August 2008 Newsletter

CHEERS!  

I want to give my logo a name....
How about "You-You" ? Or "Me First" ?
Cleverness and creativity trump SEO and keywords on this one.

All suggestions receive a 1/2 hr. "Change Write NOW" session (a $55 value!).
Mari@CreateWriteNOW.com

*GOING FOR THE GOAL *

Goals are dreams with deadlines. Goals rescue us from living a Christopher Columbus life: When he left he didn't know where he was going, when he got there he didn't know where he was and when he returned he didn't know where he'd been. Does that sound like anyone you know? 

With goals, YOU decide what is important for YOU to achieve in YOUR life. You work on priorities. Having a focus, an aim, an intention, you create your heart's desires. Goals deliver some amazing results: discovering unacknowledged talents, building your self-confidence and self-esteem, and living your life your way!

Goals get you your house on the beach, your own business, that next meeting with Barry Manilow....

* TRY THIS AT HOME *

Goals and journal writing make beautiful music together. Begin with a question,
"What do I want?" or pick your own question or ask your Journal what your question really is. Then write and write and write. It will take a lot of journal writing and you'll get goal ideas, maybe lots of them. Pick and pursue (yes, more Journal Writing) a goal idea that interests you then craft it into something specific and measurable such as: I will weigh 135 pounds by Thanksgiving or I'll have $2500 in my savings account by December.

Then use your Journal to find out where you're at. Say your goal is to get your emergency fund to $2500 by year's end. Then for two weeks, write down every time you spend money (i.e. cash, ATM visits, credit card, pay a bill, write a manual or computer check, everything). If you feel like it, journal write about these activities. You'll learn more about yourself and you'll start seeing ways to save like, "do I really need a cell phone AND a land line?" Hmmmm.

Let me know how this works for you. I'm in my office 9-5 M-F (781-834-6331) and I return phone calls.

* IN YOUR OWN WORDS *

Lynn Hogeland has been keeping a daily Journal for quite a few years.  She runs a Writer's Group in Norwell, MA and would love to hear from you:  SpeakMuse@verizon.net

My Closet and Me
by Lynn Hogeland

I peer at you every day, you peer back
at me, the same long sleeve blouses
tan, white, striped, plaid, checked.
I keep you no matter how long ago
you found me in Alabama or Florida.
Nostalgia sets in. I can't let you go,
your one of a kind.

Pants, all four, neutral like me, safe,
no sudden changes, the real me in a
drawer full of jeans. Wool jackets in navy,
gray and brown tweed hang there all year,
too old for moths taste. Summer's blue/green
floral robe waits patiently by winter's beige.

Looking down from their perch, baskets
from gift givers, sitting empty. Shoeboxes
stacked with shoes I never wear, my loves
are on the floor, moccasin-type in brown
and tan, blue sneakers, and white Ryka
walkers ready for most occasions.

Suitcases waiting for that trip, one in the
left corner, one in the right corner
reminding me we have not traveled in
a while. Somehow it's too much trouble
packing up all that nostalgia.

WRITES OF PASSAGE

In the absence of clearly-defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it.

- Robert Heinlein