Well, first of all you have to realize the problem. What particular part of public speaking is difficult, is it the fear of people looking down on you or is it maybe doubting your knowledge on the subject in question? Make sure you have the right diagnosis before you pursue the right remedy, this is essential. Albeit, when speaking in class (or elsewhere) you have to be well prepared and know your subject well. This will enable you to sway and convince the audience, and give them something beneficial.

Here are a few tips to enhance your presentation:

- Be knowledgeable: As I said earlier, it absolutely crucial that you research your subject in before hand to ensure that you know what you’re talking about. Practice a lot until you feel certain that you’re well prepared. Don’t forget to time yourself when practicing, the real presentation usually becomes a little longer/shorter depending on the factual circumstances but it’s important that you have a feeling on how long it may take before you start speaking. You have to be sure that you can present your information within the given time limit. Try your best to anticipate any possible questions that may arise and do your best to try to answer these.

- Adjust to your audience: Do you adjust to your audience? Certainly, we don’t speak the same to children as we do with elders. Your talk needs to fit your audience’s level of understanding and knowledge about your subject as well as their prime interests.

- Do you feel strong about your subject? Be sure that your not only knowledgeable on the subject bu also enthusiastic about it, the strong feelings you have towards your subject can be noted by the audience.

- Never ever read directly from you notes: Remember, you are talking to an audience not reciting a book. Use your notes (if you have any) as keywords only and not as reading material.

- Are your audience involved: People’s ability to listen depends partly on their attention, make sure you do what is needed to keep them attentive to what your saying. We all know that there are some subjects that are not that interesting in themselves, your task is to make them as interesting as possible. You have to capture and keep your audience’s attention throughout your speech. A good way to make your speech interactive (obviously, this advice depends on the size of your audience) is by posing questions. This will make them listen and think.

- Control your voice effectively: You can vary the tone of your voice depending on what type of information your conveying, your voice is important in giving the speech it’s character. Also, make sure you don’t speak to too quickly nor too slowly.

- Start low - End high: A good speech begins smoothly and ends strongly, the beginning and the end of your speech are usually the parts that people remember. A good ending can help fix a bad start, all though I certainly don’t recommend you to try that.

Guled Cirro is a writer on online education matters and currently also a webmaster, providing free study tips to college students. Make sure you visit his site for free online education tips to help you succeed in college.

The ultimate mystery in all of this is really why, with all the opportunities to learn a second language, are so few Americans bilingual? The truth of the matter is that about 9% of Americans have a true bilingual ability. Yet, there are so many public and private schools offering second language instruction not to mention the booming business in the foreign countries offering Americans the chance of “becoming fluent” in another language.

With all of these opportunities, Americans remain at about 9% with Europeans at a 52% bilingual rate. Have you ever wondered why? I have.

For the past five years, I have been approaching my second language-learning odyssey using non-traditional approaches. I did not start with grammar first courses. You know what those are. If you took any sort of second language learning instruction in school, including Latin or Greek, you began learning the dead or live language with a grammar book.

What this effort got you, if you “stayed the course” was an ability to translate written texts. The almost universal experience of students who begin their second language learning adventure using the grammar-first method is that when they try to speak the language, or even go overseas for a year abroad, all they can utter is,

“I need to go to the bathroom and can I have a cheese sandwich, please?”

The way in which all of us, no matter our country of origin, learned how to speak our native tongue is the same way in which we must approach second language acquisition. Note I said, acquisition, and not learning the second language. There is a difference and therein lies the rub when it comes to selecting a course of study where you will first acquire a high degree of spoken fluency before learning grammar rules.

Let me go out on a limb here: If you do not approach the learning of a second language first with second language acquisition, instead of a grammar-first approach, you will not learn how to speak the language. And, is that not what we are talking about—spoken fluency?

One method accomplishes one thing while the other method gives you something you do not necessarily want. I am a long way from being able to read and discuss physics in Spanish. But, I can discuss simple news events, go to the doctor, or do most anything I need to do in Spanish. I want to grow linguistically where I will have the ability to discuss issues that are even more complex.

Right now, I am still in the child stage of Spanish acquisition and that’s ok. Note carefully, however, I did not get to that stage by taking a grammar-first course. I can do what most five and six-year old native Spanish speakers can do. Trust me when I tell you this: This level of spoken fluency most Americans I know struggling to learn Spanish would kill to achieve.

