Happy National Organising Week

September 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment

This week is National Organising Week across Australasia.  It’s a time to think and talk about getting organised.  Peter Walsh, author of Does This Clutter Make My Butt Look Fat? is in Australia as the Celebrity N.O.W. Ambassador and there are free workshops happening during this week.  For more details, go to AAPO - the Australasian Association of Professional Organisers.

Editors Note: Find more information and resources at Angela’s blog - Organised Thoughts

Posted by angela | Filed Under Happening Space, September 08 

Your Challenge for September - Blossom!

September 8, 2008 | 2 Comments

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Anais Nin

What are you resisting?

Where in your life are you remaining tight in the bud?

It’s your time to blossom!

Reinvent and share your beauty with the world.

Now. Right now.

We’re here waiting for you…

Posted by karen | Filed Under Challenge Space, September 08 

The value of financial goals

September 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment

There is every reason for us all to reinvent our commitment to our financial goals. It is rather ironic though, that our financial goals and our lifestyle goals are related and aligned. So any thought of reinvention of our lifestyle should also raise the thought of how can we achieve and sustain that lifestyle given our financial constraints. A world without financial constraints brings with it a lifestyle rich in options as to how we spend our time and with whom.

This is not a lecture about finances, but a call to recommit to a financial plan that works for you whatever it may be. It might also require you to reinvent the goals you seek to achieve, for without a strong goal things will probably remain the same.

You don’t always have to do this on your own. Perhaps it is time to share that goal with someone special. After all, a shared goal achieved seems a whole lot sweeter and easier than tackled on your own.

In the first article in The Money Space we spoke about the five key areas. One of those five was wealth accumulation. The reality is that it is very difficult to achieve wealth enjoyment until you have undertaken some wealth accumulation.

So perhaps it makes sense to practice reinvention of our commitment to wealth accumulation so we can have some wealth enjoyment in the next little while. Only you can determine how much is enough to achieve your goals. Remember the most important thing is to do something no matter how modest. If all this lacks concrete action of what and how to take the next step, write in or leave a comment below and ask and I will be happy to help. Your question may also help someone else.

Posted by grant | Filed Under Money Space, September 08 

We’re talking about Reinvention

September 1, 2008 | 2 Comments

Welcome!

Here in Australia it’s the first day of Spring, and where I live you can feel it in the air. This is one of my favourite times of the year, when the weather turns from chilling your bones to a warmer (but still mild) freshness. The animals are getting frisky - the curlews have been actively looking for a nesting site in our paddock this weekend, much to the dismay of our dogs. Trees are all sprouting fresh new leaves and flower buds are starting to form.

For our northern friends, as you head into Autumn, it’s a time to breathe a sigh of relief that the heat of summer is (nearly) over and enjoy the renewed energy the cooler days bring.

Nothing says change quite so much as a change in season. And so here at The Calm Space for September we’re talking about Reinvention.

I am intrigued by Joanna’s question “has writing things down played a part in your own adventure in reinvention and making things happen?” Take a read of her article at The Writing Space and please let us know your thoughts - we’d love to hear from you!

Annie offers a wonderful example of her process of changing something she’s not happy with - at The Spiritual Space she outlines her tips for changing anger into something much more powerful.

As always, Angela offers useful and inspiring tips for beautiful organising transformations in The Organising Space - I long to be the butterfly but often find myself crawling around in mess just like the caterpillar.

Our other contributors also offer practical advice, hints, tips and inspiration on the path to evolving who we are in our relationships, in technology, in sustainability, in being sun conscious and in our finances.

As always, I guide you to The Breathing Space where once again Leah Maclean has worked her technical wizardry with Amy Palko’s beauitful photography. Isn’t this an amazing shot? Be sure to download your desktop background for September!

And last, but by no means least - no visit to The Calm Space this month would be complete without checking out The Sound Space. We profile The Favourites, a duo who really do make beautiful music.

You can download of one of their glorious songs (one of my favourites) Lovers In Peace - with our compliments! Please do leave a comment and let us know how you find their music. You can also be in the draw to win one of their CDs - Counting The Days - by registering for our Monthly Prize Draw.

I wish you a glorious month full of sunny days and open windows.

Namaste

Káren

Posted by karen | Filed Under September 08, The Space 

Walking down the path of infinite possibility

September 1, 2008 | 3 Comments

Life is full of infinite possibilities.

Whether we take Robert Frost’s Road Less Travelled, or the more well-trodden path, there will be myriad choices to make as we journey through life.

We come to major intersections and forks in the road, we are tempted by side-tracks and detours, and sometimes we feel we have lost our way completely and must back-track.

But going backwards is never really an option.

