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Working From Home Series #2: A Nudge for Change

7/30/2011

7 Comments

 
A Nudge for Change: A lesson from my kitchen
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A Nudge for Change
My friends eat organic, all natural food, without a lot of oil or frying and they have been after me to eat more like them. So tonight I thought I would try to do it their way...I put in chicken tenders (unbreaded) in the oven about 20 minutes after I put in the baked potatoes, and put green beans on the stove on low. I was so sure of myself and that my friend would like my meal....
But what I got was not what I expected:
The tenders were dried out because I had left them on just a little longer cause when I cooked them in the toaster oven (on the oven setting) they got crispy and when I checked them in the oven they weren't crisp yet. The funny looking "Green Beans" turned out to be peas, still in the pod, and they were not done because I forgot to turn them up the last 20 minutes and The potatoes needed at least 30 minutes more of cooking, after everything else was done, because I didn't set the temp. high enough


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Lesson Time
But its all good we managed to "save the meal" anyway. My friend put her chicken on a sandwich and got a salad, she ate her potato 30 minutes later and I did what I normally do... threw it all in the microwave and nuked it. Popped the peas out of the pod at the table and enjoyed.

In my defense:
I have never seen a bag of frozen peas still in the pod before, they looked like funny green beans to me and I haven't baked a potato in years...microwaving is a much preferable option when it comes to that matter, and until today I didn't know that the "oven" setting on a toaster oven was not the same as the Oven. (I had rarely used a toaster oven before moving in here two months ago.)  Truly, I swear, I remember somewhere in my past that cooking potatoes on 350 for an hour was enough time.

Lesson Time:

In doing this, I am intrigued by how something as simple as cooking can change so much over time without us even realizing how much that change has affected us. I did not grow up "nuking" my food, and while I am no fancy chef, after cooking meals for 20 some years without a microwave I am confident I can cook a decent meal... Or at least I was confident. ((smiles))

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Keep Nudging Just a Little
It is amazing at how little things can seep in and start to push you in another direction and they just keep pushing, a little bit more as time goes by and before long, you are into a totally different way of doing things without even realizing it.
It begs the question to be asked: "How many times have I been pushed, just a little, here and there, till I changed something about myself and didn't know it?"
Then you have to ask "How many times have I pushed someone, just a little, here and there till I got them to change and/or do what I wanted?"

Then apply this to life, both personal and professional and realize that when you get a "no" answer or hit a "wall" Don't write that person off or give up. Just keep pushing, just a little, more and more, each time and who knows? Maybe, before long, you will be able to look back and see where some changes have been made and caused other things to happen...

Just like what the modern technology of the microwave did to me.

By The Way:
If it had been up to me I would have sliced the taters and put them and the chicken in a pan to simmer in margarine, garlic and 21 solute spice mix till nice and tender and thrown canned green beans into a bowl and nuked them.

What can I say? My Mama didn't call me a "grocery store junky" for nothing and this meat loving, pre-prepared and pre-packaged, microwave loving, modern day girl, has got a lot of re-learning to do. Because if I know my friends, they are gonna push, just a little, every day till they see some changes in me!


7 Comments

Working From Home Series part 1: My Tips for Stress Relief

7/9/2011

11 Comments

 
PictureKeep a Positive focus
Working From Home Series part 1: My Tips for Stress Relief

So you’re a marketer and you love the fact that you can work from home and all the benefits that go with it. But lately you haven't been getting as much done, you feel stressed a lot of the time and you thought working from home was supposed to be stress free. The truth is that working from home is less stress than working for someone else in a job, but there are some stressers that can affect you. They are different than that dead end job you worked where no one appreciated you and you spent more money on gas getting there than you made. But none the less there is stress and I would like to offer My Tips for Stress Relief.

PictureWhere's your focus?
My Tips for Stress Relief: Stressers

1. Your friends think that because you work from home that means you are available 24/7 to do whatever they need or to talk to them on the phone.

2. Outside things tempt you away from the computer, housework, kids, running errands and Oh yes, let's not forget that television that you leave on "just for the noise."

3. If you are a social media marketer then there is also the ever present temptation to get swept away by games and seeing what everyone else is up to online. I know, chatting and building relationships is the name of the game, but there is a difference between building a relationship with someone as a potential customer/associate and chatting with your dear friend Bobby Jo about what happened last night at the bar or which item on the farm gifts list you want her to send you next.

