Of course, I know it’s not a real award, not like the Thomas Leonard International Virtual Assistant of Distinction Award I was nominated for in 2009. It’s really just a meme, but memes can be fun, so I’m happy to have an excuse to use one in my blog, and thank Erika for thinking of me.

There are four simple rules for The Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Post a link to the person who gave you the award.
2. Tell your readers seven random things about yourself.
3. Award 15 newly discovered blogs.
4. Send them a note letting them know you nominated them.

So, here are seven random facts about me:

1. I won second prize in the Discover Mississauga Photo Contest several years ago for this interior shot of Mississauga City Hall.
   
   (This is a photo of the photo, through the glass of the frame, so doesn’t really do it justice.)
2. I usually carry the same purse for months, and sometimes don’t even switch with the change in seasons, but I love shopping for purses. Shoes, not so much.
3. I love to play trivia games and am pretty good at them too.
4. I was a matched Big Sister for many years, and am still friends with my Little Sister, who is now all grown up and recently gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.
5. I have signed up for Google+, but haven’t yet figured out what, if anything, I will do there.
6. I was into Reduce-Reuse-Recycle before it was even a trend.
7. I make my own granola.

And here are the 15 blogs I’m nominating for the Versatile Blogger Award, in alphabetical order:

1. LinkedLearning by Margarita Ibbott: Help with using LinkedIn and other social media.
2. Daily Blogging Ideas by Michelle Shaeffer: Wonderful inspiration for both personal and business blogs.
3. Fabulous After 40 by Deborah Boland and JoJami Tyler: Fashion advice for those of us who aren’t as young as we used to be.
4. Garious Blog – Up to date information about social media.
5. Grow with Stacy: Tips for personal development, as well as blogging and social media.
6. The Lady Bloggers Society headed by Stepfanie Cuevas: Once a week they hold a Lady Blogger Social Tea Party to give readers a chance to share their blog posts – a great way to connect with other bloggers!
7. Marian Schembari: More goodies on social media and blogging.
8. MS Outlook for Business: Valuable tips for using email and discovering features of Outlook you never knew existed.
9. The Other Side of Organized by Linda Samuels: Explores the emotions connected with making changes in your life.
10. Site Sketch 101 by Nicholas Cardot: A wealth of information about blogging.
11. Solo-E.com by Terri Zwierzynski: Articles on all aspects of running a small business, including marketing, productivity and more.
12. Sunday Stealing hosted by Judd Corizan: A great place to find out about different blog memes of all types.
13. Teatime with Tina by Tina Chase: All about food and cooking.
14. Virtually Yours by Joanne Burgess: Fabulous tips about social media and small business topics.
15. WordPress Jedi: Information about WordPress themes, plugins, and security issues, as well as SEO and social media tips.

If you enjoyed this post, why not nominate yourself for a Versatile Blogger Award? If you do, please leave a link to your post in the Comments, so we can learn more about you and the blogs you read.

Please visit From the Desk of Janet Barclay to read and comment on The Versatile Blogger Award.

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. They are Work, Family, Health, Friends and Spirit and you’re keeping all of these in the air.

You will soon understand that Work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back.

But the other four balls – Family, Health, Friends and Spirit - are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same. You must understand that and strive for it.

For those of us who are self-employed, it is way too easy to forget that work does not belong at the top of our list of priorities. Of course, we have to earn enough money to maintain the other aspects of our lives, but what point is there in striving for a six- or seven-figure income if we have no time to enjoy it?

I was able to spend last weekend at a cottage, away from email and anything remotely connected to work, and it was a wonderful opportunity to focus on the other four “balls” in my life, but I find it hard to disengage like that on a frequent basis. What advice can you offer to people like me?

Please visit From the Desk of Janet Barclay to read and comment on Juggling Your Priorities.

