A Note From Julie...

Aloha & the brightest, happiest, & healthiest of New Years to one & all!

As I ponder the people & achievements that have touched my life in 1996, I am grateful for my many, many blessings. As I remember the "not so good days" I am once again filled with the gratitude for the lessons learned. Had I the opportunity to change any of it, no matter how grand or severe the lesson ...I would opt for following the universal plan that was set in motion to a "T."

Why? Because each experience gave me the opportunity to grow as a person in numerous regards. Each opportunity blessed me with a greater awareness & deeper compassion that enables me to be the best I can be as a professional with my clients, friend to my friends & partner to my spouse.

As we embark on this new year might I suggest that you be gentle with yourself? Look back with gratitude for what you were gifted to be exposed to ...no matter what the experience! I would venture to believe that some how, some way you have grown, changed or prospered from the experience no matter how subtle the level or the magnitude of the adventure or experience.

I would also like to take this moment to suggest that you look back on 1996 & acknowledge ALL that you have accomplished ...not what was left undone. Understand that each and every goal you set no matter how large or small IS the experience. The journey that we are each on is all about the processes not the arrival as so many astutes keep reminding us. Like the "Road to Hana" we need to savor the moments of beauty along the way instead of anticipating a magical land when "we arrive." We are not a tourist in lifes journey ...we are the "locals." We make the journey become all that it truly can be.

In the words of Mary Butler: "Remember you don't have a great day ...you make them!"

Warm wishes for many wondrous ventures in 1997 -- enjoy the journey!

Much Aloha,
Julie

New Year's Resolutions vs Intentions

Happy New Year everyone! I hope and trust the evolution of another year was peaceful, joyous and prosperous. Looking forward into the near and distant future, perhaps you took some time to participate in a cultural tradition making some New Year's Resolutions.

I almost did -- until a colleague of mine drew a distinction for me between the words "resolution" and "intention." She said "resolution" could take a negative slant where we are "resolved" to making commitments on the basis of areas in our lives where we feel less than satisfied. We are not making them out of clear intentions and therefor, making conscious choices.

For example, New Year's Resolutions to losing weight, making more money or finding a romantic partner are usually made because "Madison Avenue" tells us we need to be thin, you need this
product or people who have a partner are happier. We are listening to the "noise of the world."

With this distinction drawn, I suggest we move forward with intention -- clear actions we want to take on the basis of conscious choices. Therefore, lets consider our New Year's Intentions. And let's focus on intentions for our respective businesses.

How do we achieve clarity on our intentions? I know of no better way in life than to tap into the tool of creating and reviewing a Vision Statement and Mission Statement. Initially writing and then reviewing this tool on a weekly basis will contribute more to the development and growth of your business than any other business activity put before it.

A Vision Statement and Mission Statement are living documents. While the heart of the material will remain, adjustments to the form will be made as you grow and evolve, both personally and professionally. These two statements have a critical place in the business planning module, where most of us are familiar with initial questions pertaining to legal status, finance and marketing.

The Vision Statement is the first creation, the Mission Statement being the second. The Vision Statement is the "What"; the Mission Statement is the "How."

Allocate time and go to a quiet place where you can pause and ponder on these issues. Bring a journal, grab an herbal tea, mocha or other soothing drink. Nature is a wonderful setting. Relish in this allocated time, make it scared and honor yourself for the commitment to this process.

Sitting comfortable, I suggest you do a visualization. Begin with the bigger picture, envisioning yourself in the midst of authentic service towards others, visualizing how you use the skill set that draws our the desires of your heart, skills that bring you joy. (Tip: visualize yourself serving one of your clients.)

Once this picture is in place, observe the reaction of your client in the visualization. What is their response and outside of receiving the direct service, what are the benefits your client derives from you?

I suggest that those benefits will help you with your Vision Statement as they reveal the heart of your contribution. If you were to look back at the end result of your contribution, what would that look like? It's the vision you hold for your respective firm.

Concurrently, continuing to the next level of thought, what is your personal mission in your role as a business person? How will you fulfill your vision? Identify the business activities that you engage in when serving a client. Record this in your journal.