So, how did I do it? I used the same method I unknowingly used learning my first language, English. I am learning Spanish using the same approach all Spanish-fluent native speakers used in learning Spanish as children.

I am engaging in second language acquisition first, and second language learning second.

The horse, language acquisition, must come before the cart, language learning.

That is what you must seek first.

What Language do You Want to Learn? - Learning a new language has never been easier.

When you have personal goals in place you are better able to achieve what you want out of life. Keeping a written journal of your achievements you are able to measure how far you have come.

Goals can be set with different priorities depending on what it is you wish to achieve. Start out with little goals in mind and achieve these before moving onto loftier ones. This will ease you into the routine of working with them.

Set goals for the short term or the long term but it’s important to remember is that they must be reasonably obtainable in a definite period of time.

Constructing Goals

Structuring goals will allow you to meet them, by structuring it means breaking down larger goals into smaller ones and then working on each part separately. The first step to take when thinking of your life goals is what do you want out of life? You have to know what you want or what you want to improve upon in your life.

Addressing the many important aspects of your life is important, the easiest way to do this is to divide what it is from life you want into separate categories. For example think about what you wish to achieve in your finances, your attitude, your career, your health and your family.

After that chosen the areas that need changing then organize these into categories by importance, then rate the top to bottom. By doing this you set goals in a way so you can help prioritize your life and get you on tract.

Divide and Conquer

Once you have those goals set that you wish to achieve throughout your lifetime then again break then down into time frames. 5 year, 1 year, 6 month and 1 month goals this will make it more manageable and it won’t seem overwhelming to accomplish.

Then break them down further into daily to do lists. To start these goals should be related to the categories of which you want improve areas of life but keep them small. For example you could choose to learn more about a certain aspect you wish to change.

Starting out small and working your way up it will give you confidence and that you can succeed in achieving the tasks you set out.

Once you have been striving towards your goals for a while don’t forget to keep reviewing and make sure you are going where you want in life. If you get off tract and are going slightly in the wrong direction then reexamine your life goals again and reorganize them.

Remember to set life goals which you will be able to achieve, but don’t set the bar to low. Never set yourself impossible goals but have one that does make you stretch as a person. Keep and stay motivated by keeping a journal of your progression and wins. Achieving and truly living your Hundred-Fold-Life is a process and goal setting is a great way to get started and to keep winning.

Douglas Miller is a retired Fire Service Captain now living the dream of working at home. His company Hundred-Fold-Life is not just a name but also a belief. To find the best home based business ideas and opportunities so you can work at home visit: http://www.ClixGo.com

When you set a goal for yourself your subconscious mind will work day and night to reach it.

In the book “Think and Grow Rich” Napoleon Hill states that your goal has to be specific and have a time frame. An example would be;

“I will earn $5,000.00 per month from my business as (state your business or service) on Aug 1 200? by helping folks learn to have a more successful personal and business life by providing a service of (state here) that will help these new friends and customer’s Personal Development”.

I have changed the way Napoleon Hill suggested how to make your goals a little bit, I do not believe in limiting myself, so I would state this example as over $5,000.00 and before Aug. 1 200?

Another example would be; “I will lose at least 10 lbs. before Aug 1 200? by eating healthy and exercising for at least 1/2 hour 5 days a week.”

Your goals need to be as specific as possible (color, size, shape, ect.) so your subconscious mind will be able to achieve them. Your goals need to state how you will make them possible, otherwise your goals are just wishes.

In order to reach your goals quickly read them (out loud) and/or write them out at least twice every day, once in the morning and once at night.

Your want your goals to be large enough that they make you feel uncomfortable, your goals need to push you out of your comfort zone, if you feel uncomfortable (in a good way) your goals are large enough to make your subconscious mind work.

Write out your major goal and keep it in your wallet or purse where you can read it and see it more often. Make a goals book (I use my Day-Timer) Write out 100 goals that you want to achieve in your life. Like 30 things I want to have, 30 things I want to do or places I want to go to, 30 things I want to be in my life. These goals do not need to be specific yet, just write them down and look at them from time to time, go back to them and fill after you have your list completed and fill in the details, start moving them into 1 year, 3 year, 5 year and 10 year goals.

After you have achieved your goals, mark them with a check mark, a yahoo, I high light mine with a bright yellow marker. My daughters put their goals in a book from a store specifically designed for this purpose, you can glue in pictures, write, draw pictures what ever you like. This is like a dream board.

