Ahhh, "Springtime"...a wondrous time of year. A time of renewal, recharging and re-organizing! Yes, getting organized can be fun, rewarding and gratifying! And it is very exciting - I love what I do! It’s not so much that I have an innate desire to keep every itty bitty piece of anything regimentally in order, in your space or mine. It stems from the inner satisfaction I get from assisting others to achieve their dreams and goals. This is the real reward of my chosen career: being of service and assisting others in ways that allow them the time and space to do what they do best!

Since founding The PHOENIX Organizational Consulting Service I have had the genuine pleasure of servicing hundreds of people in numerous walks of life. I have seen people accomplish what they deemed impossible and watched them gain clearer perspectives on where they are and where they are going, as well as acquire the illusive time necessary to achieve their personal dreams. Many now understand that the rewards of being more organized are in direct correlation to maintaining the balance in one’s life on both the professional and personal level.

My workshops and seminars teach that a personal mission statement and a business mission statement are important tools for maintaining this balance between our professional and personal lives. What do they have to do with getting organized? Everything. Are they different? Yes and no. My personal statement represents what I "am," not what I am "doing". My business statement symbolizes what I am doing in accordance to who I am. Each is in alignment with the other...that is why I have a passion for what I do - because it is who I am.

"The vision that you glorify in your mind, the Ideal that you enthrone in your heart - This you will build your life by, this you will become." As a Man Thinketh, James Allen

Happy Springtime! May you achieve all that you can be!

Much Aloha,

Julie

A big Mahalo to all those who entered our "3rd Annual In Search of the Most Dis-Organized Home Office On Maui" Contest. Congratulations to our winner Frangelica Hermann! Who knows... maybe Frangelica will even write a short synopsis of her experiences for our next Newsletter? We’ll keep you posted on her progress.

There was definitely a sense of last minute urgency in the air this year! I received numerous calls seeking directions on "how to get to my home" in order to place the entry in my mailbox, several E-mails, and the normal amount of late entries.

I applaud your persistence one and all, especially to those of you who met the deadline despite my being unaware that it was a postal holiday. Actually we can choose to look at this as a positive lesson: it was a very good example of what many of us may do on a daily basis: dealing with the urgency created from procrastination.

This year’s prizes are valued at almost $2000 ! The winner will receive:

The PHOENIX Organizational Consulting Service

by Julie Signore

A warm Mahalo Nui Loa to all of our co-sponsors:

• Asset Commander personal inventory workbook system by Donna McMillan

• Astrological business reading by "Rhanja"

• Executive style desk note pad from Lillian Vernon

• $50 gift certificate from the Office Mart

• Organizing Options by the SFBA Chapter (NAPO)

• PaperMaster: by DocuMajix -- this can potentially eliminate as much as 85% of the paper in your office

• Red Dot portfolio system

• Rubbermaid portable project file system

• Valley Isle Lighting Company desk lamp

Q: "I just don’t have the time to get organized yet I desperately need to. I have reached a very critical state and there is far too much at stake with my business and personal life. I have tried to make time to contact you but I keep procrastinating. I am so embarrassed that I don’t want you to use my name. Please help - I am desperate!"

A: OK now, I know there are many New Year’s Resolutions to "get organized" just waiting with baited desire to start. You are not alone. If you have not given this project a date yet...I challenge you to tackle it within this quarter. "But I don’t have the time" is the most often used rationalization. Well, remaining dis-organized will ensure you never have the time.

So how does one start? Where do you begin? Begin by beginning. The size of the step is irrelevant. A single step may be: taking 10 minutes to open "part of" last week’s mail or pick up all the laundry that may be piling up in a corner. The action is what is necessary at this time to see the fruition of your goal.

Start by setting aside one day a week. Take your calendar out right now and place a big "X" in the time slot you have committed yourself to beginning in the upcoming week. Remember, we always tackle projects of this significance in what I call "chewable chunks". Block off either a 2 or 4 hour time slot on the day you have chosen. Now continue to block the same time slot in your schedule for each consecutive week for the next 3 months (time will vary depending on the size of one’s space to organize). Consistency is key here. This is by no means to be taken as a selfish action. It is a basic need like food and water. After all, there are 168 hours in a week...I am only suggesting you take a maximum of 4 of them to accomplish your goal. Trust me - this does work!

Now I know many people feel the urge to say "yes" to something else that may come along...that may be more appealing than organizing one’s space; however, that is what got us into our little problem to begin with. I am asking you to make yourself a priority for the next 3 months - that’s it! After 3 months of tackling your organizing project of choice the pride of accomplishment and the results achieved will be motivation enough to want to continue designating small chunks of time to stay organized. Besides...by then it will be a very well developed positive habit!

The "buddy system" is a fun way to keep motivated as well as challenge each other to continue. Validating another’s excuses is not what this 10 minute conversation is all about. Set up a system whereby you contact each other for 10 minutes a week. During that time, discuss your successes, obstacles or frustrations.

If you get stuck and don’t know where or how to continue, yet still desperately yearn to achieve this goal....give me a call. I would be more than happy to set up a "beginning consultation" with you. I guarantee there is nothing to be embarrassed about - that is just another one of the many ways we sabotage ourselves into not achieving what we deserve.

