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get in gear newsletter
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a note from Cairene
The Maintenance Department is a space for graduates of The True Discipline of Time Management and The Organic Business Manual to continue learning how to care for themselves, their time and their businesses. If you participated in either of these courses and are wanting a way to build on the basic skills you learned, I warmly invite you to become a charter member. The Guest Guide series began earlier this month with a fantastic workshop on Creating a Living Theme for 2010 presented by life coach Laura Burkey. If you missed it, not to worry - you can still learn the better alternative to New Year's resolutions from the recording. In January, while we're all still in a planning mood, visual thinker Julie Stuart will be sharing her considerable mind-mapping smarts with us. Please join us January 14 for Mapping Your Business - and learn how to take your mind-mapping skills to a much more exciting place and create an inspiring road map for your business in the coming year. Thanks to all of you, 2009 has been a wonderful year. I feel so blessed and grateful - and so hopeful that 2010 will be even better. Warmest wishes for a winter season of joys. |
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classesmapping your business
the true discipline of time management
bite the candy
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your year doesn't have to begin in JanuaryFunny. I associate the holidays with vacation. With taking a time out. Pausing to catch my breath. And while I am now old enough to have spent more years out of school than in school, I'm sure that association comes from the academic calendar of my youth. But I'm no longer a student. I am self-employed. And when one is self-employed, December turns out to be a month for queuing things up for the new year. Never mind the holiday activities one might want to layer on top of all that preparation. oof I'm not alone. I've been hearing rumblings from friends and colleagues that they are also experiencing their busiest month of the year. And, no, they are not in retail. This disconnect - the expectation of quiet vs. the reality of being very busy - can give a person quite the case of whiplash. Combined with all the simultaneous looking back and looking forward of the season, one can end up feeling rather disoriented. Am I coming or going? Slowing down or ramping up? it's arbitrary The longer I am in business, the better I am getting at long-range planning. Maybe that's just the natural result of all my early experimentation. I now have a much better idea of what works and what doesn't. And one thing I'm learning doesn't work so well is conforming to the standard annual calendar. Aha! I've been thinking. So this is why companies determine their own fiscal years... The year - my year - doesn't have to begin in January any more than my week begin on Monday. It's probably a lot more like that academic calendar I'm so fond of in which the year begins in September. And you can bet your sweet patootie, I'm going to plan it that way in 2010. we have permission I'm a big fan of living and working according to the seasons. Monday is Solstice - a turning point worthy of being marked and honored. Something new is coming about, but is it best acknowledged with all this furious preparation? Because, seriously, this does not feel like a celebration of the return of the light to me. This is more like burning the candle at both ends. At a time of year when my body and mind are asking for quiet meditation and hibernation, I'm demanding more from them than ever. Which means work that deserves my best effort is not getting it. That is messed up. So I am giving myself permission - and offering you permission, too - to begin our years whenever it suits our activities and preferences best. to stand still I can't un-begin what I've started for this new year - the one that begins in January. There are final touches to be completed that it would be silly to leave undone at this point. And, in all honesty, it's work I am very excited to be bringing to you. But, in celebration of Solstice, I am going to take a moment to simply stand still along with the sun. To pause. To acknowledge the dark. And make some room in all this busy-ness for more light. I invite you to join me. Because I'm guessing you could use a little breather about now, too. • • • • • When would you like to begin your year? Ditching the norms and finding your own daily, weekly, monthly and annual rhythms are among the many things we explore in The True Discipline of Time Management. Next session begins January 18. |
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recently on the blogLuck favors the prepared. | in which I issue a systems challenge |
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let's chatLike what you've read? Irked? Confused? Have a suggestion? Got a question? Let's start a conversation. I'd love to hear from you - send me a line, comment on the blog, or follow me on Twitter. |
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subscription infoI encourage you to share this newsletter with people you think may enjoy it. When doing so, please forward it in its entirety, including my contact and copyright information. Thanks! If you received this issue of Get In Gear from a reader and would like your own subscription, please click here. To update your email address or unsubscribe, please click the link at the bottom of the newsletter. An archive of past issues of the Get In Gear newsletter can be browsed here. Unless otherwise attributed, all material is written and edited by Cairene MacDonald. Cairene MacDonald from overwhelmed to ready for anything Third Hand Works | administrative guidance for independent creative professionals |
