Finally Get Organized in 2011

It's time to declutter!

One way to improve your life is to be organized. Prerna over at The Mom Writes has a new blog post series this month titled Organized Home, Organized You to help you get everything in order. She states that she’s going to provide “Simple, practical, easy-to-do and economical tips and ideas to inspire and encourage you to join me in decluttering, organizing and creating a home that is organized without going overboard.” Boy, I can sure use this!

So check out Organized Home, Organized You. I’ve subscribed by email so that I don’t miss anything but you can also subscribe by RSS feed. And at the end of the month there will be a free eBook with over 100 tips. How can you beat that? Thanks, Prerna!

Learn Something New to Exercise Your Brain

Thumbs up to lifelong learning!

Just like every other part of your body, your brain must work-out to stay in shape, so I just signed up for three classes through KSURF Virtual University. That’s right - I don’t already have enough to do. Never mind all my unfinished projects - I’ll just let my adult-onset ADD get the better of me yet again and add some more stuff to my plate. But they’re great classes . . . really!

My KSURF Story

I found out about KSUF a few months ago and signed up for a free class through an introductory promotion for new students. I really enjoyed the online format and got a lot out of the class. My favorite parts were working at my own pace and no required homework or tests. You see, although I love learning and even fancied that I might enjoy life as a professional student at one point, after I finally finished up my degree during my 30s, I swore off anything that involved term papers or tests.

Well, I liked the free class so much that I just couldn’t resist signing up for more when KSURF offered a holiday discount - either $5 off $20 or $10 off $40. Simple math tells me which the better deal is so I selected $45 worth of classes despite the fact that I already had plenty of projects in the works. See how susceptible I am to bargains? (I’m also a sucker for free shipping and never order anything from Amazon without exceeding $25.)

A Few More Details

Anyway, with KSUR classes, you can start at any time and have two months to finish. You can submit assignments or not, take the final or not - your choice. If you don’t take the final, however, you won’t receive credit for the class on your transcript but I don’t care about that. But for those who need CEUs, you’d have to be more serious about finishing up. Also, check ahead of time to make sure that the CEUs earned through KSURF are accepted by your employer or organization or association or whatever.

Now for my new classes - I’m taking How to Be Organized In Spite of Yourself, Intro to Personal Journaling, and Memoir Writing: The Journey to Myself. So see? They’re all useful on a personal and a professional level. I’ve started the first lesson in How to Be Organized and have discovered how few hours are in a week but that’s a subject for a different post. Suffice to say, you will be learning along with me if you follow this blog.

Now Exercise YOUR Brain!

So exercise your brain today. Resolve to learn something new on a regular basis throughout the year. Try an online class, read up on an unfamiliar subject, start a new hobby, or try your hand at Sudoku or logic puzzles (my two personal favorites). Regardless of age, but especially as you get older, brain exercise is critical. And it’s easy - you don’t even work up a sweat or get out of breath (two things I'd rather avoid). So what are you waiting for? And if you know of other online learning opportunities, please leave a comment and share with the rest of us!

Please note: I am not affiliated with KSURF other than as a student and am simply sharing my personal thoughts and experience.

New Year, New Focus

Well, it’s another New Year! I know it’s just another day but I always look forward to the New Year and feel refreshed when it finally arrives. Maybe it’s because the holiday hustle and bustle is over . . .
Or maybe it’s because the days are getting longer again . . . Who knows? But I love having a fresh start!

Here at The Best 50 Years, I’m planning a new focus for 2011. Or maybe a re-focus is more accurate. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m simply going back to my original focus. Let me explain.

Back when I started this blog, I did have a purpose - to help and encourage folks to live better, fuller lives. Turning 50 was an interesting experience for me. I realized that I could very well have another 50 years of living - I was stepping into the second half of my life! WOW! Now take that concept one step further. I’ve always believed your real life doesn’t start until you’re an adult, so let’s say 20 to make the math easy. Well, that means at 50, you’ve only burned through 30 years. Think of all you’ve done during that time . . . And now you still have more than that much time left? WOW again!

Out with the Old
Over the month of January, I’ll be looking at the content posted here. I doubt I’ll actually remove anything, but I might. More likely, I’ll clean up my categories to make things easier to find. I might also work on the format some, although I’m pretty happy with it as is. Anyway, if anyone has suggestions or tips, please let me know!

One of the things you won’t see here again are sponsored posts. I did several during 2010 and have decided they don’t fit here. There were a couple that fit my purpose, such as the one on vision correction to eliminate the need for reading glasses, but most were neutral. So, out with the old and . . .

In with the New
Future content will be tightly (ok, loosely) focused on helping YOU live a better, fuller life starting right now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. NOW. And from where you are right now, wherever that may be.

And age doesn’t matter. Yes, I’m coming from a 50+ perspective and am in what I like to call "The Second Half." If you’re not here yet, great! You can still have the best 50 years. In fact, you’re probably more likely to have another 50, so think about what you’d like to do with all that time. It really is true that life is what we make it and the best years are yet to come. So start now, today - a New Year awaits! And if you’re reading this at some later date? Start now, today. (Good advice doesn’t expire, you know.)