For Christmas, my stepson gave me a calendar called Office Time-Killers: Sneaky Ways of Slacking Off. My initial reaction was that he doesn’t know me very well, because I’m closer to being a workaholic than a slacker, but once I opened it up, I was delighted to see that it is exactly what I need. Here’s one of the opening pages, which I’ve stuck to the wall in front of my desk:

Each day has a little game or exercise designed to take you away from your work for however long it takes you to do it, and the first two days were questions about how I wanted the upcoming year to look. I was so inspired that I assembled my answers, some pictures I clipped in a workshop led by Wayne Pagani last year, a few other clippings, and some stickers from my scrapbooking supplies, to create my very first vision board. (Please click to view full size image)

Most of the things on my vision board pertain to my health or some other aspect of my personal life. As long as I’ve been in business full time, I’ve treated Saturday as a day for non-client work such as planning, blogging, administration and so on. Since these are activities I enjoy and not directly connected to making money, I saw it as a more leisurely day than the weekdays. However, it meant that when I did have something else to do on a Saturday, I had to squeeze these activities in somewhere else. I wished I could schedule these tasks for Friday and leave Saturdays open, but I always seemed to have too much to do during the week. Of course, just wishing for something isn’t enough – you have to make it happen. I found the answer to my dilemma in Julie Bestry’s blog post, Paper Doll Pencils You In On Her Calendar: 6 Tips for Planning 2011, where she explains,

I schedule no client sessions on Mondays, so that I know I will always have one day per week for marketing, attending to finances and handling other administrivia. It also makes Sunday nights stress-free, as I know the only grumpy meanie I’ll be facing on Monday morning…is myself!

I’ve known about Julie’s “Admin Mondays” for a long time, but this description made me realize how much I’d enjoy starting the week this way. It would also take off all the pressure of trying to clear my inbox or get other things out of the way during the weekend. So starting this week, I’m also scheduling Admin Mondays, leaving my Saturdays open for stuff like going to the outdoor market (when it’s open), visiting with family, working on my balcony garden, and feathering my nest – in other words, having a life.

I’ll let you know how I make out!

Please visit From the Desk of Janet Barclay to read and comment on Striving for Balance in 2011.

With that in mind, I made a list of things I “do, would, or might” enjoy doing. Some were hobbies I could pursue independently (walking, yoga, container gardening, making greeting cards, digital or paper scrapbooking, photography, and reading) and others were more structured activities where I’d need to sign up (amateur theatre, Red Hats, yoga, cardmaking classes). As you can see, there is a fair bit of overlap.

Believe it or not, I actually looked into amateur theatre. I even joined a mailing list to find out when one of the small local theatres was holding auditions, but after reading and deleting the second email, I just couldn’t see myself doing it.

I also looked into the Red Hat Society, but they don’t make it easy to find information. You have to become a member to even see their events calendar, so I assume that means you have to join before you can attend an event and find out what it’s like. It’s not a whole lot of money, but that seems pretty crazy to me. I asked an acquaintance who is a member for some information and she emailed me a badly typed Word document listing a whole lot of events in different locations, in no particular order. She didn’t encourage me to join or anything. It just gave me a weird feeling. I haven’t ruled it out forever, but I wasn’t curious enough to pursue it further this year.

I took yoga classes several years ago, but my wonderful teacher moved out west, and I wasn’t willing to drive halfway across the city to try another program. I’ve tried doing it on my own at home, but I found it much harder to shut out the world, especially when my cat seems to think lying on the floor means playtime! I found a class that suited my schedule fairly well and was within walking distance of my place, so I signed up, but didn’t enjoy it as much as I’d hoped. Some classes were okay, but when everyone showed up, the room was so crowded you couldn’t do your poses without knocking into the next person. I went to maybe five out of the eight or ten sessions. There is a yoga centre right next door, so I’ll have to make a point of trying it out in 2011.

My interest in making greeting cards seems to have waned and I don’t think I made one single card all year. I’m not even sure if I picked up a class schedule. Since they are offered in single sessions, there’s really no excuse for me not to explore this again in 2011.