We want to hear about your successes, trials or tribulations. Drop us a line at "Ask Julie..." or give us a call. Anyone choosing to do this via the phone, please understand that you have only 4 minutes to tell your story and don’t forget to leave your phone number. If we publish one of your communications you will receive a free copy of "199 Successful Hints..." published by Julie Signore. You will have the choice of either using your first name or remaining anonymous upon request.

"It is not what you are that holds you back - but rather what you think you are not!" -- T.Wilhite

How many Time Management systems have you experimented with? 1? 5? Still searching for the perfect model that fits your life? Do you know exactly where your life is heading on professional, personal and family levels? Well search no more!

The GEODEX Life Management System is a business management system that has quietly been amongst us for over 20 years. This is a totally innovative business and life management tool. It is the first system that really integrates and fosters the balance of one’s professional, personal and family life.

As many of you know, I incorporate what I consider to be the primary foundation of getting organized in my seminars. This is covered in my 6 Step Plan to Life Management. Well, now I have found a business management/life management/time management system that supports my 6 Step Plan to Life Management. This system will actually assist you in continuing what you learned in my seminar every day! It provides the guidelines for achieving one’s vision, mission and goals in all aspects of one’s life and fosters the balance that each of us deserves.

In the last 15 years GEODEX has conducted numerous surveys and tests. Their results show that users:

• have achieved a 23.9% increase in personal productivity

• saved an average of 5.9 hours a week

• shared an increased sense of control which translates in terms of stress reduction

• report a greater sense of balance and renewed sense of purpose within a very short time

The GEODEX system is also uniquely structured to accommodate numerous professions based upon need and circumstances characteristic to each field. Systems can be structured for professionals in:

• Total Quality/Corporate • Sales and Marketing • Clergy

• Real Estate • Health Care • Civilian Government

• Total Quality/Military

By the way, unlike any other similar system, GEODEX offers a 100% unconditional guarantee.

I am in the process of completing the necessary requirements to personally become a Business Associate for GEODEX International. It is my intention to present a mini-workshop/mini-refresher of my 6 Step Plan to Life Management and incorporate the functions and various usage of the GEODEX Life Management system. The cost for this workshop will be minimal to anyone who has attended my "Getting Organized For Success" Seminar. The system will be the "end of the search" for many.

• In stock now.. the infamous (4) Wire-Basket System.

• Contact us for your complimentary info packet on the RED DOT system.

• "199 Successful ‘Hints" On Organizing Your Home - For The BUSY Person!" $10.

*Include $1.50 for s/h when requesting a mailing. On request, this booklets may be mailed anywhere in the United States.

As mentioned last quarter I was scheduled to be on the Mainland to attend the ‘96 Conference for the National Association of Professional Organizers in Santa Clara. The conference was extra special for me this year as I was a "Conference Presenter." The title of my workshop was Online Magic...The Unlimited Possibilities.

The conference is always a remarkable opportunity to pick up new tips and tools of the trade, attend an expansive Trade Show and seek out new and innovative products that allow me to assist my clients even more proficiently.

It is also 4 days of very little sleep in order to catch up with old friends, professionals and associate members. For me, it is very exciting to meet with all the new members of NAPO. They are the mainstream that fosters the growth and awareness of our growing profession. It is always so incredible to watch a newcomer get more and more absorbed in the vast array of assistance provided by this association while somewhat yearning to return home quickly in order to utilize the knowledge attained from conference.

NAPO adopted a motto at one of our conferences 2 years ago: "Together we are better" and this is so true no matter who we are or what we do for a living. It was the support and synergy of this association that prompted me 3 years ago to fulfill a need and bring to fruition a monstrous vision I had for NAPO...to connect the association using the medium of online network services. The camaraderie I experienced in that conference was nothing I took lightly and I saw no need to suffice it to say: "see you next year".

Little did I know the magnitude that my dream and vision would reach 3 years later. NAPO is now connected online utilizing the major networks. All Board members communicate online to reduce expenses. Chapter Presidents now have a common link to hold monthly meetings regardless of locale, and members and newbies alike have a medium that keeps them connected throughout the year.

In striving towards fulfilling this goal, I met Paul Edwards (SOHO guru) and NAPO acquired their own section in the Working From Home Forum on CompuServe where we, as an association, can assist people with their organization dilemmas around the globe.

Online services have allowed me:

• to be of service and assist the general public on a much wider basis

• to support my peers and newbies in the field of Professional Organizing in reaching their

business goals

• to acquire additional coaching clients

• to be offered a National radio slot on the Working From Home Show (scheduled for May 27

at 5:30 PM)

• to gain recognition in being the recipient of the 1996 Presidents Award for contributions to

the field of Professional Organizing.

Yes - I have a deep passion for what I do and who I am...my dream is to assist as many people in this lifetime as I can, so that they too, can find the time for what they do best! Besides I’ll never know if the next person I assist will then find more time to devote to the discovery of a cure for a plaguing disease...or someone who realizes their passion is more in alignment to profound contributions towards world peace.

Before putting this issue to press I would like to share one last quote with you:

"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond words. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that others won’t feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us, it’s in everyone. And as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."

--Marianne Williamson

Take the time necessary... to do what is needed ... to be all that you are!