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Post Conferences; Where Do You Store Life Lessons and Takeaways?

04/23/2013 By Nancy Borg With 10 comments

profile pic 2013OK, my brain is about to explode. I’m back from the annual NAPO Conference and Expo in New Orleans, trying to absorb all of the invaluable information that was presented, and I’m overwhelmed.  I’m thinking that I need a Professional Organizer to sort through all the papers and handouts. But wait…I AM a Professional Organizer.  I should be good with all this. I have file folders, file totes, new erasable tab folders, an assortment of colored paper clips, an impressive collection of highlighters, etc. all designed to manage paper.  Yep, I have all the bells and whistles, so why am I struggling with organizing my conference stuff?

Because it’s not about the stuff.  It never is.  As Peter Walsh says, “it’s about our relationship with the stuff.” The keynote speakers were powerful and motivating and I was very cognizant that behind every handout and every note taken, a vital message was being delivered. It had the potential to change me both personally and professionally forever. The papers are merely a reminder of some of the genius that was imparted but they also could never capture the energy inside that room.  When you’re surrounded with like-minded people, and are witness to outstanding presentations, it is elevating.  I was in a zone, full throttle, frantically trying to capture every word from such great thought leaders. As I looked around the room, I felt the pride and camaraderie, and knew in my gut that we were all in our happy place.

On the plane ride home, incalculable (but brilliant, lol) thoughts were swirling around my brain, and I was hoping that I could just efficiently file them away somewhere in my brain, and regurgitate them whenever I need them to rescue a client. But I later learned that was very black/white thinking.

But now that I’m reviewing my scribbled notes, and allowing the wisdom to really marinate, I’m thinking about particular clients and how I can transfer the smarts.  And then the true gift became abundantly clear. It’s not just about receiving the knowledge or processing the wealth of information, it’s more about finding distinctive ways to apply it and make it your own. I like to think it’s like putting all the right ingredients into a blender (but with your preference of taste and measure) and creating your very own mixture. The real takeaway is to extract the flavor that may appeal to you and create your own recipe for success.

So for me, the quintessential takeaway from conference is to continue to strive to be authentically ME.  Just as it is not my job to expect a client to be “me” , rather it is just to make them a better “them!” So onward and upward, back into the field I go, a little bit smarter, a wee bit wiser, integrating my own skill set, infused with a little help from pioneers of the industry. I’m taking away the principles and strategies that resonate with me, and I will utilize them to positively impact my client’s challenges. They will not just be stored in my head, they will be realized.

A true testament to a sustainable takeaway is that as soon as you hear it, you want to remember it forever, and need to write it down ASAP. You want to keep it in your favorites.  Here are my best of 2013 NAPO Conference;

  • Time: Make sure it matches your values and goals. Best skill we can teach our clients is to free their schedule without the guilt and maximize their efficiency.
  • Willpower: It’s contagious and so is behavior.  Catch the positive energy from those around you.
  • Work on your best self for the future even if the now has delayed gratification.
  • “Mindful acceptance” approach disconnects you from impulse to engage in bad behavior. This triggers motivation and sends signals to the brain.
  • Guilt and shame sabotage goals.  Don’t self-criticize.
  • Good motivation is based on the perception of just the right amount of challenge (Goldilocks theory)
  • It’s safer to blame failure on a half-hearted effort. Not finishing a task protects one from being ultimately judged.
  • Increasing abilities and decreasing demands impact daily performance and will bring out the BEST you.
  • Black and white thinking distorts reality and changes facts.
  • Benefit of analog timers: If you cannot feel time, you cannot manage it.
  • When you work in your natural thinking style, you’re not draining energy.
  • Creating good systems for our clients can obliterate their “self-mistrust.”
  • We are more likely to regret things we never tried than failing at those things we did try.
  • Disappointing “later” is far worse than committing to an “early” NO.
  • Broaden your definition of success so you’re more willing to take a chance, and not feel like you’ve failed.
  • Take a big chance and give yourself permission to fail spectacularly.  If you never fail, it means you’re playing too safe – and living a small life.
  • Sometimes quitting is smartest. Consciously choosing to quit is a sign of strength and wisdom.
  • Allow struggles to bring out your best. Look for lessons learned.

Ahhh…It feels so good to have organized my rambling thoughts that were cluttering my little brain. I always say it’s better to get it out of your head and onto a piece of paper. I invite you all to do the same, and generously share your special takeaways.

Alas, off to bed and hopefully a restful night’s sleep.

