://www.epmassociation.org/

Cheers, Lorin