There are many different ways to make goals, affirmations and intentions. The main thing is to find something that has worked for someone else that feels right to you and do it, keep working on your goals every day and you will reach your goals and dreams.

Lee Stuckey is the owner of Key2Wealth.net, he writes on a variety of subjects concerning the 4 Pillars of Wealth Creation. To learn more about this topic Lee recommends you visit: Key2Wealth.net

At any point in our lives we can see the tapestry of our life as whole and complete. We do not need to choose to walk through deaths door before we choose to see the perfection of all that is. We can choose to see it now in every single experience that we receive - in every single thread that we weave.

As we see the perfection, we can feel grateful and ‘thank full’ for what we DO have, instead of focusing on what we do not have. Instead, what we do not have yet in our lives can become like a warm prayer wishing it into our life - bringing it closer and closer with each new day.

One day you will die. This is the only other certainty in life other that your birth - and taxes of course! How are you going to live between now and then? Are you going to wake each day and give thanks that your two legs are attached to your body and that along with your two arms they all still work? And if you do not have legs or arms that work, are you going to wake and give thanks that your mind still works and that your eyes can still see the beauty of this world and that your ears can hear its music. And if you are blind or deaf, are you going to wake and give thanks that you can still feel.

And if all you can feel is gratitude then you are indeed feeling the sweetest of feelings that exist.

This morning I woke at dawn and walked down a dusty street in the backwater town of Benaulim, which is in Goa on the West coast of India. The smoke of the night’s fires still hung in the morning light giving the air a wooden burnt sweetness. The pigs were up early foraging for sweet goodies in the undergrowth and the restaurant people sleeping outside on their balconies were beginning to stir. As I walked further, the sun rose some more, and I started to see the school children getting ready for the day - washing in the courtyards in muddy pools of water on well-worn slabs of stone. Later they walked to school - fully attired except for shoes.

I wondered at first if they could not afford shoes, of if they just preferred the feeling of their bare feet on the ground. Thoughts of wanting to buy them shoes passed through my mind, but as I looked at their faces as they welcomed me with their warm hellos, I realised all was well.

Can I tell you a secret? (You may already know that secret actually means ’see correct’ - if you don’t - just say secret very slow). The only reason why you may feel frustrated about your life is because what you feel you should experience and what you actually experience are different.

What I mean is this - you have desires - you want more - but life is ’slow’ at delivering your desires to you to enhance your life experience.

Here is the secret - fill the space between your ‘asking’ and your receiving with the magic of gratitude. Only see (’see-correct’) everything that you feel is good in your life. If your focus strays to something that you are not that happy with - immediately change your focus to what you are happy with. If it strays again - return your focus to what you love to see. All the while ‘allow’ what you want to come into your life.

Hold the feeling that you already have what you want. This is the second part of the ’see-correct’ - when you know that the new things you are wanting in your life WILL come - it’s just a matter of when - then holding the space open with gratitude will allow you to enjoy your life today.

There is magic in this life and indeed life is magic. Keep being open to the magic and everything you desire will flow into you life with ease - NO MATTER where you life is currently focused. This is the magic of trusting. Trust comes from knowing - knowing that life is indeed perfect and WILL deliver to you your desires. The quicker you allow them to come to you, the quicker you can experience them.

In the mean time - allow - trust and feel grateful for what you do have. Life will deliver - this is a guarantee. When you understand the power of desire you will know how life MUST deliver - how that process works is another story!

Keep ’seeing correct’ - trust - accept - and love life. And the magic will unveil itself to you step by step, because life is indeed magic. See it - believe it - expect it. Bon Voyage.

David Anttony is an internationally acclaimed writer and speaker on empowering the life you want to create without trying. For courses and other materials sign up at www.DavidAnttony.com. David is also a co-Founder of Buy1GIVE1Free. To find out more on how your business can contribute to charity while supporting the growth of your company visit www.B1G1.com today. To reprint for free retain this footer.

I believe that God was setting an example for us to follow. When we work hard all week, we need time to regroup and refocus ourselves so that we can be just as productive the following week.

Your vacations should be times of renewal for you. Time for you to turn your brain off (not completely (smile)) but at least for a moment. Enjoy your families, read a book and just REST.

Without taking a break, you will not be able to perform to your highest potential. It may seem as if you are getting more done, but it is to your own detriment and eventually the train will run out of steam.