This process will help you achieve clarity and in turn support your success as an entrepreneur. This will happen because your intentions are clear. The actions you take in the near and distant future will be conscious choices, cultivated from the process of writing and reviewing a Vision Statement and Mission Statement.

Once this is in place, I suggest you revisit this thorough process biannually. In between, review your statements on a weekly basis to reconnect yourself with your passion.

Having put this process in place, my you look back at 1997 with awe, not necessarily with how far you have to go, but with acknowledgment and joy at how far you've come. Celebrate!!!

"The mark of a successful organization isn't whether or not they have problems,
it's whether it has the same problems it had last year."
--John Foster Dules

Creating Your Personal Time...

"Who you are" goes far beyond "what you do." Yet how often do you take the necessary time to pursue a huge personal "Ahaa," or tune into creating the time and space to embark on achieving one of your long term dreams?

Oftentimes you may initiate on a new venture with amazing gusto. Yet, eventually, your drive and intention lose momentum. The desired results are put on hold due to lack of time or the inundation of commitments and responsibilities.

You reason that "the timing is wrong" or "I'm being selfish in this pursuit." You may even devise alternative time frames to appease your heart once again. Later when your:

• kids are in high school or college
  
• spouse finishes their school program
  
• current commitment ends in six months
  
• work schedule is only 40 hours a week
  
• retired

You are not alone! Yet there may be a vital piece of this mystery that you are unaware of. How do others do it? How can you take the necessary time and space that is crucial for you in being who you are, so you can do what you do best?

It's called "creating personal time & space."

The "key" to reaching the fruition of your dreams is what I call "chewable chunks." Many times, we set ourselves up to fail by seeking large clumps of time to start a new project, devote to a dream or achieve a personal goal.

This is the missing piece. A reality of life is: we don't have the leisure of unlimited personal time! "Personal Time" is created with positive intention, desire and knowing we deserve it! It is scheduled.

Tips for creating your personal time:

• Do you need to get up 30 minutes earlier to create your quiet space?
  
• Can you take the first hour after work to regroup or ground yourself by enrolling in a special interest class vs running around completing errands?

• Avoid the urge to review all your other responsibilities first and settling for "what's left." You must claim what you need first.
  
• Designate a minimum of 30 uninterrupted minutes for yourself at a set time on a daily basis.
  
• "X" out a block of uninterrupted time -- either a full day, half day, 2 hours or even 1 hour, that you claim for yourself on a weekly basis.

• There are no obligations more important than you taking the necessary time to recharge your own spirit.
  
• Create the space for regular exercise; meditation; reading; enrolling in a craft class; journaling; going back to school; taking up hang gliding etc...

When scheduling your time first, you will begin to experience:

• other responsibilities and commitments are miraculously being completed.
  
• radical changes in the amount of time and energy you expend on other responsibilities.
  
• far less stress.

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The Contest Search Is On...

Each year in honor of the hundreds of thousands of New Years Resolutions to "Get Organized" (second only to losing weight), The PHOENIX Organizational Consulting Service and Julie Signore, Professional Organizer/Personal Coach, kick off the New Year with their annual contest. Now you can insure your goal to "Get Organized" receives all the help and support possible!

This year the contest started on January 13th and ends February 24th. The winner will receive 20 hours of free Professional Organizing services. A total of over $2500 in services and prizes. The lucky winner will be announced March 17, 1997

Rules and regulations: Submit a photo(s) of your Office along with a 300 word essay on "Why you are Dis-organized and why you want to Get Organized."

Due to overwhelming responses in the past, this years contest is open island wide & is no longer restricted to Home Offices -- any office can enter!

The contest will run a total of 6 weeks. All entries must be postmarked no later than February 24, 1997.

I meet people all year long who swear they could have won this contest! Yet they neglected to enter because they decided they wanted to tidy up their space prior to taking the photo. Somehow they never found the time. (that is a perfect reason to enter) So pay attention here: "Just take the picture - as is!"

