Going by the seat of my pants...

Reading Karen Kingston...  I feel I can't move on at all to anything good while my house is still such a wreck! She is completely right in describing the feeling of clutter as sticky. It's depressing, embarrasing and completely sucks the energy right out of me. There are so many books and websites that give you tips on how to declutter over time, and I have tried many... but they didn't work for the type of life I currently have. How are you supposed to do a small box an evening when you quite often don't have energy for the normal household chores???

Internal alarm going strong

Very weird experience this morning! Last night fell asleep without setting my phone alarm and the power went out through the night stopping the other alarm from going off. You'd think I'd end up waking up really late! Well, I didn't wake up late, and I didn't wake up early... I woke up at the exact time I would have set my alarm for. Not going to rely that that will happen again, but very glad for it today! Still think it was very strange though!

Told you it was tough going.... Carnegie

I did just so well this morning only to crash and burn this evening!!! Although I still ran late because my daughter still dawdled, I got into work refreshed and unstressed as I was calm in my dealings with her rather than criticising and yelling. It didn't actually change the result but it definitely did help our relationship.

Don't Criticise, Condemn or Complain (Dale Carnegie)

Only 6 hours after reading the first chapter of "How to Win Friends and Influence People", I already proved how true it was... unfortunately I was the one criticised.

Giving a number of interesting case studies including Al Capone, Carnegie shows how people don't criticise themselves no matter how wrong they are. All it does is to bring about resentment and sometimes long lasting emotional wounds. You hurt people's pride and instead of listening and considering your point of view all that person will do is justify their own position and perhaps condemn you in return.

Dale Carnegie - Brilliant advice if you can handle it!

My mother recommended Dale Carnegie's 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' to me when I was a teenager and I recall starting to read it but then losing interest... oh how I wish I had persevered. It could have made so much of a difference in my life.

Unfortunately after years of bad habits, it becomes just that much harder to pick up the principles when you are older. I finally read the entire book earlier this year and immediately attempted to put the advice to work. I had been having difficulties at work and thought it may make a difference... and so it did, a few times.

Using the advice in social situations was also helping... however, it was all too easy to drop when I stopped actively trying, assuming I had it in hand. Some of Carnegie's principles sound easy but they require effort and checking in with yourself regularly otherwise you will slip back into old habits without realising.

Tim Ferriss - The Four Hour Work Week

I found Tim Ferriss' "The Four Hour Work Week" by chance when looking for advice books on starting my own business. It was amazing I even saw it as being only 160cm, the chances of me seeing a book on a top shelf are not normally high. I see it as one of those things that was meant to be.

At the time I was trying to figure out how to start my own business as I was heading up to my 2nd warning at work and knew I would end up getting let go.

A lecture with Malcolm McLeod - 'The Hand-Writing Guy'

Earlier this year I was lucky enough to be sent to a conference in Vietnam. There were a number of lecturers there, some good, some bad, some amazing.

Malcolm McLeod was one of those that I was disappointed his time was over so fast. He was funny, fast paced, got you thinking, got you uncomfortable, got you laughing, got you involved. I only wish that I could see his lecture again now I am in more of a position to be more open to self change.

His lecture encompassed showing us just how our handwriting can show the type of person we are, quite often putting people on the spot when told something they weren't expecting or something that was known but not spoken of (the uncomfortable part).