Pretty soon, your attention to details and your commitment to excellence will suffer. I can always tell when I’m tired when I see mistakes that I have made and begin telling myself that “they’ll be ok, nobody will notice.”

Here are 7 spiritual and practical (not so spiritual, but necessary) steps you can take to make sure you are balancing your work and personal lives properly. Begin now, getting the rest you NEED and deserve.

Pray - this is the most important step. If you are too busy to pray, you are too busy :). Don’t let this get you caught in condemnation if you don’t already or you find yourself always “out of time.” Start small… even 5 minutes (other than saying grace over your food) in the morning is a good start. It will ground you and get you centered on what really matters before you go out and tackle the world each day.

Plan Vacation Time - make sure you talk to your boss and co-workers before leaving. If you prepare them properly, you won’t spend your entire vacation getting phone calls or worrying about if this or that got done correctly. I have a chapter in my book “Effectively Managing Multiple Projects…A Super Easy Guide to Getting Organized, Reducing Office Clutter and Producing More with Less Stress”, that talks about Duplicating Yourself In Others.

Set A List Of Priorities - decide what is most important to you and prioritize. If spending time with your children or family is important, you should make it a top priority and organize your life around those times. Become as efficient as possible at work so that you don’t have to stay late so often. Don’t let others get you off of your priorities.

Eliminate Unnecessary Activities - once you have your priorities set, eliminate the waste. If going to lunch everyday with your co-workers puts you behind at work and you end up staying late, pack a lunch. If you are always doing things for other people and never having time for yourself, set some boundaries with your friends and family and DON’T BE AFRAID TO SAY NO.

Slow Down - you’ve heard the saying “stop and smell the roses.” This is important. If you plan your time properly, you won’t always be rushing from one place to the next. Give yourself an extra 15 minutes when scheduling appointments so that you don’t have to drive like a NASCAR racer in order to get from one place to the next.

Delegate Responsibilities to Others - I talk about this in my book to. Empower others to help you and take some of the load off of yourself. Don’t be so controlling that people refuse to help you. You have to make a conscious effort to remember that you don’t have to do it all alone. God will provide people to help you. And you can’t be afraid to recruit help.

Let It Go - Don’t harbor offenses and don’t be too hard on yourself. Be quick to forgive those who mistreat you. And don’t constantly beat yourself up with what you “shoulda” or “coulda” done better. Just choose to learn from your errors and do better the next time.

Remember, God took time to rest and so should we. As I mentioned earlier, we are no good to our pastors if we are tired and cranky. It’s easier to “put on patience” when you don’t feel like you have rocks in our eyes or like you’ve been run over by a mack truck.

Go to my blog and take my”Are You Stressed or Getting Rest Quiz” now, http://www.churchsecretaryessentials.com/blog

Tamala M. Huntley is author of the revolutionary manual, ?Basic Training 101: A Super Easy Guide to Getting More Done, Reducing Office Clutter and Producing More With Less Stress.? To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit http://www.churchsecretaryessentials.com NOTE: You?re welcome to ?reprint? this article online as as it remains complete and unaltered with the ?about the author info” at the end.

If you are a church secretary and any of these things sound familiar, just take a deep breath and relax. Here are 4 quick ways to get it all under control and keep your sanity:

1. Put your daily routine on autopilot.

Everyday tasks like writing letters, going through mail or returning phone calls and emails should be as easy as breathing. Schedule times during the day when you will do each task. Some people feel lost if they are not answering the phone every time it rings or constantly checking email.

Don’t let this be you. There are certain people… like my boss… that I always answer the phone for, but almost everyone else has to wait until I’m”doing phone duty.” I carve out time in my schedule each day to return emails and phone messages and another time to deal with correspondence.

If the ministry goes under during the few hours that you are “unreachable” by phone, your answering the phone wasn’t going to fix the problem anyway. You’ll get so much more work done if you are not constantly interrupted by phones and “dinging” emails. Try it… you’ll be glad you did.

2. Always keep a “to-do” list.

I am the mistress of lists. I make lists for everything. Each major project gets its own list. Each event gets a checklist. I may not be lost without my phone, but I am definitely uncomfortable without my lists.

