7 Steps to a Better Relationship

1. Understand that most people don’t intentionally want to upset you. Your loved ones don’t stay awake at night thinking of ways to tick you off. They are human and therefore will say things they don’t mean, not phrase their words properly, forget to do things you’ve asked and even act selfishly from time to time. It doesn’t mean they WANT to give you headache. Sometimes it is our responsibility to understand their weaknesses and help them by holding them accountable, reminding them, improving our communication skills and more importantly forgiving them.

The 80/20 rule! Which side are you on?

My last post was about making sure we take responsibility for our life and the direction it heads. Today I want to share the Pareto Principle with you. You may know this as the 80/20 rule. 8o% of the world’s wealth is held by 20% of the population. It can also be applied in this manner; 80% of the joy and success in our life comes from only 20% of our efforts. Think about the amount of time you put into your relationships, your joyful activities, hobbies and service to others; the things that make your life significant and meaningful. Then think about how much time you put into cleaning, finding things, playing games when you have work to do, non profitable discussions, TV shows and the like. Most people will see Pareto’s principle applied here as well.

12 Steps for the Workaholic (part2)

If you haven’t read Steps 1-6 Read this first.

Step 7: Become an expert at managing your time. Always do the most important tasks first; these are the ones that would make you stay late if you didn’t get them done. Getting them out of the way first will improve your chances of being able to leave on time.
Step 8: Become a master at delegating your work and training others. You WANT to make sure you are not the only one with the skills and knowledge or you will be the only one that gets called upon to handle those things. Also, know when to keep your mouth shut. The more people know what you can do, the more they will call on you. A know-it-all can quickly become a do it all.

12 Steps for the Workaholic (part1)

Before I begin sharing steps to help workaholics let’s define what a workaholic is.

If you stay late finishing up a task because you want to, not because you have to and in doing so you miss your child’s birthday party; You might be a workaholic

If you go on vacation and can’t enjoy the sunset without checking your blackberry. You might be a workaholic.

If you check your email during your child’s ball game, in the middle of the night or during meals. You might be a workaholic.

If you take your cell phone, PDA and Laptop on vacation; You might be a workaholic.

If you call the office even though you left your number for emergencies just to see if everything is OK on your days off; You might be a workaholic.

The Power of Thank-You!

I know the power of a single Thank-You all to well. I write a lot and have been doing so for a number of years. I don’t do it for the money and I certainly don’t do it because I am good at it. I also don’t do it to boost my ego; only heaven knows how many of you hit the delete button without even reading my posts. Every once in a while I think about stopping. Am I wasting my time? Am I making a difference? Is anybody even out there? Do they even care? Because I value my time and only want to do things that contribute to life I ask myself these questions often; especially when I don’t hear from anyone. But God is faithful and it is usually just when I want to close my laptop and stop writing that one of you sends me an email like this one I received;

I felt led to drop you a line telling you that last year my husband and son were both killed by a drunk driver. I want you to know that some of what you wrote helped me get through the year. I for one want to say; Thank-you. You made a difference in my life!

WOW! Let me tell you, even though I never met that person, that one paragraph is one of the reasons I still write.

Things that make me say Duh!

I know this has nothing to do with Simplified Success but I wanted to get it off my chest.

The longer I live the more I learn and the more learn, the more I see things that make me say Duh! As a matter of fact, I have been gathering information to one day write a book called; What else? ; “Things that make me say Duh!” It will be filled with things like:

When people push an elevator button that is already lit. Wasn’t my push good enough for them?

Signs that say, “Bear or Deer Crossing”. Be honest, do you ever look at how fast you are going and suddenly say, Oh! I better slow down, or do you even look for bear or deer? I have been driving for over 32 years and have NEVER seen a deer come out near the signs, including the ones I hit! Why not make signs that say, Warning! There are pot holes ahead because we spent our money putting up ridiculous signs instead of fixing them.

2 Questions That Can Change Your Life

“Hey mom! Why do you cut the bone off the end of the ham?” the child asked. “You know? I am not sure; I guess it’s because my mother always did it. Why don’t you go into the living room and ask her why?“ Mom replied. “ Hey Grandma! Why did you cut the bone off the end of the ham?” Its simple grandma answered; “It wouldn’t fit in the oven!”

How many things do you partake in simply because that is what you have always done?

Two of the shortest but most powerful questions you can ask yourself are;

So, you want to get more done! Why?

People are working longer hours, constantly checking their inboxes, focusing on getting things done quicker so they can do what? Sit and relax? No! So they can get even more stuff done. I just read an article that said most American’s have even taken less vacation days than they have in the past!

But to what end?

Are we producing more in order to make more money so we can pay more taxes to help our country get out of debt? Or is it to make more money for ourselves? If that is the case, for what? So we can buy a bigger house to furnish, have higher utility bills and have more chores to do? Why? So we can spend our weekends cutting grass, cleaning, washing and dusting?