The only other solitary pursuit I didn’t do at all was scrapbooking. This is probably one of those things, like amateur theatre, where I like the idea of doing it but not enough to actually make it happen.

That leaves walking, container gardening, photography, and reading. I’ve begun sharing some of my photographs on Flickr and my reading activities on Goodreads, both of which are featured on my Lifestream page. One of the books I read during the year was The Urban Gardener, and I hope to implement many of the ideas on my balconies this year. I’m also planning to purchase a pedometer app for my iPhone, and I’m confident that keeping track of my progress will motivate me to walk even more, which will also provide more photo opps! My iPhone will do double duty, giving me a way to listen to recorded teleclasses during my walks.

Overall, I don’t think I was totally successful incorporating more personal time into my life, because I didn’t make a point of scheduling it on a weekly basis, so I’ll be sure to keep that in mind as I complete Michelle Connolly’s Goals & Priorities Diary.

Do you set goals for your leisure time? How do you make them a priority in your life?

Please visit From the Desk of Janet Barclay to read and comment on All Work and No Play….

I’ve been making weekly trips to the Hamilton Mountain Farmers’ Market and enjoying fresh local produce, including peaches, corn on the cob, tomatoes, and much more. Scott and I have also had some outdoor fun with friends and family and even went down to Port Dover for a day; here’s one of the photos I took – click on it to see a few more!

Summer is the time when one sheds one’s tensions with one’s clothes, and the right kind of day is jeweled balm for the battered spirit. A few of those days and you can become drunk with the belief that all’s right with the world.
– Ada Louise Huxtable

Don’t let the fact that Labour Day is around the corner make you think that summer is nearly over… the nights may be a bit cooler, but there is still a lot of summer weather left for you to enjoy.

Photo copyright 2010 Janet Barclay

Please visit From the Desk of Janet Barclay to read and comment on Summertime.

Maslan’s book is based on the Blast Off! Coaching Program which she developed to help others achieve their goals, after turning her own life around, both personally and professionally.

The first chapter provides an outline of the program and describes the tools that you will use as you work towards your goals. The remaining chapters are each dedicated to a specific goal area, including career, relationship, health, and prosperity. This is a real time-saver, because you can choose to read only the chapters that pertain to your specific goals. I do, however, recommend reading the whole book when you have the time, because it’s full of nuggets that you may find helpful, even in areas of your life where you generally feel satisfied. Some are real eye-openers, some may be difficult to accept, and others are simply reminders of things we already know but aren’t putting into practice for one reason or another. For example, here’s an excerpt from the chapter Blast Off! to a Life of Passion and Meaning:

Four Ways to Build the Back End of Passion

1. Establish good nutrition. It’s easy to fall into fast food or snacking when you are so engrossed in your passion that you’re not taking the time to eat right.
2. Eight hours of sleep each night. Sleep is one of the most healing, energizing medicines, and it is absolutely critical for a creative mind. Did you know that sleep deprivation is used as a brainwashing technique? Without sleep, you are living in survival mode, which is the opposite of a passionate life.
3. Take a passion break once a week. Most of my creativity comes when I’m not working. When my mind is clear and I’m exploring or having fun, the ideas have room to appear. Turn off your phone. Shut down your computer. Go spend the day outdoors in nature, go to a movie, take a bike ride, or visit some friends. Talk about things other than your passion. (For a few minutes, anyway.)
4. Get physical. Especially if your passion is of the intellectual persuasion, you must get into your body. If you’re living from the neck up, your body needs to be enlivened. Choose exercise that you can sustain by doing activities that you will enjoy, such as dance, running, swimming, biking or boxing. Mix it up! It’s more beneficial to incorporate more than one activity to stimulate various muscle groups in the body. You will also stimulate the serotonin in your brain for more creativity and mood enhancement. You will prevent fatigue and burnout as you stimulate your cardiovascular system, get your blood pumping, and your billions of cells moving. Ahhhhhhh.