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Can You Control Your Travel Stress? I’m Checking In.

04/16/2013 By Nancy Borg With 1 comment

It’s occurred to me that it doesn’t seem to matter if you are a frequent flyer, an organized packer, or a seasoned traveler of any kind, you cannot escape travel stress. Sure, we can prepare our personal selves for our journey, but the systems we rely on are beyond our control.

Back in the day, air travel used to be fun.  I can recall very hazy memories of the exhilaration; arriving at the airport where you could feel the buzz and excitement from all the fellow travelers around you. We all were going somewhere and were eager to get there in a hurry.  Happy faces everywhere.

Now?…not so much.  The chaos and commotion at curbside alone can fuel the anxiety level of any traveler. The residue of the 911 disaster changed us all forever and as a result of that life-altering event, we understand that our compromised security system had to change as well.

Most of us are all too happy to cooperate with the sometimes intrusive searches because we feel safer, and so we tolerate it.  However, the new and ever-changing baggage restrictions and issues with overweight luggage can be a nightmare.  How often do we see people, who failed the weigh-in,  transferring their neatly folded clothing, shoes, and often embarrassing personal items, and shoving them into alternative baggage and carry-ons so that they can pass the test and GO!  To go where, I ask ? … to hurry up and wait, and wait, and wait some more on those endless snaky lines that at first glance you’re thinking, you’re never going to make the flight.

Then it’s finally your turn to enter through security. The cacophony of those plastic security bins being thrown and stacked distract you, but you continue and grab a bin and start dumping your stuff into them as if you feel comfortable with this sort of thing, like this is a natural instinctive way to travel. The shoes come off,  jackets disrobed, relinquish your bottled water you forgot you brought in with you, your laptop, your carry-on, handbag, cell phones, and maybe if you’re lucky you get through the first time; because for some miraculously reason your belt, bracelet, or money clip did sound that unnerving buzzer. OK, now you’re in.

You get to your gate to wait some more.  Time for boarding, great.  Think again,  now you are jockeying for overhead cabin space because everyone seems to have caught onto the carry-on game. There’s no room for your stuff because you booked such great seats, you boarded last.  You finally settle in and relax until you hear the flight attendant announce that your flight is delayed or that you are the 19th plane in line before take-off!

Hours later, you de-plane tired and cranky, and head to baggage claim.  Now that’s one happy place for ya.  After what seems like an eternity, the carousel slowly starts to turn, spitting out one bag at a snail’s pace, and so you wait…  again.  The re-circling of assorted sizes of the same black pieces of luggage passing over and over again is hypnotizing. This would be the time that you wished you’d bought a unique shade of green or purple that would be more easily recognizable.  You pick a prime spot at the edge of the carousel so you can maneuver, grab and go! Your body language is obvious as your eyes dart back and forth while you hover over your post.  But as the frequency of luggage pours out with a more rapid speed, the baggage is being jostled around, falling on top of one another and people are cutting in and pushing their way in to vie for a better position.  If you’re not alert, you could get injured.  I’ve seen it get ugly. But sometimes, and it surprises me every time, there is kindness and it renews my faith in mankind;  like when someone has seen me attempt to reach for my bag and thoughtfully retrieves it for me.  It seems that travel can bring out the worst and the best in people.

When you have finally reached your destination, you can enjoy the vacation you needed and much deserved.  The only thing is…  you’ll have to repeat the same ordeal on the return trip home, plus the dirty laundry and the dreaded unpack.  I often wonder whether or not it is sometimes easier to just stay home.

The bottom line is that we can’t control what we cannot control.  It is what it is, so all we can do is…breathe through it.

How do you manage the travel stress?

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Hey Brain, Do I Have to Pick a Favorite Side?

04/10/2013 By Nancy Borg With no comments yet

4019202878-1Welcome to my brain.  I invite you in to take a look, but trust me, it’s complicated.  After all, the brain is the ultimate Master Organizer.  It’s where we process all of our information and where judgment and decision-making live.  It is an all encompassing life navigation system.

How we organize our life is a direct correlation to how our brain works. I’ve discovered that the organizing process in of itself is the very window into a client’s brain, and into their own self-discovery.  How they choose to organize provides them with insight to how they think. There is no cookie cutter design to organizing, no right or wrong model. Clearly, there are no two people alike and so there cannot be only one way to organize.  Everybody has their own preferred learning styles, different processing modalities.

