Never Too Busy to Cure Clutter:

Never Too Busy to Cure Clutter:  Simplify Your Life One Minute at a Time by Erin Rooney Doland  Paperback Book:   288 pages   

A fun book on clearing your clutter whether you have a free minute, 5 minutes, 10 or 15 minutes you name it.    Honestly, with the busy lives we all lead who has time to take a whole day to work on house cleaning or decluttering a closet, a room, the whole house?    This book takes you step by step through every room in your home and offers breakdowns of what could be accomplished in a minute, or projects that could be done in 5 minutes and shows you how any available amount of time can lend itself to helping to achieve your goals of a clean, clutter-free home.   You really don't have to devote hours and hours to getting the job done when you can break them down into doable parts and motivate yourself  to work toward your goals 5 minutes a day as you get ready for work or on your way out/in the house.   Erin Rooney Doland is so inspiring.   Instead of tackling and trying to tame the tiger/mountain of work to be done in a room, chip away at it by doing little bits here and there until you have completed the tasks at hand and feel so good about yourself that you will want to do more and more.   Very helpful book.   I recommend it to all ages because you are never to young nor too old to clear your clutter.  Excellent book.

A Really Good Day

A Really Good Day: How Microdosing Made a Mega Difference in My Mood, My Marriage, and My Life by Ayelet Waldman        Hardcover: 256 Pages          (Aleta L.)

Ayelet Waldman is an author, mother, and former public defender and law professor. This book is a true story about her struggle with a severe mood disorder; though she never received a lasting diagnosis, she went through years of treatment with common pharmaceuticals. These mostly didn't work, or if they did, temporarily and with terrible side effects. In addition to feeling bad most of the time, she was alienating her family and friends, and her suffering felt endless.  This desperation led her to the surprisingly positive research on the use of  psychedelic drugs for therapeutic purposes, and she decided to try it out on herself.  She had a truly simple goal: to see if she could have justone really good day.

Microdosing is a method of taking drugs in tiny, sub-perceptual doses, for therapeutic purposes, usually every other day or so. Though most of the drugs used for microdosing are illegal, there exists an underground of practitioners of the psychedelic that she managed to tap into, and she had a vial of "Lewis Carroll" liquid LSD sent anonymously to her mailbox. Waldman shares with us her month-long experiment, documenting how her mood, physical state, and motivation were affected by the tiny dose she took every third day. She then writes entertainingly about her life and previous experiences with illegal drugs (few and far between), her relationships with her kids, husband, and parents, her professional life, and her direct experience with drug policy in the United States – she recounts specific drug cases she defended, and the stories are heartbreaking. She has a convincing take on the destructiveness of this country's attitudes and laws about illegal drugs, particularly for disadvantaged populations.  Her account of the history of psychedelic drug use is fascinating, covering the invention of LSD, to its popularity and notoriety mid-20^th century, to its eventual banishment,  not only from public use, but from scientific research as well.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book – it’s part anecdotal musing and part no-nonsense social commentary, and Waldman is hilarious and utterly serious in just the right amounts.  Her research is thorough and honest. The question she raises about why we have legal access to so many harmful, ineffective substances, and no access to relatively harmless, effective ones, is extremely important; as is the more philosophical question about why our own consciousness isn’t ours to explore however we see fit. She does a fantastic job trying to answer these, and issues just a little hope that some sanity might enter our approach to drugs in this country, sooner than later.  Quite a few books about the subject of psychedelic therapy  have come out recently, mostly by fairly mainstream authors; something is in the air, and this book is a good place to find out about it – highly recommended!

