Planning

Prepare for the Unexpected

Unexpected Life Events

Sheri here –

How do you respond when the unexpected happens?

  • Do you freeze? 
  • Go looking for ice cream? 
  • Call your BFF? 
  • Spring into action? 

Maybe you go into fight or flight mode. But having a plan A, a plan B, or even a plan C is not a bad idea. It’s important to remember, when things happen unexpectedly keeping calm is crucial. Having to deal with life’s unexpected moments is inevitable.

Lately, I’ve had some unwanted situations come into my life. I’ve realized I have no choice BUT to solve them or drown in overwhelm – which doesn’t help anything!

When It Rains It Pours (Literally)

This past weekend, the unexpected happened (again)! I started noticing a spill on the stairs of my house that wouldn’t seem to dry. I realized I had a water leak! The final convincing evidence? Seeing water drip out of an electrical outlet – not good. 

Now what to do? Who do I call? So, I had a “meeting” with my trusted home advisor team – my husband, and we decided to call a plumber. 

I started with my “go to guy” who couldn’t come out for three or four days. But, this was urgent. So, now what? Who do I know, that I trust, that could make a recommendation? I decided to ask some friends and received a couple of referrals. 

Fortunately, one of the referrals was able to send a team out within an hour of my phone call! Once they opened the wall up – it looked like a mini Niagara Falls! (I should’ve been wearing my raincoat). Before I knew it the leak was fixed. Problem solved!

How to celebrate this quick repair? Chocolate brownies of course!

Get a Plan In Place

So, how do you handle surprises? Do you ignore them, hoping they will go away? I’ve learned (the hard way), that doesn’t work well and often exacerbates the situation. 

Do you ask for help or input, fumbling along looking for answers? Most of the unexpected, makes it difficult to have a plan waiting. But, you can have a plan of action for broad categories of emergency. 

Some pre-planning and thought are still required though. A good place to start is having a plan for when you need to leave your home in a hurry, such as a fire, a flood, or an earthquake. 

Here are some questions to consider when getting your game plan together. What do you think you would need beforehand? Maybe it includes what to take with you. What’s your communication plan with people? Think about family or those you may need to get in touch with to notify of your safety. 

These are not the sort of things that you put together in the heat of the moment. Do you have a plan in place? Or have you thought about putting one in place? 

What about basic repairs? Do you have emergency numbers in a convenient location? Maybe on your cell phone? What about the emergency numbers for the baby-sitter or the house sitter? Have you thought those through?

Life Happens: Expect Challenges

Life is a journey filled with twists and turns, triumphs and accomplishments. 

Because life doesn’t always follow a script, it’s important to plan for the unexpected. That sounds impossible. How can you plan for something which you cannot anticipate? The truth is, you can’t plan the details, but you put yourself into a certain mindset that will help you achieve your goals. 

One of the biggest obstacles we face when the unexpected occurs is fear. This might be fear of the unknown or fear of things going wrong. Keeping a positive mindset drives us to get through the difficult times. It motivates us to keep going, it gives us strength.

Confronting a negative or unexpected event awakens inner strength and willpower we might not know we had otherwise.

Planning is not only important, it is essential for successful living. By embracing and engaging with the unexpected, then combining it with your plans and action, you will begin to find sustainable confidence and peace of mind.  

I’d love to hear what types of emergency plans you’ve put together! Leave a comment below!

If you’ve been ignoring ways to prepare for the future, I’d love to support you by helping you strategize. Whether you need help to put a plan in place or to stop procrastinating, give me a call – just use this link.

Although my house may be a little torn up, the problem is resolved, and I can feel comfortable that I took rapid action. The brownies sure were good too! 

Til the next time.
Ciao,
Sheri

Let’s Finish the Year STRONG

Goals

Sheri here –

There is still time to finish STRONG for the year!

If you set goals, now is the time to review your progress against them and tweak them to make 2020 amazing, unusual but still amazing!

Not Too Late to Set Goals

Ok, so the year turned out unlike anything you planned or even could have imagined!!

Were you able to do a course correction and do something extraordinary in these crazy times?

Not too late – reviewing your goals or setting new ones can be an excellent support tool for you.

While goals are frequently considered start of the year activities, you can make and begin goals anytime. I wrote a couple of blogs (here) and (here) if you’d like more information on the “HOW to” part of goal setting.

It’s never too late or too early to set goals.

And once they are set, you can readjust them, even deliberately put them on the shelf. The important thing is to keep working goals that align with your dreams.

Review Your Progress on Your Goals

The beginning of a quarter is a great time to review progress on your goals.

Generally, at least quarterly I go back and relook at my goals and see how I’m doing. If I’m making great progress, then I put a little stretch into it. If I’m lagging behind, I may reset the goal to keep myself motivated.

No matter what, I keep working on them.

One of the goals that I’ve made every year for about the last 5 years has been to lose weight. And over the last 5 years, I’ve probably lost and kept off about 35 pounds, including during this crazy covid year.

When I decided 5 years ago to set a weight loss goal rather than be disappointed in myself AGAIN. I decided to do it differently.

This wasn’t going to be one of those “I’ll just write it down and do nothing about it” goals. This is one, where I made a plan that requires daily action: good nutrition, counting calories, keeping a food journal, doing SOME exercise daily and getting adequate sleep.

While I can’t do 10 pounds at a time, I can do daily actions, that as I measure activity, I see progress. Dropping and keeping off 35 pounds, for me, is huge progress!