Let’s enter the Left and Right brain. We know that right-brained people are creative, intuitive, emotional,  kinesthetic, and are usually visually oriented.  A left-brain-er is a more linear thinker, structured, cognitive, logical, precise, analytical, neat, and punctual individual. But is it really that cut and dry?  Can’t we be a little of both?

With learning styles, many people can possess a multitude of preferences.  For me,  I’ve always considered myself to be a very visual thinker, but with an increased self-awareness and a ton of teleclasses, I’ve now noticed I am an auditory, kinesthetic, and a verbal learner as well.  Go figure.

In regard to my brain, depending on the task, I believe I have a proclivity to switch back and forth from both right to left.  In my workspace, I am very right-brained. I like to keep most of my current files or notes spread out over my desk in a very specific way so they are very visible while I’m working with them.  If I were to file them away or put them in a drawer,  the fear is that they will be forgettable, seemingly invisible to me.  But yet, at the end of the day, I prefer to clear my desk and organize for the following day.  Just looking at papers scattered all over the place makes me feel more scattered, and off-balance. Very left-brained. So I compromise with arranging important files and notes out on my desk (very neatly, I might add) prepared for the next day as a visible reminder for my right-brain.

In my every day life, I love structure in my day. I’m a planner and a list maker. I feel super charged to cross tasks off my list. Punctuality is a priority to me and scheduled appointments are met. At home, I like to consider myself as the straighten up-er.  I love to put things away in their place, roaming around the house picking up random things and replacing them back to their proper home. Often, I’m not even aware that I do this, it’s as if I’m on auto-pilot.  Works for me, it’s my “natural” style to be neat and organized. All good.

And yet, in other areas of my life, I’m back to right-brain thinking. When it comes to putting things together, I rarely look at directions; I learn by doing, I’m kinesthetic. I am creative with my spaces, crafts, and with my fashion sense.  I’m very emotional and random at times, and sometimes I get so entrenched in what I’m doing, I confess I lose all track of time.  Yes, even Professional Organizers can struggle with time-management.

Above all, it’s important to remember that we all have our own unique approaches of doing things and we must pay attention to how we learn, and how we function best. We do not not have to adapt to a particular system to be a successful or an organized person.  You can’t fit a square peg into a circle, so don’t try to force human nature.  Self-awareness and acceptance is the first critical step to succeed with your customized brain.

Whether you’re a visual, auditory, verbal, tactile, cognitive, kinesthetic, intuitive, or someone who struggles with ADDHD, there are effective techniques for every kind of brain.

Be aware that the brain is complex and completely individualized in terms of how it functions. In order to be a better YOU,  just be mindful of your strengths and allow them to work for you.

Do you SEE what I’m trying to say, or do you HEAR what I’m trying to say? This would be an accurate measure of your preferred style of thinking. And your brain?…Do tell.  Are you a righty or a lefty?  Or are you a little bit of both?

Consider this a fun brain teaser and join me in talking about your unique styles.  Can’t wait to pick your brain!

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Catch the Spring Fever…and Oh the Places You’ll Go!

04/01/2013 By Nancy Borg With 2 comments

“You’re off to great places!  Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, so…get on your way!”

One of my all time favorite classic books is Dr. Seuss’s, Oh The Places You’ll Go.  I have read this book countless times to my young children many moons ago, and had even given it to my son before he left for college (FYI, he was mortified). But honestly, its inspiration is timeless and so here I am sharing its resounding message once again.

Spring vacation is over.  It was perhaps the perfect break that we all needed.  It was a long cold winter and we needed to reboot.  But now it’s time to crack the windows open, let the fresh air in, and breathe in all the new opportunities.

I woke up this morning to a bright sunny morning and I heard the birds melodically chirping.  It felt different, as if mother nature was alerting me that indeed the new season is here.  Do you feel the change too?  Are you paying attention?  It happens so quickly…one day it feels like winter left-overs and the next minute it’s Spring!

But as awesome as this change is, we must remember the window of opportunity is limited. Time to roll up those sleeves and jump into spring cleaning mode. Of course, there’s is the general house clean-up but the two areas that are time sensitive are the attic and the garage. Perfect opportunity for a garage sales and a house cleanse. Everyone is eager to shop for great bargains when the weather is beautiful.  It’s ideal to do all you can do outside. Crank up the music and clean out the shed.  Most importantly, the attic needs to be addressed before it gets too hot.  The time is now.

So remember, Spring has sprung…

“You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself any direction you choose.  You’re on your own.  And you know what you know.  And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go.”

Where will YOU begin to start your spring cleaning?

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