And we all know what happens if we simply stop and refuse to go on.

Some of those turns, detours and new highways we want to explore will require something new or different of us.

We need to change. Grow. Reinvent.

The change can be by design, or by chance. We can instigate it, or we can be forced into it.

Either way - it’s up to us.

Reinvention is about radical change - a definition I found includes: “create new version of something: to change radically the appearance, form or presentation of something or somebody.”

We all know when it’s time to make a radical change. It hangs there, somewhere over your left shoulder, shadowing you… somehow always present but just out of reach.

I have made some radical changes in my life recently - moving from a corporate manager to, well, not. The change was a long time coming, and when I finally cut the strings and let go, suddenly it was like the flood-gates opened and all good things started happening - not just to me but to my whole family.

Tips for your Journey into Radical Change

  • Radical change does not necessarily happen at the speed we expect. Something that we expect to happen quickly may take years (four years, in my case). Other times it may come out of the blue with the speed of a runaway train, and like a speeding train we are almost powerless to stop it - we either need to hold on or get run over!
  • Knowing we’d like to change, or even need to change isn’t enough. I know I’ve often said I need to lose weight/get fitter/declutter/whatever but nothing changes. Saying it isn’t enough either.
  • If we desire a change in our life we must first change how we think about and perceive ourselves. All change starts within.

  • All wise travellers use a compass. Let your values be your guide - be true to who you are, and you won’t blow about like a feather in the winds of change. Know why you reinvent yourself.
  • Change is growth. If we don’t grow, we stagnate. Therefore growth is good. Remember that when fear grips at your heart and you doubt your path. Take the next step. Just one. Then another. It’s all you have to do.
  • Change and reinvention can be stressful. Remember to take care of yourself. Expect texhaustion and down days will descend occasionally. When it happens, realise it’s not a setback - it’s all just part of the process. Be extra, extra kind to yourself.
  • Remember that life is a journey, not a destination. Look upon change, growth, reinvention as part of that journey and enjoy every possible minute.
  • Be willing to ‘give up what you are, to become what you can be’. Live up to your wildest expectations! Reinvention is growing into your potential and you’ve got potential.

The potential of the average person is like a huge ocean unsailed, a new continent unexplored, a world of possibilities waiting to be released and channeled toward some great good.

~Brian Tracey

Posted by karen | Filed Under September 08, Serenity Space 

Your Breathing Space for September

September 1, 2008 | 2 Comments

I sat in my sunny doorway from sunrise till noon,
rapt in a reverie amidst the pines and hickories and sumacs,
in undisturbed solitude and stillness,
while the birds sing around or flitted noiseless through the house…
I grew in those seasons like corn in the night.

~Henry David Thoreau

image by Amy Palko and graphics by Leah Maclean

Download this image as desktop calendar wallpaper for your PC
(right click on the preferred size below)
Resolution - 1680×1050 / 1430×960 / 1024×768

Posted by karen | Filed Under Breathing Space, September 08 

How much has technology changed the way you live?

September 1, 2008 | 2 Comments

It seems that every other week there is another annoucement about a new piece of technology claiming to “change the way we do ___________[fill in the blank].

The articles here in the Digital Space clearly reflect changes in the way we watch TV , charge your electronic devices , display our photographs and store our music .

It is easy to see the way that technology itself has changed - just consider the office machines that were used when you first started work or the electronic equipment that was in your house when you where growing up. But has technology changed us …. a) the way we live or b) who we are as human beings.

My answer is a resounding yes to part (a) and a realistic not much to part (b).

Every day our lives are changed by technology that rapidly moves on, if by no other force than necessity and the intelligence of those creating the next great thing. It seems to give us just a small amount of time to breathe between software updates. For some people the speed of the change in technology is frustraingly fast and the only people that seem to understand it are the technologists.

But the changes to technology have benefited not just technologists but every person around the world. If you have communicated with a loved one on the other side of the world without is costing a small fortune, had surgery to replace or repair a body part that had worn out, or are business owner that is able to sell products and services around the world and not just in your town, then you have benefited from technology change. The way that our children learn about ideas, our world learns about each other, or our clients learn about us, is all a product of the especially fast change in technology over the past 20 years.

But has it changed who we are as human beings? With the fast changes in technology there may be an imperative to learn faster but my belief is that as human being we still hold many truths to be the same as in the days of Shakespeare …

“If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?”. - (The Mechant of Venice, Act III, scene I )

Has technology changed who you are or just what you do and the way you live your life? Or has it not effected you or your life at all? Or maybe, just maybe, it has even helped change who you are?