Keeping checklists saves you from trying to remember everything that you have to do. And inevitably, you will forget something. No amount of Gingko Bilboa is going to help you remember 20 different tasks for each of your 5 separate projects that are all happening simultaneously. In my e-book, Effectively Managing Multiple Projects… A Super Easy Guide to Getting Organized, Reducing Office Clutter, & Producing More With Less Stress, I include a sample checklist that can be used for any project. I use it religiously for all of the events I work on.

Your “to-do” list… don’t go a day without it.

3. Don’t be a control freak.

Sometimes this is a hard one. Especially when there is a lot riding on your project going right. There are times, however, when we must delegate work to others…volunteers or other staff members.

Delegating assignments doesn’t mean you’ve issued a death wish. Most people are as competent as you “allow” or “help” them to be. What am I saying? Set clear goals and expectations for those whose help you enlist. Never give an assignment and leave it up to your helpers to assume what you expect.

If a task has a clear deadline, make sure you communicate this to your team. If you want them to be creative and think of a new way to do XYZ, then tell them exactly that. Otherwise they may not realize that they have creative freedom. Give as much help as you can by providing samples of how something was done before or directing them to people they may want to contact who can assist them in getting the job done.

When you delegate work to others, you help yourself by taking some of the load off your plate. Arming them with clear goals and expectations ensures you get the result you desire and empowers them to do the best job.

4. Consistently follow-up and follow-through.

Follow-up and follow-through are critical if you are going to succeed at your job. First you must follow-up with people you may have assigned work to. You have to follow-up with vendors and other people you do business with. Everybody is busy and everybody has a lot of work to do and everybody forgets something.

And let’s face it… sometimes our projects are only important to us. When you follow-up, do so early enough to allow adequate time for unexpected hiccups and you’ll be much less stressed. As stated in the “Quick & Easy Tips” section, use flags to remind people about important deadlines. You don’t always have to spend time with your ear glued to a phone calling people. This could also be something that you assign to a volunteer.

The twin to follow-up is follow-through. This all rests with you. If you set a deadline, regardless of what anybody else does, you have to meet your deadline. If something unforeseen happens, at least take the initiative to call or email your workers and/or vendors to let them know that you need to set a new deadline.

Others will follow your lead. If you are lackadaisical about your project, they will be to. If you never meet your deadlines with them, they will probably not care about meeting their deadlines with you. If you tell your team you’ll have specific information for them at your meeting, you should have the information at the meeting.

Excellence in this area is vitally important. There is no substitute.

You CAN do it!

You can get it all done and not be overwhelmed in the process. All it takes is a little investment upfront to get your days flowing like a peaceful river. This does not mean that things won’t come up, or that your pastor (boss) won’t have last minute assignments. However, if you have everything else in place, the unexpected interruptions will be molehills and not mountains.

The Project Management primer included with my book, Basic Training 101: Effectively Managing Multiple Projects… A Super Easy Guide to Getting Organized, Reducing Office Clutter, & Producing More With Less Stress, gives you just the boost you need to get going in the right direction. As an added bonus, there’s also a Meeting Planner Worksheet included to help you get the most out of your meetings.

Tamala M. Huntley is author of the revolutionary manual, ?Basic Training 101: A Super Easy Guide to Getting More Done, Reducing Office Clutter and Producing More With Less Stress.? To learn more about her book and sign up for more FREE tips like these, visit http://www.churchsecretaryessentials.com NOTE: You?re welcome to ?reprint? this article online as as it remains complete and unaltered with the ?about the author info” at the end.

So once upon a time I put down the bong and got involved with one of those “anonymous” programs – you know, the one with all the “steps.” I hung around there for awhile, and people started talking to me about finding God – or, a “higher power” in case you didn’t like the “G”-word. The idea was that I was supposed to try and operate my life on the guidance and direction of this omnipotent entity, instead of on my best thinking.

Keep in mind that at this particular moment “my best thinking” had brought my life to the point where I was wasted and alone almost 24/7. I was not pleasant company for anyone – unless you happened to be a drug dealer. Still, the prospect of “surrender” to some kind of outside guidance and direction from “G” made me very afraid – so afraid that I was at first almost ready to give up my young sobriety rather than do it. The reason was that the God I had in my mind was not someone you would want to meet in a dark alley – angry, punishing, and always ready to spring some kind of catastrophe on you when you least expected it.

This was the God I had been taught about in Catholic school. The nun who was my third-grade teacher described God as “holding us suspended over the fires of hell by a thread.” This was the God I was supposed to let run my life? I had run away from this God as soon as I could – stopped going to church and instead invested my future in what I could see and think for myself. Not a very fruitful investment, as it turned out.