This one contest can truly change your life - forever! You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, as Nike says: "Just do it"!

For questions or more information contact Julie Signore at 878.2617. All entries need to be postmarked by February 24,1997 and mailed to:

It's been a long haul of countless conference calls, dozens of hours talking to our programmer, endless nights of writing & editing, Mainland travel, & numerous delays beyond belief ...yet the 1, 2, 3, SORT IT Website is now open for review! Yippee-i-o-ki-aay

In case you misplaced your last newsletter the url is: www.123sortit.com. We welcome you as our guests to peruse this awesome website! (We are humble --yet very proud of our end result!)

The site is loaded with tips for Business, Office & Residential organizing in a magnitude of categories. There is a Resource section; Links to many of our favorite vendors & merchants; Contests; Professional Coaching; Inspirational section; 10 new product reviews --monthly; Miracles Makeovers; Q&A for your personal organizing dilemmas & much, much, much more!

This is a highly diversified & evolving website and each month you will receive additional information to meet your personal & professional needs!

We are launching our website with a "Messie Desk Contest." Anyone can enter! Tell your friends, spouses, co-workers et al. The contest ends Saturday March 5, 1997. So get connected & have a blast. This website is organized (obviously) for you to have fun!

Remember to fill out our questionnaire & evaluation form in the "Viewpoints" section to be entered into our quarterly drawing for our "Grand Opening Package!"

Feeling Overwhelmed ...

• Have you ever been in a space where you felt completely devastated?

• Have you ever felt like your world was totally collapsing & everything around you shattering left & right?

• Have you ever felt totally overwhelmed by your environment?

I know all to well how such overwhelming circumstances can reek havoc in one's mind & life.

On November 1, 1996 I stumbled into what I thought was a minor problem on my trusty ol' MAC. At the end of 24 hours I was scurrying like a bunny attempting to copy all the data on my gigabyte hard drive across the network to hubby's hard drive.

The following 24 hours depicted the problem as partially resolved --yet little did I know the roller coaster ride had just begun. The next step was contacting a specific software vendor for technical support & then suddenly things became quite dismal. The final chance (& a ray of hope) was communicating with Apple computer. "Ahhhhh! Now with their input I was sure to recover!"

No such luck. I then reached into the depths of my soul & asked: "How important is it?" "VERY" was the response I heard. I decided that spending a thousand dollars on this recovery was definitely worthwhile & decided to contact the pros: "Drive Savers International". After all, I heard they could recover anything! Drives that have been run over by cars, plummeted from tall buildings, salvaged from fires, sunk in rivers -- you name it! It was worth the price to recover my livelihood from my hard drive.

I prayed November 4th would be my lucky day & got up early to contact Drive Savers. The assessment was: "there is no recovery procedure available for your situation -- sorry we cannot help you."

I hung up in silence & then did the next best thing I knew: I cried profusely. Yup, I bawled my eyes out, turned off the computer & wouldn't step foot in my office for the next 4 days.

By this time I was mentally & physically exhausted because recovery procedures in the Signore Home Office had been around the clock for an entire weekend. (Likened to an intense surgical procedure - where life & death were the stakes.)

Every ounce of my 11 years experience as a computer techie from my past life were employed. Every smidgin' of know-how & where-with-all were devoted to resuscitating my ol' MAC for 4 solid days. To no avail. Then reality hit: 97% of all I had ever created for my business was lost permanently. Poof! In the blink of an eye.

The next 4 days were spent physically & mentally grieving the loss I had just realized. I went on long walks, read personal empowerment books, journaled my fingers to the bone & went to a quiet beach on a cloudy, windy day to rejuvenate my spirit near the healing ocean.

In retrospect I know I would not have been able to regain the resiliency of my nature had I not taken the necessary space to heal the anguish that I was then being challenged by.

I share this story with you for 2 reasons:

• First: now you know why the Christmas issue of this Newsletter has become the January issue.

• Second: what I went through emotionally, mentally & physically is exactly what many of my clients go through on a regular basis -- dealing with dis-organization on a multitude of levels within their lives.