Posted by leah | Filed Under Digital Space, September 08 

Doing life sustainably requires reinvention

September 1, 2008 | 2 Comments

In the theme of reinvention I thought it quite appropriate to look at how we ‘do life’. We all ‘do life’ and we seem to do it the same way day in and day out. At a rough guess, 98% of what we do in the near future is the same as the recent past. Is that a good thing or is reinvention the tool of change for a sustainable life?

The definition of addictive or habitual behaviour has to be doing something while your knowledge, ideals, and ethics tell you it’s not the right thing to be doing. Still we as humans tend to do this a lot and it’s because change is difficult, it’s not an easy path. You are destined for an unimproved future while you don’t involve yourself in reinvention.

It’s quite easy to do things when they are a habit. You don’t need new knowledge, you don’t need to think and even your physical body seems to have an automaton memory that has it just do that habit just as you did yesterday. It can be something as simple as leaving the water running while you brush your teeth. It could be putting those potato peels in the bin instead of in the compost. So how do you re-invent those habits and create a more sustainable set of behaviours and a sustainable focus?

Monitor yourself

I think the first thing to do is look at where reinvention occurs in society and look at the factors which cause it to work. Business is a good starting point. Well run businesses get continual performance feedback from their Sales and Financial systems. This feedback highlights strengths and weaknesses. So the data hints at what needs to be done. It answers questions like: How am I going? What am I doing wrong?

Instant reward for small actions

Recently my wife and I changed the way we reward the kids for doing chores. We started a fridge chart with little squares they fill in each time they do a chore. Simple enough and definitely not ground breaking. However the gold is in the detail. It works very well and I think the reason is that they can get instant results. They know at the end of the week that their performance converts directly into pocket money. A cause and effect relationship. Humans are notoriously bad at doing things if they don’t see or get a reward. You burn tonnes of CO2 into the air with a vehicle but you don’t see the impact. Maybe we need a CO2-o-meter on our dashboards! Knowing the reward is in the future is often not enough, we just aren’t all grasshoppers, some of us are the ants and want instant gratification.

So do yourself up a little eco-behaviour fridge chart. List down some KPI’s like composting, keeping the lights off, powering down devices. You can get a little technical if you’re keen and do this in KW hours and/or CO2 equivalents. Websites like Climate Friendly have the carbon calculators to help you work this out.

The difference you make might be reward enough for some. However, if you feel you need something material then make the reward some new plants for the house. Maybe an eco friendly device to replace an energy hungry one, push your eco-performance even further along. Being an environmental warrior makes you feel pretty good about yourself.

Look at the future time, money and environmental savings

Sometimes visualising the impact of your eco-behaviour is a good way to help push you to reinvent yourself. If you were to swap walking for driving the car for just 2 km a day the forward value of that over a year is about 250kg of CO2. Or in a more visual way imagine a big wheelie bin full of black carbon powder. It really does get you present to the total cumulative cost of the alternative. This example really is as simple and healthy as swapping the car for a walk on your daily trip to school with the kids. Or it might just be avoiding the drive to the train station or bus stop and instead walking there.

Letting others know what your dreams and goals are

If you don’t tell people what your goals and dreams are then you lose the chance to have three very important elements for success that can help you along - support, accountability and transformation.

Support - from your friends, family and work colleagues who you can encourage and even join you on your eco-crusade. It’s a lot easier when your friends are excited by what you are doing and you both start doing it. Just like going to the Gym with a friend, you are much more likely to do it.

Accountability - when you say you are going to do something publicly you are more likely to achieve that in the end because your word and your commitments make up a big piece of your credibility in the public eye.

Transformation - when you tell people what the new you does versus the old you they start seeing you as that new person. It’s a bit like saying I’m getting fit and I’m going to the gym. You probably will and then the reality is you are a transformed person because you did go to the gym instead of sitting at home watching TV. It is a new reality you are in and your friends are witnessing it.

Reinvention, it’s only natural

You can see reinvention in society everywhere, but no better is it used than in nature. Change is a requirement of survival in nature just as it is in our everyday lives. Nothing lasts for ever or has a quality of impermanence so change is inevitable.You can see the environmental swing occurring in society, it is the cumulative effect of lots of individuals making a difference.

So start reinventing yourself, go with it, swim down stream. Once you start, it get’s so much easier.

Posted by marc | Filed Under September 08, Sustainability Space 

Spiritually Reinventing Ourselves

September 1, 2008 | 1 Comment

Such an interesting concept - reinventing ourselves. Like everything else worthwhile in life, it begins with self awareness.

If we ask at all, we might say “Why should I change? I’m just fine the way I am.” On one hand, yes, we are just fine, and God loves us for who we are right now. On the other hand, it seems that each of us can learn a number of lessons in this lifetime once we take the first step in being aware of what they might be.