So I don’t do it perfectly, somedays I’m better than other days; but it is the consistency over time that has worked.

How do you use goals to help you? Leave a comment below.

Do you see how this same technique could be used for any business or personal goal? The consistent small daily actions really make a difference. It works on everything.

Finish Strong

This is the time of year to start looking at your accomplishments for the year and what you still want to do to make this year great – to finish STRONG.

What do you need to do starting now, to make this a great year? It’s not too late to set a goal and make a plan to get great things done before 2020 ends.

The key is to decide and start!

Baffled by goals? But still want to get things done this year? Book a call here and let’s discuss a strategy to get it done!

Ciao,
Sheri

Holiday Planning Starts NOW

Holiday Planning Starts NOW!

Holidays

Sheri here –

Did you realize that it is the beginning of October?  I sorta just got that message – duh! October is the beginning of the holiday season!  Oh my goodness, 2021 is just around the corner (THANK GOODNESS, a BIG sigh of relief).

Did you ever notice how once October starts, it seems like the year is over before you know it we are singing “Auld Lang Syne” for New Years!?

Or at least that’s what prior seasonal routines have indicated!!

Yet, these last months are to be savored, the holidays enjoyed – maybe in a new way.

It’s Time to Start Holiday Planning

Many businesses will start their 2021 planning right now, at this time of year, in the Fourth Quarter.

Maybe we need to adopt that thought for our personal lives for the Fourth Quarter – the Holiday Season.

While we have “normal” Seasonal Routines from prior years, maybe this is the year that we do it differently – rather than letting the holidays happen to us, we direct how it goes!

I started to see some people decorating their homes for Halloween the last weekend in September – it wasn’t even October yet!

What if, you take a few minutes and plan the rest of this Season.  That you made decisions about how the old routines, the old traditions might be different – might be new this year.

Certainly, travel and in person contact has been reoriented with physical distancing.  Money might be another subject that needs to be addressed earlier – the budget (oops is that a bad word in your mind?) for the holidays need to be re-examined.

What Is Important This Time of Year?

How do you make it special for your family?  How do you plan to get together with friends?  Ok, maybe you don’t want to think about it now; but, there will probably be differences.

OK, I get it, maybe you just don’t want to think about it – maybe this is a year that some people won’t be present for one reason or another.

This could be an opportunity to really look at your holiday traditions and choose what will make this year’s holidays special.  You can have a wonderful end to 2020 with some fore thought and creativity.

Take out a calendar and block some time for yourself, for a bit of planning by yourself, with your friends and your family.  What are some of the things that you want to assure stand out as special?  While this year they might be different, maybe even some aspects  are virtual.  A little planning now will help reduce both the anxiety level and the stress level for you and those around you.

By starting now, at the beginning of October, you can create a very special holiday season for you, your family and friends.  May it be filled with love, joy and happiness.

One of the things that always seems to loom large is the expectation of decorations, gifts, and entertainment – SPENDING!   In my “It’s October – the Start of the Holidays”  post last year, I included five Holiday Money Planning Tips that are still applicable this year.  Check it out here!

Have you started to think about any of the seasonal routines – the year end holidays?  What are you thinking – would you share some of your thoughts?  Leave a comment below.

Ciao,

Sheri

October Starts the Holiday Seaso

It’s October, the Start of the Holidays

Holidays

Sheri here –

What was your first thought when you really, really looked at the calendar and it sunk it that “It is October!”?

Did you think: “No way.  How did that happen? It absolutely, positively can not be.  Only yesterday it was New Years, no Valentine’s Day, no, no, no.”

Or

“You know what that means don’t you – tomorrow the year is over.”

Well, it certainly seems like it happens that fast.

Or

Are you more laid back, along the lines: “Hmmm, I guess it really is October.”

The days and years seem to be going faster and faster.

I’m more in the first category, the, really, it can’t be October already category.

Ready, Set, GO!

That means it is time to start bracing for the HOLIDAYS – both your finances and your calendar.  The planning window may have already closed!

Let me ask you: Are you 1) ignoring the holidays, hoping they will go away; 2) thinking about how you will manage the time and cost; 3) already behind; or 4) “I got this!”? Drop a comment below with your answer!

Halloween decorations are already popping up around town.  The kids are getting excited about what they are going to wear, and the festivities devoted to scary pleasures and sugary treats.

Then its November.  While we spend portions of November planning Thanksgiving dinner, everywhere you look are reminders that the December holidays are just around the corner.

But to me, November is a time of reflection, a time of gratitude and a time of giving thanks for all the blessings in life.  How about you?

In many ways, these next months stretch our pocketbooks, our patience and our time more than any other period during the year.

Now might be a good time to grab your calendar and a piece of paper and make a time and money plan, if you haven’t already mapped it out.  Ok, so, there are only a few weeks left; but maybe, you are still in time to save a bit of your sanity!

Holiday Money Planning Tips

To help you get started, here are 5 holiday money planning tips:

  1. Make a holiday budget and STICK to it.
  2. Consider giving gifts only to the children in the family, including the extending family.
  3. Reduce the number of gifts that you buy per family member.
  4. DIY (Do It Yourself) and make your gifts. Make it a family fun project.
  5. Give precious memories for gifts; e.g. a photo book or a personal poem for a special person.

Do you have a favorite money saving tip or two for the holidays?

May you have a magnificent week, even if you are as stunned as I am that it is October!

Ciao and hugs,

Sheri

P.S.  If you need help planning your holiday strategy and want to talk schedule a call with me here!

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