Tag Archives: technology

May1

Breakthrough

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Breakthrough

My loyal followers (bless you) know that I have dedicated this year of 2012 to breakthrough hurdles in three important areas of my life.   Those areas are    1. Technology phobia.   2.  Exercise     3.  Significant weight loss

All of these are areas in which I have had marginal success in the past.  However, significant breakthrough success has eluded me. First let me say I can tell that I have hit a nerve when I publish about this struggle.  Why?  Because on the last day of each month the ‘hits’ on my blog site jump way up whether I have published anything or not.  I know all of us struggle with particular issues that seem to beat us over and over again no matter what our initial commitment. I know you are rooting for me.

Some Good News

First let me talk about successes this month

    • My ebook and the print book version of Caregiving Elderly Parents have both been published and are available on Amazon.com.  Hooray!
    • Testimonials are starting to roll in.
    • My co-author, Marky Olson, and I are so proud of the way this book will help and encourage others.
    • This accomplishment required me to continually breakthrough my technology phobia.
    • I have learned about formatting for ebooks, blogging, rudiments of facebook, using drop box, attending webinars, using Search Engine Optimization, and countless other techie skills.
    • I’m very close to publishing my second book and ebook for teachers.

Breakdowns in Breakthroughs

I HATE to Admit this Publicly

But

Oh, how I am struggling in the other two areas of exercise and weight loss.  The worst news is that I have actually gained weight this month.  Yep.  There it is.  Right out there.  Why did I think this was a good idea to promise monthly updates?  Why did I want to make this battle so public when I have failed so many times before?  Temporary insanity is all I can figure.

My exercise commitment was also down this month.  In the past three months I was exercising a minimum of 20 times per month/5 days per week.  This month I only exercised 11 times.  Funny how that weight thing and that exercise thing go together.  No.  I don’t believe it is because exercise causes me to burn that many calories.  I think it’s more an issue of when one thing breaks down, I’m just so tempted to throw in the towel on both.  I have such an all-or-nothing personality.  I have fought that tendency all my life.

Back to Good News

Yep.  There is some good news.  I’m re-committing myself to my original breakthrough mentality.  I refuse to give in!

  • Yes!  It will be harder.
  • Yes, now I have to recover ground I’ve already lost.
  • BUT….and this is a big BUT….I know if I don’t do this now,  what the outcome will be.
  • I also know exactly why I gained weight.  It was no mystery.  I ate too much and the wrong things.
  • I either recommit right now or face long-term failure…again.  Unfortunately in the case of weight and exercise…this is a past habit I MUST breakthrough.
  • I’m asking you to hang in there with me for one more month.  Surely I’d be too embarrassed to admit another breakdown.
  • Pray.  Cheer.  Encourage.  Hope.  Cross your fingers.  Think positive thoughts.  Send me an encouraging comment. Please.
  • I REFUSE to let this beat me again.
  • REFUSE !
  • Someday I want to get an author’s photo taken to put on these books I’m writing.  (But not yet)
Feb29

Breakthrough Update

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February Progress

Woo-Hoo!

 Those of you who are my regular blog readers (thank you!) know that I’ve committed myself to making progress this year in three areas that have eluded ongoing success in the past.  In other words I’ve tried and failed many times.  But this year I want to breakthrough in these areas.  The areas are 1. exercise  2. eating reasonably to lose a significant number of pounds.  3. Understanding technology.

Best News First

  • I’m exercising regularly.  Honest to goodness I try to workout six times a week.
  • Very, very occasionally I have a time restraint that prohibits my working out at my exercise facility which may lower it to 5 days a week.
  • I’m actually enjoying the work outs.  !!
  • Goals this month: If I miss a work out I want to commit to exercising at home or by walking.  Spring is almost here.  Outside walks are now possible.
  • Some time this month I want to try to add in zumba.  This is offered where I work out.  I’ve avoided it because I’m just coming off an achilles tendonitis issue.  I will start cautiously.
  • This is the area in which I feel I’ve made the most progress.  I believe I am most apt to have made a permanent change in this area.
  • I feel like it is getting easier.