A good place to start is to look at any personality traits which do not serve us well, that make us and/or others unhappy. We need to figure out what we do that always ends up badly and try something different, even if it seems weird at first. Although I don’t believe our basic personalities change, we can have the courage to change those manifestations which cause harm or unhappiness.

Here’s a personal example. I have been known to get angry about injustices ‘done to’ me or others. Here are the steps in the reinvention of this aspect of myself:

  1. be aware of the triggers that cause these negative feelings
  2. meditate on getting my ego out of the equation (nothing is ‘done to’ me without my permission)
  3. understand that the Universe is always on track and that the bad is good on some level, always
  4. determine to act the opposite to my knee jerk reaction of anger
  5. ‘act’ calm in the face of anger triggers (fake it till I make it!)
  6. transcend the usual causes of my anger
  7. realise that I will not always get it right but it is totally worth the effort

It’s important to mention that there is no real point in doing this by halves. In this example, I am not suppressing anger, or blowing off steam to let it out. These are not the only two choices as most people believe. My attempt is to ‘transcend’ it, to make it irrelevant. It is a vital play for me since anger has never ever made me happy or caused a great outcome.

So this month I invite you to choose some aspect of yourself (maybe start small) and think about the strategies you could use to reinvent this side of yourself so you can bring more light and love into the world.

Love, peace and wisdom

Posted by annie | Filed Under September 08, Spiritual Space 

Writing Routes to Reinvention

September 1, 2008 | 4 Comments

Making a link between writing and reinvention seemed like a bit of a challenge - until I thought about some of the ways I’ve used writing and the written word to change direction in my own life - maybe even to do a little bit of reinvention.

Here are some of the ‘write it down to make it happen’ approaches I’ve used over the years:

Look into the future: write a letter or a diary entry from your future self maybe 10, 20 or 30 years into the future. You might write about the kind of day you’ve had, who you’ve seen, what kind of work you were doing, what you could see out of your kitchen window as you ate your breakfast or cooked an evening meal… And as with all of these techniques the more specific you can make it the better. Once you’ve started to describe it you can start to move towards it and to bring it into reality.

Write ‘as if’: start writing (letters, journals, blogs) ‘as if’ you were already living the life you want to be living. It makes it seem more real to you and sends a signal to your unconscious mind that this is the direction you want to be moving in. I did this for my recent house move - I started a private blog written as if I’d already made the move. It helped me to believe this new reality was possible

Looking back: some coaches get you to think about the obituary people might write about you - or the obituary you’d like them to write. Might sound a bit morbid but taking some time to think about the specific things you want to have made happen, the kind of life you’d like to see described - the kind of person you want to be remembered as can help you to shape your future self (or rather, make sure you become the person you already are)

Make yourself a job offer: when I left my successful, high-paid (high stress, burning me out) job I knew I wanted to leave but found it hard to make the final jump, especially when I was moving into an unknown world of travelling, volunteering and working for myself rather than a smooth transition into more paid employment. I experimented with writing myself a very detailed job offer, including a person specification (surprisingly the person they were looking for sounded just like me!) and setting out all the benefits the ‘job’ would bring. (It might sound a bit crazy but I wrote myself a job acceptance too - a commitment to the new life I was creating for myself)

Write down what you want: think about a situation that’s important to you and focus on what you want to happen - then write it down. Again make it specific, include details about where you are, who you’re meeting, things they might say, things you’re eating, smelling, seeing out of the window… You can power it up even more by writing about why this matters: what will happen next and then what good things - for you, and the wider world - will unfold as a result.

Write your values: writing the things that are important to you, writing about your values and beliefs, especially if you do it over and over (for example, through a blog)… well I think that’s probably the single biggest way you can help to reinvent yourself - or rather, to become the person you really are. It’s a powerful form of affirmation: writing, over and over, about the things that matter to you, that shape you, that make you what and who you are

I’m still learning about some of these techniques. If you’re interested you might want to explore Write it Down, Make it Happen by Henriette Anne Klauser. She has lots of different techniques you can try and oodles of stories about people who’ve written things down and then seen an uncanny resemblance to the future that’s unfolded.

There are different theories we could put forward as to why these techniques might work. Maybe it’s a signal to our unconscious minds. Maybe it’s a signal to the universe or some higher power. Maybe you’re sceptical (like me!) but have still found (like me!) that writing some of these positive futures down does help us to move into them, to create them, to make them happen.

Has writing things down played a part in your own adventure in reinvention and making things happen? I’d love to hear more if you’ve a story to share!

Posted by joanna | Filed Under September 08, Writing Space 

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