Find Me The Time

I wish I lived in a house where things are always in their right place.

January 27, 2019by findmethetimeLeave a Comment

scissors

I wish I lived in a house where things are always in their right place, were the words that flowed from my niece a few years back. Words spoken in a moment of frustration as there were no scissors to be found. It was the words, the facial expressions, and the tone that made me file these words of wisdom from a little bitty girl somewhere in the filing cabinet called my brain. After all, meltdowns are not uncommon with little girls, but most of them are long forgotten by moms and an aunt. These words were different.

My sisters house is just like my house. There were probably ten pairs of scissors floating around somewhere, just not in their right place. It’s hard to understand how this could be. Our childhood house was perfectly organized and things could be retrieved in a moments notice. Our mother ran her household like one would run a navy ship.

At times, bordering on meltdown level over something lost or misplaced these words would come to mind. I wish I lived in a house where everything is always in it’s right place would even be repeated out loud. In spite of my really strong desire for things to always be in their right place, they are not. It’s a mountain of a task and once complete consistency is required. Achieving this state could certainly save minutes and even hours in locating missing things. Those minutes and hours could be converted into #findmethetime to do more fun stuff! Plus like much of the world, I am totally obsessed with Marie Kondo and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.

In 2019 I plan to start living in a house where everything is in it’s right place. It’s only fitting that I start with the scissors. Much love to my niece, the original inspiration for me to find my stuff, put it in it’s place, and live happily ever after.

What about you? Do you want to live in a house where things are always in the right place? What’s your starting point?

Kelley

Motivation

EpicDay Reminders

January 16, 2019January 16, 2019by findmethetimeLeave a Comment

epic

Some might declare a sentence that includes the word Epic as bordering on word abuse. As in, Epic is a way over used word. Everywhere you turn or if you listen carefully Epic pops up. In my world as an insurance agent our agency management system is named Epic. The Webster definition of EPIC reads like this, a long poem narrating the deeds and adventures of a heroic or legendary figure. We changed management systems and it really was a long hard road filled with many deeds and adventures. Was there really a hero involved? Sure there had to be a leader but the real heroes were on the team. They were the team members that chose to meet change head on. Believing the end result would far out weigh all the frustration that it took to arrive at the destination. It’s been two years and we have arrived. Most of the basics are learned and the speed is restored. But we have only touched the surface of what the system can do. For all those on your team that dislike change, have you given them the book, “Who moved my Cheese?” Here’s the Link to get it ordered. Perfect read to get everyone thinking about change in a different way. Fun and easy to read and a great topic for discussion at your next staff meeting.

A few weeks ago my family enjoyed a ski trip to Breckenridge Colorado. Take a guess what the lift ticket was called? That’s right! EpicDay lift ticket. No more of those paper lift tickets dangling from your ski jacket to fumble with in the lift lines. Just put it in your ski jacket pocket and zip it up. The lift line attendant uses a scanner to scan your jacket and the digital technology takes over.

I kept the EpicDay lift ticket, brought it back to my office, and clipped on my paper holder. Not only am I reminded of a beautiful sunny day with ten glorious inches of new snow, I am also reminded that every day is truly an EpicDay! Word abuse or not, that’s the truth. What do you keep on your desk as a reminder of your EpicDay’s?

Kelley

Motivation, Uncategorized

Schedule the Weekend – 52 is a Small Number

January 13, 2019January 13, 2019by findmethetimeLeave a Comment

before breakfast

Have you read the book, “What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast” written by Laura Vanderkam? A few years ago I packed this book in my beach bag. As you can see from the picture I must have got a little too relaxed and the tide came in during nap time and washed it under. Quickly grabbing the book didn’t save the water logged cover, but opening it up in the hot sun for a few days salvaged it enough to make it possible to read.

There’s a chapter in the book, “What the most successful people do on the weekend”. It’s almost like it’s own little mini book and it was one of things that stuck in my brain and is quite possibly the reason that I kept it.

Since it’s the weekend, and it’s been a fun weekend it made me think about this chapter. Especially because there was some planned fun on my agenda. This morning, I grabbed the book and in a few minutes I plan to re-read the chapter, “What the most successful people do on the weekend”. I didn’t want to read it before writing this blog post because I wanted it to be my own thoughts and not the thoughts of the author. If I remember correctly the author was reminding us to schedule the weekend, but not in the sense of every single moment. Let’s face it we have all made it to Friday and then spent the weekend going back and forth on what we want to do. By the time it’s Sunday evening and getting close to Monday we realize that we haven’t really done anything fun because we couldn’t decide what to do. You know the conversation, “Where do you want to eat?” and your husband says, “I don’t care. Where do you want to eat?”. Then because no one can decide you end up making an omelet. It’s the same conversation, it just goes like this, “What do you want to do this weekend?” I think the authors idea was to pencil in at least three fun things for your weekend. Every weekend can’t mean elaborate plans unless you have won the lottery, but every weekend can have fun stuff, even free stuff if planned ahead.

If you decide or have already read this book please share your insights. Now it’s time for me to read the chapter and get ready to start getting inspired to schedule some fun stuff for the weekends in 2019. We get 52 a year and to me 52 is a really small number. Find me the Time is dedicated to helping you find the time for YOU and the things you love.

Happy Weekend!

Kelley

Work Agendas

Gratitude

January 6, 2019January 6, 2019by findmethetimeLeave a Comment

Our 2019 agency theme is “Grow Deeper Roots” with customers, companies, vendors, referral partners, and our own team. During the year a theme helps us stay focused on our goals, motivates us, and promotes togetherness! A theme is also a great building block for our weekly strategy meeting. We just happen to be an insurance business but this theme could work in any business type.

Can you think of a stronger word for growing deeper roots than gratitude? How does it make you feel when someone shows you or tells you how grateful they are for you? And what if that gift of gratitude is a total surprise? When it’s genuine, then there is no better way to grow deeper roots.

Consider a kick off strategy meeting and brainstorm all the ways that your agency can show gratitude. Give some structure and order to the meeting by starting with 10 sticky notes for each person and then allow 15 minutes for them to come up with 10 ideas. Take these ideas and put them into the categories: Customers | Companies | Vendors | Referral Partners | Team Members. You have just came up with the next five strategy meetings and the starting point for your year of gratitude.

A picture and a quote is always part of our weekly strategy meeting agenda. Consider starting a digital quote file and a digital picture file that you can use as a resource, as it sure makes creating agendas a much easier process. Once a week meetings roll around pretty quickly, and for me collecting ideas for later sure takes the stress out of agendas.

This is the perfect quote for our gratitude meeting.

If each of my words were a drop of water, you would see through them and glimpse what I feel: gratitude, acknowledgement. – Octavio Paz

Don’t you love how the poet included the word acknowledgement in the quote. Acknowledgement and recognition just might be the greatest form of gratitude that we can give to others!

The picture came from a photo challenge years ago in a fitness group. Save, save, save your favorite photos as they can always be used for a future project. Agendas and social media need easy to find and grab photos.

Check out this book, O Great One! A little story about the awesome power of recognition for more inspiration when it comes to growing deeper root with your team. Talk about the power of gratitude.

I would love to hear your ideas as well. Please leave a comment. I will be truly grateful for your help.

Kelley