Positive Progress

  • I’ve lost weight this month.
  • I actually lost more than I thought I might when I made my prediction at the beginning of the month.  Yay!
  • However, all the weight I lost happened in the middle of the month.  Many pounds came off at once while hovering in the same spot for a while.
  • The past two weeks I’ve stalled in one spot.
  • As I hover I get more and more discouraged.  It is hard to keep eating a reduced amount for ten days of seeing no progress.  I find myself eating just a tiny bit more thinking, “What the heck!  It isn’t coming off anyway.”  😦
  • I believe I have cut back my food intake enough that my body is trying to hang on to weight.  My metabolism may be dropping off which is preventing additional weight loss.  I’ve reached this weight before and plateaued.
  • I am also gaining muscles which I’ve heard weigh more than…uh…fat.
  • With the turn of the month I feel a new commitment.  But after three months on this issue, I admit it is harder to get revved up.   Power boost needed.
  • I want this to be easier.  It isn’t.

Technology Progress

  • There is no doubt about it.  I’m making progress.
  • But many, many things still elude me.
  • Earlier this week while working on this blog, it posted twice prematurely.  I still have no idea why?
  • I attend webinars on technology issues but often feel like I learn nothing, because I don’t understand what they are saying.  At the end of each one I have to fight tears.  Therefore I skip webinars that are available to me.
  • In school, I always felt like I was ‘smart’ (whatever that means).  It is hard to feel ‘dumb’ (whatever that means) about an issue.  I want to run from it.
  •  There’s no doubt I’m making progress.  I’m now on facebook.  I have half my timeline designed.  It will be revealed tomorrow…without a photo.  Baby steps.
  • I don’t know how to link anything.  I can’t insert clips or videos.  It is  a steep learning curve.
  • I’m also writing two blogs which force me to learn new skills.
  • The ebook I’m co-authoring will be submitted the end of this week.  I still have to learn how to make a page of photos with captions by then.   Gulp.
  • It is an uphill struggle.
  • I somehow believe this area will always be a challenge for me.  I want it to be easier.  It isn’t.
 Next breakthrough update?   Coming at the end of March.
Dec30

2012: Breakthrough

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Are You Ready for the New Year?

Here it come ready or not.  2012.  I’ve decided to be ready.  I’ve done some years using “or not” mode.  It wasn’t pretty.   So I’m deciding ahead of time…this is my breakthrough year.  I hope someone out there is “rewarding points” for forward thinking gals like me.  Compliments and accolades will be accepted at any time.  (Applause signs are flashing here).

What is She Talking About?

Recently I read an article by Debbie Macomber featured in the December Guideposts magazine.  Debbie Macomber is an author who has learned to succeed in the business aspect of the profession of writing.

She reveals in this article that one of the things she does is choose a single word for each year. She thinks about this ahead of time until the right word seems to find her.   She uses this word in her reflections and decisions all throughout the year.  She described many of the words she has chosen in the past and recounted the experiences those selected words have influenced her life.

Bam!

It didn’t take long for my word to come to me.  My word for 2012 is BREAKTHROUGH.  

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Why?  It occurred to me that I am incredibly self-motivated and hard-working.  However, I am willing to work and work and work and yet when I hit certain barriers I don’t break through them. Want some examples?

  • Technology stymies me.  I can spend forever writing because I enjoy the process.  But when it comes to breaking through barriers of online marketing, social media, downloading gidgets and whatchamacallits and other google mysteries, I feel out of my element so I don’t get my writing to people who might enjoy it.
  • Weight.  I have been gaining and losing the same number of pounds for years when what my body really needs is a greater number of pounds to be eliminated once and for all.
  • I love to exercise right after I’m finished exercising.  I love the feeling of well-being that follows the exertion. I need some kind of breakthrough system for reminding myself of those rewards when I’m still lying in bed thinking about how cold and dark Ohio winter mornings really are.

I’m going to try for some major breakthrough in these areas.  I swear I am.  I felt much stronger about it before I tried for perhaps one hour in two sittings to attach an inspiring photo or picture right under the word breakthrough above.  Why can I attach a photo some days and find it completely impossible on other days?

So What the Heck is ZMOT?

Marky is my friend who is my technology mentor these days.  Why did I choose her?  I like to choose someone to help me with technology who is encouraging and just a little bit ahead of me.  Too much skill in an area in which I feel clueless is too intimidating for me.  She is also my writing partner in a new eBook I’m writing about Caregiving for Elderly Parents.