I ask you, do you know anyone who couldn’t benefit from taking this advice?

What I liked best about the book is that it doesn’t just tell you what to do. Instead, each chapter includes a series of practical exercises to help you identify the changes you want to implement and the steps you need to take to reach your ultimate goal. Furthermore, the exercises are unique for each chapter, and not just re-worded to suit the topic. A lot of people may resist doing the exercises because they require effort, but I’m a firm believer that the more you put into something, the more you’ll get out of it.

Readers can follow the program independently, with a partner, or with a Blast Off! Group. Guidance around forming a Blast Off! Group is provided in the book.

If you’d like to try out Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality for yourself, you can order a copy from Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.

Please visit From the Desk of Janet Barclay to read and comment on Book Review: Blast Off! The Surefire Success Plan to Launch Your Dreams into Reality.

Photo by Roger H. Goun

If you are one of the lucky few whose lives have not been touched by cancer, I’d like to introduce you to Krista Colvin. Krista is a professional organizer and lifestyle expert in Oregon who has been on sabbatical since being diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year. She is sharing her current journey with all of us through a blog which she has named Putting on My Big Girl Panties + Kicking Breast Cancer in the Ass.

Krista is not the only person in my online network to have been dealt this hand. Last year I took part in Debbie Jordan Kravitz’s virtual book tour to promote the launch of Everything I Know about Perfectionism I Learned from My Breasts: Secrets and Solutions for Overpowering Perfectionism. On June 15, you can listen in as Debbie is interviewed by Ariane Benefit about perfectionism and how surviving breast cancer inspired her to conquer perfectionism and write her book. It is a free call, but you need to register to receive the call-in/webinar information.

Linda Ockwell-Jenner, President of Motivational Steps, is another inspiring breast cancer survivor. Unfortunately, not every story has a happy ending. My godmother, my favourite uncle, a childhood neighbour and, most recently, a dear family friend, have been taken by various forms of cancer.

Fortunately, there are things you can do. You can help raise funds for cancer treatment, research, and education programs by supporting such events as The Weekend to End Women’s Cancers. Even if you’re financially unable to make a donation, you can make a difference by visiting The Breast Cancer Site, where sponsors contribute funds for mammograms based on the number of visitors to the site each day.

Don’t forget to protect yourself as much as possible by leading a healthy lifestyle and by undergoing any routine tests recommended by your health care providers.

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sskennel/2601850080
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License

Please visit From the Desk of Janet Barclay to read and comment on The C Word: Let’s Stamp it Out.

It’s so easy to go into hibernation during the winter months when you work from home, especially if you’re inclined to introversion as it is. But once the spring comes, who can resist setting work aside, even for half an hour, to get out and enjoy the fresh air?

Yesterday the twig was brown and bare;
To-day the glint of green is there;
Tomorrow will be leaflets spare;
I know no thing so wondrous fair,
No miracle so strangely rare.
I wonder what will next be there!

L.H. Bailey
American horticulturist, botanist and cofounder of the American Society for Horticultural Science (1858-1954)

What’s your favourite season, and why?

Please visit From the Desk of Janet Barclay to read and comment on Spring is in the Air.

You can unsubscribe from newsletters and use SpamArrest to eliminate spam, but how do you handle well-intentioned friends who feel compelled to share every single email that puts a smile on their face? For an answer to this question, check out Thanks. No. which offers an interesting, if somewhat passive-aggressive, approach to dealing with people who are addicted to forwarding.

Thanks. No. isn’t really my style, nor will I just delete this type of email automatically. I always like to take at least a quick glance, because you just never know when you’ll come across something that is worth reading and even sharing. For example, take the following passage, which I received not too long ago – I think it will speak to you, no matter what season of life you’re in.

You know, time has a way of moving quickly and catching you unaware of the passing years.