Your best year ever

Your Best Year Ever:  A 5-Step Plan for Achieving Your Most Important Goals by Michael Hyatt                  Audio Book: 4 hours, 30 mins.      Hardback Book:  272 pages       


A good motivational read.   Hyatt’s five step plan will have you taking notes and setting goals.    He is highly inspiring asking you to first find your WHY.    Why are you where you are?    Why do you stay if it isn’t your happy place?    Why are you afraid to try to achieve your goal?    Why do you feel that way, what happened to you to make you feel that way?    Why are you waiting?   Why not get up, get out, get going?    Lots of motivational stories and quotes here, too.   He talks about resolutions and why they mostly fail and why gym memberships look really great in January but not so much by February when most folks have hit the wall and aren’t so eager to push through those resolutions they have already began to or completely have given up on.    He talks about not beating yourself up if you haven’t socked away that money toward your bills because something else came up.   Or so you ate an entire cake when you were so trying to count your carbs, then your sweety breaks up with you just when you had bought that ring for her and those six-pack abs are a thing of the past, bring on the Haagen daz.     Set backs are simply that – set backs not stops, just bumps in the road.    Life plays hard and fast and its o.k. to struggle to overcome roadblocks.     We can’t always dynamite our way through.     Don’t let set backs defeat you.     Derail you momentarily, but never will they defeat you unless you let  them.   Positivity is easier said than done, but, Michael Hyatt comes up with some really good advice and thoughts on how when we are knocked off our feet, we can get back up, dust ourserlves off and start all over again.   Like Chumbawamba’s song says, “I get knocked down, but, I get up again.”    A realistic 5 step program to begin at any time – you don’t have to wait for January 1st – just plan out for a year and see the great reachable results that he shows you how to achieve a lot with minimum effort on your part – key word throughout is focus.   Focus on the issue, focus on your goals, check yourself to be sure you are staying on track then live happy with your success ie. Your Best Year Ever.    He teaches you how to get past the self-defeating behavior as well as procrastination.    Good book.

The ABCs of Success

The ABCs of Success:  The Essential Principles from America’s Greatest Prosperity Teacher by Bob Proctor         Audio Book:  4 hrs. 37 mins.     Paperback Book:  224 pages             

See your job in the scheme of things, step back and look at your job through the eyes of the customer.    Don’t let the goof offs hold you down nor hold you back so that when you go home at night, you can feel good about all that you accomplished.   Remember there wouldn’t be airplanes today if the Wright Brothers had let the fear of whether they could accomplish their goals hold them back.   As you dream so you shall become.   Set a goal and once you get there you can see how to get to your next goal.   Millions of people live their lives conforming to what other people want them to or expect them to be.   They lose themselves in this constricting existence.  Why?   It takes courage to step out on your own – it’s so much easier to follow the crowd and it is what we are taught as little kids so few people follow their true dreams and passions but Bob Proctor says it does take courage to stand out from the crowd or for the teenager to say no when the other kids are going down the wrong path.   Henry Ford says develop that difference with all you’ve got.   There is no compensation for conformity.   The secret to freedom is courage- the secret to courage is freedom.   I love this guy.   I plan to read every book I can find by him.   What a great life coach.   He has such inspirational things to say, man.    Wish he was my best friend – it would be good on those days when you feel beat down or just don’t have the oomph to look on the bright side this guy cuts to the heart of issues and would motivate a person to be their utmost best.   Knowledge is true liberty he says.   Think different.   Positive thoughts create the law of attraction – you are a living, breathing creative magnet and you attract things into your life that are in harmony with you.    Everything in this world vibrates because everything is a mass of energy.   Most people wish positive but think negative as a creative individual if you think positive thoughts expect the best to come and you will attract only good things to make your dreams come true.   Man, if this guy was your Dad you would grow up with all the get up, get out and get going attitude you would ever need.    What a self-starter!   He quotes Billy Graham as saying, “the smallest package in the world is the man who is all wrapped up in himself.”   Bob Proctor says,  “positive leaders shine and attract like people into their world.   Only you can decide which person you will be.   We are all two people, first ,we are the person we show to the world, second we are the person we are.    We need to unify both of those people helping to develop this inner vulnerable person who is a deep thinker and sensitive to the potential assaults from the world with the exterior person who tries to show a teflon persona to the world.   We need to use our brain to solve the problems we are afraid of and tap into the power of our conscious and unconscious to focus our intention- that is a fire to be kindled.   If you want to become a millionaire you must decide to do it.   The difference between you and a millionaire is you want to be a millionaire but the millionaire decided to become one and did what he had to do to achieve  millionaire status.     So simple, yet so reasonable.   Loads of good stuff to be found here.   I highly recommend this book and Bob Proctor as a serious spur you on to success author.    His enthusiasm is contagious.   And that is a good thing.    Get up and look for the circumstances you want and go for them!   Yay, Bob Proctor!     