Anyway, Marky said we have to learn about ZMOT.  I thought she was talking gibberish but I downloaded it from Google.  ZMOT stands for the Zero Moment of Truth.  It preaches about today’s customers using the internet hand-held devices to decide about products and services instantanenously…sometimes while even standing in front of the product in a store.  Or even more frequently to order online.  Old ways of marketing are losing ground quickly to ZMOT types of marketing.

Do I really have to learn all this stuff? (Please read that question in a whining voice).  I just want to write and have people enjoy my writing…oh and maybe I’d like to make a little money at it sometime.  I’m trying to think like a breakthrough gal.

Yesterday I was out with a favorite little girl in my life who is ten years old. 

I told her all about my “BREAKTHROUGH” word for the new year.  I was proud of myself.  I felt like I was modeling positive behavior patterns for her.

She said, “There is a song titled Breakthrough.”

I said, “There is?”

“Yep,” she said, “Lemonade Mouth sings it.”

“Huh?” I said.

“As soon as I get two bars on my Ipod Touch from some Wi-fi area we pass, I’ll download the lyrics for you.”

And she did. 

I think that might have been a ZMOT moment.  I could hear Steven Jobs laughing at me from heaven.  It sounded like a cackle. 

Turns out I might need to learn this ZMOT stuff.  It is creeping up on all of us whether we are teachers, writers, health care professionals, store clerks or whatever. 

Do you want to try to breakthrough with me?  Maybe we can encourage one another.  I’m pretty determined.  December 30th is a safe time to feel determined.  But no I really mean it.  In 2012 I’m going to experience many breakthroughs.  I’ll keep you informed.

Nov30

Dear Santa,

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Yesterday I began my Christmas shopping.  Call me a coward, but I avoided Black Friday altogether.  I knew I had made the right decision long before I saw the video of the lady who pepper sprayed fellow shoppers to get the deal she wanted.  Lunacy.

But yesterday I was optimistic.  I knew of a store that opened at 7 am on a weekday and I decided to be an early bird.  I arrived at 7:15 and was actually the first customer in the store.  Score!  But then I started thinking.  “How big or real could this sale be, if I am the first person to arrive?”  It seemed like everyone else knew something I didn’t know.  Immediately I started feeling ‘out of the loop’. Can you say, ‘schmuck’? 

The store was in disarray, like a giant swarm of locusts had recently eaten all the edible stuff.  All the clerks who might have helped me were busy restocking shelves. Skids full of new products blocked the aisles   An hour and twenty minutes later I left that store with three small items.  I’m usually a flash shopper.  I don’t shop for fun.  I arrive.  I go directly to the item for which I am shopping.  I check out.  Ninety minutes for three items, one of which I was unsure about?  What is happening to my game? 

There weren’t any lines in this store!  The day even had a little snow-the best kind-snow that looked pretty falling down, settled on the grass but wouldn’t stick to the roads. Piped in Christmas music was playing over the store’s speakers.  The atmosphere was perfection.  What was wrong with me?

I’ve figured it out.  The young people for whom I shop have moved from ages with one digit to ages that start with a one.  What a dirty trick.  I’ve moved from fun shopping to mystery shopping with expensive price tags. The things they now want  don’t have names like “truck” or “doll”.  Their lists are full of brands, letters and numbers that make no sense but demand mega money.  They want IPUDS, MP5s, DQD’s with cell inter-links, weez, Jboxes, wyfy and gigibutts.  They want items the size of a postage stamp that cost hundreds of dollars and make no sense whatsoever to me.  How much fun is it to leave a store with a purchase the size of a sandwich bag and a receipt that says “You’re poor.” ?

I decided to write a letter of complaint. Who would care?  But I had to give it a try.  My sanity was on the line.

Dear Santa,

How I miss the toy store!  Couldn’t you and your elves create and deliver the technology gifts and leave the toy shopping to the adults who need some fun in their lives for Christmas?  Think of it as updating the mission statement of your North Pole location…meeting the needs of your twenty-first century,,,uh… customers.

I promise I’ll be good,

Frazzled

Tomorrow I’ll find me a mall with a Santa and deliver my letter.  I no longer have the money to mail it.  Are there any malls left?  The rules change so fast I can’t keep up.  Cross your fingers for me.  We are all in this together.