In Closing
Help me out here, ok? My adult-onset ADD may get the better of me and I might get off track. If I seem to be veering too far off in some other direction, please let me know. And if you have any tips for better living or topics you’d like to see covered, please let me know that too.

Happy New Year!

I got up this morning intending to wish everyone a Happy New Year on New Year's Eve and guess what? Yahoo was kind enough to tell me that New Zealanders are already enjoying 2011. I know there are time zones ahead of mine but geez . . . I feel so left in the dust!

Merry Christmas!

Aren't grandkids just the cutest?

Merry Christmas to all - may you experience the magic and wonder of Christmas today and throughout the coming year!

Wear Out or Rust Out - Which Do You Choose?

I'm reading The Body in the Library by Agatha Christie and ran across an interesting line that really hit home. One of the key characters is an older gentleman confined to a wheelchair due to a tragic accident in which he lost his wife and both children. He was a friend of the murder victim and during the investigation, the police superintendent is questioning his doctor. Here's an excerpt with emphasis added by me:

"Yes, Mr. Jefferson's health is in a precarious state. For several years now the man has been driving himself ruthlessly. In his determination to live like other men he has lived at a far greater pace than the normal man of his age. He has refused to rest, to take things easy, to go slow, or any of the other phrases with which I and  his other medical advisers have tendered our opinion. The result is that the man is an overworked engine. Heart, lungs, blood pressure - they're all overstrained."

"You say Mr. Jefferson has resolutely refused to listen?"

"Yes. I don't know that I blame him. It's not what I say to my patients, superintendent, but a man may as well wear out as rust out. A lot of my colleagues do that, and take it from me, it's not a bad way. In a place like Danemouth one sees most of the other thing. Invalids clinging to life, terrified of overexerting themselves, terrified of a breath of drafty air, of a stray germ, of an injudicious meal."

Think about that for just a minute. Wear out or rust out - which do you choose? Now don't get me wrong - I'm not advocating being hard on your body or ignoring your doctor's advice. Quite the opposite, in fact - I firmly believe everyone has a personal responsibility to take care of their health. But as we age, it is easy to allow our fears to separate us from people, places and activities that would enhance our lives and the lives of others. So make a commitment to go forth and really live your life. Do what you can while you can - and don't let that rust start building up!


Please note: The image above is an Amazon affilitate link but please, go to your library and borrow this book if you want to read it.

Back Up Your Data to Avoid Disaster

I recently experienced a near disaster. My computer crashed - and I mean really crashed - and for a brief time it looked like everything on my hard drive was lost. How could this happen? Why didn't I have a back up? Both good questions for which I do not have an adequate answer. It is just so easy to procrastinate, isn't it?

Anyway, it was a total wake-up call and I now have a beautiful 2TB external hard drive (just like the one in the picture) that automatically backs everything up as I go. So if you're not backing up your data, stop procrastinating! Spend the money to get some sort of back up system in place so that you don't see all your hard work (or worse yet, digital photos!) vanish into thin air.

Data Backup is Simple and Affordable

I understand that there are services that can often recover your data even after a catastrophic crash but it comes at a high cost - like $1,400 was the quote I heard. I think $100 or so is a better price, don't you? And the peace of mind I now have is priceless. Although the image and link above are for Amazon, I actually got my Seagate 2TB external hard drive on sale at Costco.

In looking at the product on Amazon, I see that there are a few negative reviews. Thankfully I did not experience any of the problems mentioned. We just hooked the thing up and it went to work. About 15 hours later, I was all backed up. Now I've got it unhooked. I could leave it on all the time but for my purposes that isn't necessary. My plan is to just hook it back up periodically or when I'm working on something really important. So please, please, please - do yourself a favor and get a backup system in place. This is an instance where redundancy is a very good thing!

Writing for Dollars Review - Another Great Resource for Writers

I’m taking my first ever online class, Writing for Fun and Profit, through KSurf. A resource given in lesson one is WritingforDollars.com. What a great site! In addition to a weekly newsletter and some other cool stuff, Writing for Dollars has a guidelines database (link below) that is searchable in several ways. You can find a market by name, subject, rate of pay, etc. Some are well known, such as AARP or Good Housekeeping (what do these examples say about my age group and gender?), but many I’d never heard of. Regardless, there’s a short synopsis and an online guidelines link for each.

As I’m actually a quilter/sewer/crafter first and a writer second, I searched for quilting, sewing and craft related markets. To my most pleasant surprise, there are about two dozen matches. Some are specific to subjects about which I have no interest, such as homebuilt aircraft, but many show promise. Even the lowest paying market I found beats what I made per how-to article writing for Demand Media Studios.

As I move forward toward a new year, I’m taking stock of where I am, how far I’ve come, and where I want to be next year at this time. I spent a lot of time and energy writing for up-front pay in 2010. This was good for me on several levels, including financial. In 2011, however, rather than writing so much for up-front pay, I want to redirect my energies toward accomplishing some long-term goals that took a backseat while I indulged myself with the instant gratification of immediate money. It appears that the Writing for Dollars Guidelines Database may provide leads to more lucrative gigs to satisfy my cash flow needs without sucking me dry.