The Simpler Living Handbook

The Simpler Living Handbook by Jeff Davidson            Paperback: 288 pages          

This book is overwhelming there is so much good stuff packed between its pages!    It took me a long time to read this one because it is seriously so jam-packed on every page with useful ideas and tips.   It is a great book with information for absolutely everything from simplifying your life by minimalizing your material goods to when best to buy that new car and even tips on fixing your car.   From cooking to cleaning, from decorating to having the garage of your dreams with helpful hints, ideas, projects thrown in for practically anything you could want.   The author even throws in chapters on getting your finances under control and organizing your business needs and simplifying your paperwork, making your work flow more efficiently with offerings on customer service and how best to work with the clients your business or organization serves.    There is even a whole section on making your romantic relationship work, how to make sure you are taking good care of your nutritional health, and exercising the easy way while reaping the rewards of weight loss and toning ending with a chapter on taking it easy and finding your happy place.    I love this book even if it did take me an eon to finish it.   It is so worth your time you will learn so much from this book.   I feel like I completed 4 years of college and 2 of graduate work after this read.   You will come away so enlightened you will be glad you put the time in to really glean the immense amount of knowledge offered here.

The More of Less

The More of Less:  Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own by Joshua Becker                        Audio Book: 6 hours, 30 minutes      Book:  240 pages                

Joshua Becker could be a preacher.    A preacher of the minimalist lifestyle.    I always knew I could do with less stuff.   Many things I own or have on a shelf or in a closet or a box are not things I need or particularly want any more.    They are things that for whatever reason at the time, spur of the moment, it seemed like the right price or maybe I liked it (but didn’t LOVE it)  maybe I had a plan for it at the time or maybe I got it for some occasion long passed that it didn’t make it to, whatever the reason, I have stuff.    Joshua Becker and his family had stuff, too.    He decided to clean out his garage one day and after 6 hours of intense work – he had brought all his garage stuff out on his driveway, worked all day and hadn’t made a dent in the pile of stuff covering his driveway and the day was passing and he still had to decide what to do with all the stuff and what he might want to find a place for and return it to the garage in a much cooler organized fashion.    He took a break and was talking to his neighbor lady about what a job it was and how overwhelming having all that stuff was when she said to him, “You just need less stuff.”   So simple.   So pure.   So true.    It was like he was hit with a lightning bolt.    The answer was right there in front of him, literally.    It wasn’t about finding places to restore all this unused, untouched stuff, it was downsizing and getting rid of all the mass of clutter that was not serving him in any way.   So began his quest for the minimalist life.    He shared his aha moment with his wife.   They discussed and yes, she too, became a convert to the minimalist philosophy with the caveat there were dishes she might not use every day, but, wanted to keep for sentimental reasons she was not ready to let go of.    Done.   Compromise in place.    After explaining to their kids and getting them onboard though parting with well loved but no longer played with toys brought a few tears, the kids began to find the game in it all.    Well, there was an exception.    His son saved up his money to buy a skateboard.   He had been wanting it for a long time but when Joshua took his son to the store to buy the skateboard so many other items caught his eye that he and his son both went in to tantrum mode.    All the glitzy marketing ploys distraced his son’s attention from what he came in for to make him think he could not live without a dinosaur tent, some race cars and a number of other things between the door and the aisle with  the skateboards.   Joshua was adamant – you came in for a skateboard and that is what you are leaving with nothing else!   They finally agreed on if his son would wait a few days and see if he still wanted the other things he could save up and get them, too, but, the deal was he couldn’t get them that day, he had to wait and think about it.    His son left with the skateboard he had come in for and never went back for the other stuff.    Joshua Beck’s point is people are so blasted with all marketing ads telling us how we can’t live without a thing that companies pay billions of dollars to marketing firms to find the right combination to our psyches to make us want something we never thought about before and honestly don’t need.   It is like the difference between having a real hunger or having a taste for something.    You are either actually in need of food or something just crossed your mind that you think you want though you may not even be hungry at all.   It is thanks to marketing that we over indulge our appetites for food and for stuff and either our waistlines increase or our homes overflow with too many things in the space we have to live in or both.    Joshua’s point is we can be happier, healthier and mentally less fatigued if we have less things to worry about.    And stockpiling stuff only feels good in the moment not the long term.    We may be happy with some nugget we have unearthed and feel we are king of our castle but once the things take over and revolt against us, the things take over our lives and we are stuck with less space to enjoy in our own homes.    Instead of being master of all we survey, we become slaves to all the crap we have amassed.    If all of our excess space is taken up with excess stuff we are not getting the joy out of our homes, our cars, our attics, basements, garages you name it because we are paying merely for storage space not usuable family space.    Joshua and his family set the example here for why do we need 6 of anything when 2 or 4 will do?   Why do we need to own 500 DVDs if we can go to the Library and borrow them then return them and not have them clutter our space and require dusting taking more of our time away we could be enjoying outside doing something fun?   The man makes excellent and memorable points.   I loved this book.    I am going to start paring down right now.      Cheers to the minimalist lifestyle.     Better living with less to maintain and store.              

