Hi there
I hate to be the one to break the news but you know 2008? Half over already. So all the things you meant to get done this year, but haven’t yet made a priority, need to be squeezed in to six months now. Hop to it.
Something that could help are the ideas of Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-hour work week - Escape the 9-5, live anywhere and join the new rich. (Vermilion 2007)
Although Tim left off the first half of the book title, ie, ‘First start a business that generates an income of $70,000 per MONTH and that requires little of your time and then have the four hour week’, and isn’t married and doesn’t have any children, he has some challenging ideas that can really help even those of us not in his financial league.
The main one is that the concepts of 9 to 5, week days and weekends and 40 or 35 hour weeks are all just conventions that we think we have to adhere to. He says we think we are forced to work hard and save for a humble holiday each year and anything different from that confronts our sense of what is right and proper.
I agree with him. It’s hard to think we are entitled to live our lives as we please. We do a lot of things purely because it is what is expected of us.
I have posed this question before in this newsletter, but will ask it again.
Who are we living our lives for?
The plan for this newsletter is to give you five minutes of reflection time on the last Friday of each month. And so it is. How was your June? Did you make time for ‘palm trees and margaritas’?
Empowered living means making sure there is time in our lives for palm trees and margaritas*, however we define them.
I love to hear (and publish) your stories of how you are living your life. Please get in touch and share yours.
Karen Morath
karen@mpowercct.com
www.palmtreesandmargaritas.com
June 2008
* Life can’t be all palm trees and margaritas, but there are worse game plans.
The book Palm Trees and Margaritas - Finding Your Oasis in a Busy World is out now, go to www.palmtreesandmargaritas.com to buy your copy.
TIPS
This month’s tips are all about making everyday things easier, cheaper, more efficient or getting them out of the way so you can concentrate on other things you’d rather do.
1. Get food delivered to your house. Do the supermarket online thing, use Aussie Farmers to get bread, milk and other staples delivered free or support your local fruit and veg shop by organising a regular delivery. It saves hours a week and makes buying food to a budget very easy.
2. If you don’t have regular domestic help, book a one-off house clean or get a basket of ironing done. For the price of dinner for two (or lunch even) it can have a great impact on how you feel about the other things you need to do.
3. Write a handyman list and respond to one of those ‘no job too small’ ads. Those guys can whizz through a list that has been building for ages and instantly improve the way you live.
4. Invest in things that make life simpler. I just got a custom-built wardrobe, replacing a dodgy clothes rack and a wicker chair. The start of the day just got easier and more efficient as now everything I need is in my line of sight. Basic, I know, but it took me a while to recognise it as a priority.
TO ENJOY LIST
Here are some things readers and I have recommended for others ‘to enjoy’.
1. Last month I mentioned flash baked beans and said they were by Heinz. Oops, I meant SPC Bean Cuisine. Spicy Masala Chickpeas are yum. Reader Anne sent us her own version of flash baked beans.
Baked Beans with Sausages
Thin sausages - as many as you want
2 tablespoons oil
1 or 2 onions-sliced
2 teaspoons curry powder
440g can baked beans
445g can/jar italian cooking sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce.
Boil sausages; remove skins, cut into pieces.
Heat oil in pan, cook onions and curry powder until onions are tender. Add
baked beans, Italian cooking sauce, soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce, bring to the boil, simmer 15 minutes.
2. Word lovers will love ‘Great Australian Eulogies’ edited by Richard Walsh (Allen and Unwin 2008). Buy it just to read Andrew Denton’s poem for Don Chipp.
3. Scouts. My 11 year old son loves it. Check it out. It’s more fun than you’d think.
4. Mandarins are great right now. So are jonquils and they’re a few dollars a bunch. A cheap treat.
Please send your tips for things for others ‘to enjoy’ to me here.
STORIES
1. The health-warning holiday-makers
Reader Shannen’s neighbor had a health scare that reminded him that even though his very favourite thing to do in the world is fish in north Queensland with his brother, he hadn’t done it for 15 years. So he made plans. Shannen went too and there are more plans to rinse and repeat.
A family I know is going on a big family holiday later this year to precede major surgery their youngest child will have on their return. His mum told me that you have to do these things when you have such a sick child.
I think you have to go fishing if that’s what you love and spend time celebrating family life (whether on an exotic holiday or not) if that’s what you love just because you’re alive and in control of how you, and your family when they’re young, live life.
Often, medical realities or scares challenge people to revisit their priorities, and it is wonderful that they do, but why wait? Not everyone gets a warning bell on their mortality anyway. I say don’t wait for one. Get on with doing what is out there to do. You really are in the driving seat.
2. The 16 trip
I have mentioned something to a few people lately that has seemed to strike a chord, so I thought I’d share it here.
My son turns 16 soon and we are going away together on what has become known at home as ‘the 16 trip’. The idea is that one-on-one time with your kids is hard to deliver when you have more than one (I have three) and it is hard to compete with friends and sport and the like at home, so to spend some more-than-quality time, I have promised each of my kids a week anywhere with me when they are 16.
It means they get to follow their own interests in terms of location and activities rather than follow the family thinking and to see their (boring, staid, responsible) mum in a new light.
We’re off to China and catching the Trans Siberian Railway to Mongolia where we’re going to camp. (Who you mum? Camp?)
I hope my family’s 16 trips inspire your own version. The bottom line is find a way to spend some time with your kids doing different things.
If you are looking for a speaker for an event this year, click here to talk to me about a ‘Palm trees and margaritas’ presentation. I have formats that are ideal for business women’s networks and motivation or work/life balance aspects of conferences or training days. Or let’s discuss tailoring something especially for your needs.
REFLECTIONS
1. Vale Jane McGrath. There was a woman.