It seems just yesterday that I was young, just married and embarking on my new life with my mate. And yet in a way, it seems like eons ago, and I wonder where all the years went.

I know that I lived them all… And I have glimpses of how it was back then and of all my hopes and dreams… But, here it is… the winter of my life and it catches me by surprise… How did I get here so fast? Where did the years go and where did my babies go? And where did my youth go?

I remember well… Seeing older people through the years and thinking that those older people were years away from me and that winter was so far off that I could not fathom it or imagine fully what it would be like…  But, here it is…

My friends are retired and really getting gray… they move slower and I see an older person now. Lots are in better shape than me… But, I see the great change… Not like the ones that I remember who were young and vibrant… But, like me, their age is beginning to show and we are now those older folks that we used to see and never thought we’d be.

Each day now, I find that just getting a shower is a real target for the day. And taking a nap is not a treat anymore… it’s mandatory! Cause if I don’t on my own free will, I just fall asleep where I sit!

And so, now I enter into this new season of my life unprepared for all the aches and pains and the loss of strength and ability to go and do things that I wish I had done but never did.

But, at least I know that though the winter has come, and I’m not sure how long it will last… this I know, that when it’s over… it’s over… Yes, I have regrets. There are things I wish I hadn’t done… things I should have done, but indeed, there are many things I’m happy to have done.  It’s all in a lifetime…

So, if you’re not in your winter yet… let me remind you, that it will be here faster than you think. So, whatever you would like to accomplish in your life, please do it quickly! Don’t put things off too long.

Life goes by quickly. So, do what you can today, as you can never be sure whether this is your winter or not.

You have no promise that you will see all the seasons of your life… so, live for good today and say all the things that you want your loved ones to remember… and hope that they appreciate and love you for all the things that you have done for them in all the years past.

Life is a gift to you. The way you live your life is your gift to those who come after. Make it a fantastic one.

Live it well — Enjoy today — Do something fun — Be happy — Be thankful.

Please visit From the Desk of Janet Barclay to read and comment on Email and the Seasons of Life.

For starters, it covered too many areas of my life, including business, leisure, and health. Looking at all that at one time was just too overwhelming. Furthermore, because the document was in front of me all the time, I just didn’t see it anymore. I knew it was there and what it was, but instead of motivating me, it made me feel guilty that I wasn’t doing what I set out to do, or annoyed about things that were outside my control.

I realized what was wrong with my approach when I read 2010: The Year of Baby Steps which recommends, among other strategies, setting one resolution per month, instead of trying to change everything all at once. Although I wasn’t necessarily attempting to achieve all my goals at one time, I wasn’t focusing on any of them, so it’s not surprising I didn’t achieve what I had envisioned.

After being inspired by the 31 Days of Self-Care Blog, I decided I would start this year by doing something everyday aside from work and TV/DVD viewing, even if it’s just to get out and walk around the block, or to look for healthy recipes to try. It may not be much, but I think it’s a good starting point, and I know I will benefit. I’m not going to be blogging about my daily progress, because I really don’t think it will interest anyone but myself, but I am making notes in one of the spaces in the weekly planner I ordered from momAgenda.

One of the online tools I’m using to support my efforts to leading a healthier lifestyle is a free membership site website called PICFIT.ca. If you’re looking to lose weight or make other healthy lifestyle changes this year, or if you’re a health professional who would like to get some free exposure by supporting others, you should check it out too!

By the way, my daily something isn’t always health-related, though it often turns out that way. It can be as simple as doing my nails, or as fun as going out for lunch with my dad and my sister. It’s mostly about remembering that there’s more to life than work and watching movies. Don’t get me wrong; I thoroughly enjoy both activities. If I didn’t, I probably wouldn’t have to make a point of doing something else! I just don’t want to look back one day and sing this song:

Please visit From the Desk of Janet Barclay to read and comment on Making 2010 the Best Year Ever.