I was about ready to bolt when a couple of guys who had been doing this “anonymous” thing for awhile took me aside and asked me what the problem was. I told them about the fires of hell and the thread, and they laughed.

“We used to believe stuff like that too. But you don’t have to believe it anymore,” they said. “You can make up your own idea of God – whatever works for you. The only requirement is that you believe that there is some power in the universe that’s greater than you. Can you do that?”

As it turned out, I could. My addictions had kicked me into a state where I was willing to do just about anything in order to change my life. If believing was what it took, I guessed I could do that too. There was this old guy named Bill in my group, a retired baker who had been sober for over 25 years. A big smiling man with a shock of snow-white hair. I liked the way he talked about sobriety. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d hold you over the fires of hell by a thread. He became my first image of a higher power. I have had many since.

Operating my life on guidance and direction from God (yes, I’ve come back around to that name again – it’s spelled the same but my concept is very different) turned out to be much easier than I thought. The God I believe in now is benevolent – he has my best interest at heart and he doesn’t punish me for making mistakes. In fact, I’ve come to believe that this God has a plan for my life, and that his plan is the best possible outcome my life can have. My job is to make my thoughts and actions line up with whatever that plan is. This generally takes the form of accepting the things that happen in my life as being OK just the way they are, and trying to change my thinking so I can be less interested in myself and more interested in being of service in every area of my life – work, family, friends, community. I find that if I do those things, the idea of slipping back into my old addictive ways doesn’t even come up. While I wouldn’t call this approach religious (I mean, it’s not about going to a certain church or reading the Bible), I think it is by nature spiritual. That difference serves me well.

As I said at the beginning, I’ve never liked to pray very much. I grew up saying prayers that were repeated so often that the words themselves ceased to mean anything. What was the point? Years into my sobriety, a wise man told me that prayers are not for the benefit of God. God already knows he’s in charge. The purpose of prayer, this man said, was for me to remind me of who was in charge. Because in the tumult of my day I can easily forget.

I’ve always liked that idea. So I set about writing my own prayer, something that would be meaningful to me and serve as my constant reminder of who is in charge. I call it The Four Important Things:

God, I want to remember the Four Important Things:

1. That I am powerless; you are the one with the power.

2. That my life is not manageable by me; you have the ultimate plan for my life.

3. That my thinking is not sufficient for this plan; your guidance and direction is.

4. And that I am one of your kids, you’re taking care of me, and there is nothing to worry about.

Saying this prayer never fails to put me in a much better frame of mind, especially when things are getting chaotic. For a man as angry at God as I was, having this prayer (and believing it) is nothing short of a miracle.

Emile Barrios has more than 30 years of writing experience in television news, advertising, public relations, and technical/scholarly publications. Following the completion of Nub: Story of an Ex-Cripple, Emile began a second career as a fiction writer and is now at work on a novel about Avoyelles Parish, a region in central Louisiana. Visit Emile Barrios.

- Is your life structured in any way?

- Have you stopped to think how you life has changed and evolved over the past few years?

- When was the last time you identified what needs to be organized in your life?

- What time do you allocate to planning and implementing disciplines, good habits and systems?

Naturally you have to start off by identifying the problem areas where you aren’t organized. You do this by reviewing different sectors of your life. Once you have identified the problems it is a good idea to record this information on a Tracking Chart to help you implement the steps to reaching your goals.

Here are some ways to help you make better use of your invaluable time, and achieve more quickly and easily the things that you want to do, or have in your life.

1. Identify areas in your life that are not well organized

Physical well-being - Massage, chiropractor, dentist, doctor, exercise.

Clothes - Buying, laundering, dry cleaning, ironing, mending, storage - casual & work clothes.

Financial- paying bills on time, checking the efficiency of your expenditure.

Home - Keeping inside clean and tidy. Smoke alarm & fire extinguishers in working order. Maintaining roof, and outside of building.

Car - Regular maintenance and safety checks, MOT, car insurance & licence kept up-to-date.

Work - Organized filing system, portfolio, product samples, printed advertising material, business cards.

2. Look at what you procrastinate about doing - To get started, I suggest making a list of all the things you have been avoiding or procrastinating over, that need to be done in your life.