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast

What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast by Laura Vanderkam  192 pages.

Great book!   So inspiring!   So many terrific ideas and my favorite has to be that we all have 168 hours every week in which to sleep, work, play, eat, go out, stay in, exercise, go on dates, hang out with family, hang out with friends, take classes, take trips,  whatever we choose to include in that time – we all have it and no body gets to say, “I don’t have time to do that,” because we all have the same amount of time, it’s all in how we allocate it and our priorities are where we burn up the most of our time.     Looking at all those hours on a grid, which the author provides free on her website and also in the book, gives you such a sense of “wait a minute, maybe I’m not spending my time as well as I could.”    She takes several participants on a one week time journaling journey.    When you see how folks utilize their time on paper right there in front of you, it is easy to see just how susceptible we are to eating up time in less than efficient, less than productive and less than making you happy ways.      The computer age has allowed information to be gleaned in mere seconds – the world is virtually at our fingertips, but, instead of lightening our load as it was supposed in the early stages, it has increased our need for information, for speed in getting it and cluttered us up with more paper from all the amazing things we are able to access and hold onto.    Everyone is busy, their lives are full and so often we say no to things we might like to do (or maybe not J) but can’t because of all the things going on in our lives.   Laura Vanderkam shows the reader how to keep track of one entire week in their life to give them a visual perspective on just how they allocate their time.   It’s an eye-opener.     She also points out that all of those weekends when we can’t find the time to add one more thing – if one actually looks at the amount of time between 6:00p.m. on Friday and 8:00a.m. on Monday there are honestly enough hours to schedule in catching up with friends and loved ones and still having time to sleep, eat, read/have me time, do whatever your priority project is, meditate, exercise and still have time left.    We just have to allocate our time better to accomplish all we want out of it.    And what do the most successful people do before breakfast?    First of all they get up at least an hour earlier than usual to give themselves an extra hour per day to achieve their goals.    That may be exercising, have quiet time away from the kids to do a load of wash before breakfast, school and work, it may be getting up and giving yourself an hour to devote to writing, journaling, getting in that letter/personal email you want to for fun, not work, whatever it is you truly desire – taking time for self – that is an extra 7 hours you are paying yourself every week to do something important to you.   It doesn’t have to be work, it can be fun.    It doesn’t have to be sewing a costume for the kids plays or finishing that report you have been stressing over.    This is time for you to do whatever makes you happy and starts your day making you feel good.   Extra time in the shower before your significant other uses all the hot water?    Completing that craft project you have been dying to start but have too many distractions during the day to bother with and too many chores when you get home to feed the family and pets, clean up and get to bed.   Maybe you would love to learn a foreign language but can’t eke out the time to spend really getting it or would like to take a class online but can’t carve out the time – BAM!    Now that is what the most successful people do before breakfast – they do whatever makes them happy.