Many times when you may attempt to get organized on our own it requires days & even full weekends to resuscitate your working space, sometimes to no avail. Not having the appropriate knowledge or tools can be a hindrance to the recovery process. And then in vain ...you may decide to quit. You are too overwhelmed to step foot in the office again. You have become totally drained by the experience.

What got me out of the depressed state of loosing 4,050 files on my hard drive which included my book, all seminar & workshop material, handouts, speeches, brochures, business cards, newsletters, promo packets, business forms, master copies of all business procedures etc...?

I realized I had the opportunity to totally reinvent my business -- in EVERY way! (I even lost my favorite font!)

• There was an opportunity to change what was comfortable & stretch beyond that known space of comfort.
  
• An opportunity to delegate more to those who could assist me in order to free my time to do what I do best.
  
• An opportunity to do things differently & even let go of what was working --to test more intriguing waters.

These same opportunities are available to any one of you who choose to get your life, business & personal space more organized in 1997.

Consider reinventing the way you are currently operating:

• Proceeding with the same actions will continually reap the same results.
  
• Reach beyond the excuses that justify remaining dis-organized: lack of money, lack of time, lack of know how.
  
• Procure professional assistance to support you in creating the organized environment you have always "dreamt of."
  
• Delegate more to those who can facilitate -- so you have the time & space to do what you do best.
  
• Vow to end procrastination on getting more organized -- before it becomes a necessity.

• Reinvention & disorganization can initially be overwhelming when performed out of necessity.

• Remember: "What we resist will persist."

• HOW, in all my years of business -- did I ended up with a client schedule that provided me with a week of no commitments outside my administrative functions in my own home office?

In reflection of our year of gratitude The PHOENIX Organizational Consulting Service is now sending out close to 800 newsletters on a quarterly basis per your individual requests. (Would you believe my database is one of the "miracle documents" that was not destroyed in the MAC crash of November 1st? -- thank God!)

In light of the many opportunities that abound in reinventing the PHOENIX, our Newsletter will now be taking on a different avenue of distribution.

Smart business sense indicates that we engage in the technological resources available & upload the newsletter to the 1, 2, 3, SORT IT website quarterly. In this manner we will reach an even greater number of people who struggle with the ongoing battles of dis-organization ...as well as eliminate "extra paper" from your offices.

For those who do not have internet access or who prefer to receive the "real thing", we are now offering an annual subscription. The annual fee for The PHOENIX Organizing Times is $13 for 4
issues of highly informational & motivational articles, tips, product recommendations, Q&A, Contest announcements & the quarterly workshop & seminar schedule.

Because you are my valued clients & interested potential clients, there will be a $3 gratis on any subscriptions that are received prior to February 28, 1997.

Send your name, address & payment to:

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What's New In Organizing Tools...

First of all Alan & my trip to the Dallas SHOPA Trade show was quite an awesome experience! We actually diligently surveyed all 750 organizing exhibitions during our 3 day trip.

We are in the process of forming alliances with 19 of the vendors who displayed our favorite "new & innovative" organizing tools.

As we receive the data, stat sheets, photos, descriptions & product pictures --all new & innovative organizing tools will be loaded into our website as we review our 10 new monthly products.

In case you do not have web access, fear not -- all reviews will be archived into our Library section which is scheduled to open in the Fall of 1997! When you do gain access all the information will still be at your disposal. In the interim I will do my best to describe my favorite pick in each newsletter.

This quarter I would like to review an item that is more of "need to have" vs a "nice to have."

Asset Commander:

Finally, a personal inventory system that is easy to use!

Enter, view, search and sort your personal inventory with push button simplicity! This system is designed to help you track assets, personal items, property, jewelry, auto, entertainment items, insurance policies and more!

An invaluable product when it comes to tracking net worth or handling insurance claims caused by fire, theft or natural disasters. Eliminate stress -- be prepared. Databasix Technologies Note: For ordering information contact our office at 878.2617.

Personal Assets Inventory Workbook: $11.95
Asset Commander Software: $29.95
Workbook & Software; $34.95