3. Create lists of things to do - Whenever you need to remember something you want to get or do, jot it down. This includes home, clothes, car, business, health and recreation.

4. Prioritize - decide what needs to be done first - Prioritizing is a problem for most people. List your responsibilities and commitments and review them. Then record the date and how you will implement the actions you need to take. Write down how and when each goal will be achieved.

5. Keep a Calendar & Day Planner - Diaries, planners and calendars are great tools for keeping you organized. Discover which works best for you to help you keep track of important things from day to day.

6. Create an Organization Tracking Chart - Once you have identified problem areas that need organizing you can set up an Organizing Tracking Chart. You need to ensure that you have organized yourself and that you have a proper place for all your belongings and other pertinent information. Note the problem area, followed by what you will do to improve in that area.

7. Create a Division of Time Chart - Good time management isn’t just about arriving on time; it’s how you divide your time. If you are always late, there is a reason for this. You consistently make decisions and re-adjustments on how much time is spent on each activity as you assess your daily priorities. Using a chart will greatly facilitate this.

8. Create a Responsibilities & Commitments Chart - Use this to keep track of ongoing or new responsibilities.

9. Use visual reminders - Write important things down - on colored post it notes or similar - and place them where you will regularly see them.

10. Set up data bases - Select either electronic or printed version for your needs. Take time to record everything of importance correctly, and update often.

Genevieve Dawid is a published author and highly successful consultant, mentor and lecturer for dyslexics, individuals and corporations. Her book “The Achievers Journey” is a partial biography and explains how she mastered her dyslexia and dyspraxia. For free templates of the charts, visit the website.

And I don’t talk about the weather. I talk about life. My life. Their life.

Sometimes, store clerks think I’m simply hanging out, chatting with a friend, and bypass me to wait on the next person in line.

And sometimes, it seems, I’m the right person at the right time, sent to heal wounds.

So there I was in Home Depot, checking out the caulk. As I read labels extolling the virtues of each particular type of caulk, I heard a young child’s voice behind me, firmly announcing the day’s schedule to whomever was with her. I turned to see a young father, clearly ga-ga over his little girl.

What better time to start a conversation?

I allowed that it certainly helped to have such an excellent assistant handling the schedule. He beamed.

“How old is your daughter?”

Smiling at her, he replied, “She’s three.”

“Oh! My kids just adopted a three-year-old daughter from the Congo.”

Turning to her, I added, “I have a granddaughter just your age!”

A kaleidoscope of emotions spasmed across the man’s face. I had hit a very tender nerve.

Both he and his wife had been adopted. His wife joined a wonderfully nurturing adoptive family early on. His adoption, on the other hand, put him in a punitive family–and that only after years of turmoil in difficult foster homes.

I apologized for all he had been through. I had no part of what had happened to him, but somebody had to express sorrow about his years of rejection. Why not me? So I apologized a couple more times.

He thanked me for my concern, but I clearly hadn’t made a dent in his pain.

“You have to let go of the pain, you know,” I persisted.

“How?”

“By learning the lessons in it.”

And I told him the story of how I learned the lesson that when somebody rejected me, it wasn’t about me. I included all the gory details because identifying with my pain would, in a strange way, be a balm to his. He wasn’t alone. He wasn’t different. He was normal.

After a moment’s thought, though, he said his history offered no lessons.

“Well, it does. All pain contains at least one lesson. It might be just a small lesson, not even close to the level of hurt you experienced, but once you recognize the lesson, you’ll be able to let go of the pain. Look for the lessons. My lesson that rejection had nothing to do with me may seem small, but it’s been huge for me. Life-changing.”

He insisted his misery included no lessons.

“Well, you learned how to be a better father.”

His face brightened. Yes, he had learned the importance of being a good father. And he loved being a daddy.

“And you learned how to be a better husband.”

He demurred, but with a smile.

“Well, you can work on that.”

At that, he laughed out loud. I could see tiny specks of light piercing his hurt.

I repeated my instruction to look for the lessons, and we parted.

We can let go of pain when we learn the lessons in it. Even small lessons give meaning to our suffering. Once we know it had meaning, we can let it go.

And so it is that we use pain for good.

Bette grew up in The Salvation Army, then consulted in high tech–all while teaching lots of folks about the Bible. Learn more about Bette, her books, her articles, her quotes and her speaking at http://ConfidentFaith.com. Learn why people keep telling Bette how much she’s helped them take on life.