4. Being a self-motivated, organized boss that shows up everyday and puts in the effort to make things happen produces stress too because if the work doesn't get done no money comes in you have no one to blame but yourself.

5. Let's not forget the financial stressers. You thought this was going to solve all your financial woes, really fast, without you having to spend a dime, right? But that didn't happen exactly as planned. Your somewhat of a success but there is stress because you have to spend and you were not an overnight "I got rich" success story.

Now that we have discussed some ways that you experience stress from working at home let me assure you. Yes! Working at home is still better than going off to work a job, where you earn more money for someone else than you will ever bring home from there yourself.


PictureBe Happy
And You don't have to worry about how your going to get to work or spend money at "the priced to high" gas pumps and if you want to show up to work in your pajamas with a cup of coffee and a plate of food, no one will care.
Unless you have your webcam on of course. -------->
Now how about those Online Marketing Stress Solutions I mentioned in the beginning.

PictureLife is Good
My Tips for Stress Relief:

According to "The World's Greatest Treasury of Health Secrets" by Bottom Line Publishing (2009 edition), the way to influence how stress affects you and shorten its duration is by having a healthy sense of control over your life and where you are headed. The following are some tips I use to accomplish that.

My Tips for Stress Relief #1
This one is relatively straight forward and I am sure you have heard it before. Be Proactive and schedule your work time into shorter time spans that allow for you to do other things like: being available when the kids get home, watching tv or house cleaning.

My Tips for Stress Relief #2

It is good to take breaks for yourself, even if its just walking away from the computer/phone/work space for 5 minutes to clear your head and take a few deep breathes. This will allow you to clear your thoughts and refocus on the task at hand. It is essential though that you do not allow these breaks to include, games, television or hanging on Face Book. These things provide a perfect distraction that will quickly eat up your day. Refer back to tip number one and schedule a time for each of these tasks so the temptation is not so great.

My Tips for Stress Relief #3

Be assertive and know when to say no. Tell your friends and family the hours you are working and expect them to honor that. If they have a problem adjusting just gently but firmly remind them and offer to do whatever they wish at a time when you are off work. Remind them that you are the boss and if you don't do the work it won't get done and no work, means no money.



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My Tips for Stress Relief #4

Build your confidence in yourself and understand that you are not going to be able to please everyone, but you will please no one if you are trying to be everyone's best friend and do it all. Remember kids do deserve your time, but they also need to learn how to entertain themselves, to share your time, and how to cope with the word "no" to be well rounded, happy and caring adults.

My Tips for Stress Relief #5
Learn to be happy with life. Sure bad things happen, but when they do ask yourself "Is stressing over this going to change anything? Is it worth dying for?" (Stress causes more health issues than anything I am aware of) then let go of the things you cannot change, deal with what you can and move on, and remember my favorite motto:

"It's not about the good or the bad, we all have both on a daily basis, It's about where your focus is. Where's yours?"

As soon as I realized that one statement was true my life changed and I was able to see all the things in life that were good that I had previously missed and let go of the things that were wrongly stressing me.

My Tips for Stress Relief #6


Stop believing the hype telling you that you don't have to do anything and searching for that pot of gold under the rainbow:
You can't get something for nothing, I don't care what anyone says. You can start out with little to no expense and if you want to but you will have to work really, really hard at it and spend long hours of your time "working" the business so you can make something. But eventually if you want to hit the big time you will have to invest something to get more of something. So be prepared, have a plan of action, outsource the more tedious daily tasks or things you aren't good at and make a budget of what you can afford monthly and stick to it.

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And my final Tips for Stress Relief:

Learn to laugh at life. So you split the milk, its only milk and not worth stressing over. Laugh at your goof up, clean it up and move on.
Yes, the computer is acting like molasses on a cold day, don't just sit there and complain, look for answers and be happy you are learning how to fix it so you can teach others and make yourself look smarter. :-)   

Know that with a little time and a few honest days of work the money will start coming in, you can do more of the things you enjoy in life because you not need to put in as much time working. And that my friend, is what makes the time spent building your work from home business worth it all.

To Your Every Success

Kathleen Cooley

To learn some really cool tips on building your marketing business click the link below.


http://marketingsurvivalskills.com/webinars/how-to-sponsor-1-rep-per-day.php?s1=kathleen

11 Comments
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    Kathy Cooley
    Kathleen Cooley

    I am an Online student at Kaplan University working on getting my Bachelors in Communications. I write free lance articles and work as an online marketer and business associate.
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