How I Did On My 12 Things To Do Before I turn 56

Let's review, shall we?

I was totally and completely inspired by Heather's Blog, Write. Sew. Drink. Repeat 32 Things to do While I'm 32! I loved the large and not so large things she accomplished. And now she has a new list, 'cause, she's 33...

So, I only have 12 (roughly) weeks left before my next birthday, which will not *ahem* be my 33rd. I'm going to have a crap ton of things to do! How exciting!

But since I hate waiting, I'm going to do: 12 things to do BEFORE I turn 56 (and then I'll do my massive 56 things to do while I'm 56).

1. Hang out with my kids (all of them at the same time) twice. Seems measly, but it's not easy getting us all together at the same time! Once before and once after

2. Hang out with my mom (at least) 3 times. Yup! And then some.

3. Seesters! One lunch date downtown and one long distance phone call. No lunch date, but had a couple of happy hours and fun times. and did have one, maybe two long distance calls.

4. Meditate (at least) once a week for the next 12 weeks. Did pretty crappy on thios one. Meditated three times. But have started something that I'm super excited about...will tell you about it next time. Almost as good as meditating. Almost.

5. Date night! We can do this. We went out to eat a few times, but not full blown dates. Need to do better at this!

6. Hang out with Friends (at least) 3 times. Hung out with few friends--more than 3 times. Yay!

7. Blog 12 times to Those Kennedy Women. Errr, whoops. Terrible, terrible awful on this one!

8. Blog 6 times to Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Women. Three times. :/

9. Outline rest of What The Hex! Wrote more, and brainstormed and notecarded...but not really outlined.

10. Fast draft What the. Hex! With online group. Nope. A miserable fail

11. Attend (at least) 4 high school football games--Go Eagles! Yes!

12. Draft outline/structure of double secret awesome inspirational small group workshop with my mom! Ooooh, double secret...Yes! Can't wait to introduce this in 2015!

Okay. There's my list. I'm glad I updated it for you (but mainly for myself) it's good to see how I could have done better and what I did do. How about you? Did you do a list? Early next week, I'll do my list for 56!

12 Things To Do Before I Turn 56

I was totally and completely inspired by Heather's Blog, Write. Sew. Drink. Repeat 32 Things to do While I'm 32! I loved the large and not so large things she accomplished. And now she has a new list, 'cause, she's 33...

So, I only have 12 (roughly) weeks left before my next birthday, which will not *ahem* be my 33rd. I'm going to have a crap ton of things to do! How exciting!

But since I hate waiting, I'm going to do: 12 things to do BEFORE I turn 56 (and then I'll do my massive 56 things to do while I'm 56).

1. Hang out with my kids (all of them at the same time) twice. Seems measly, but it's not easy getting us all together at the same time!

2. Hang out with my mom (at least) 3 times

3. Seesters! One lunch date downtown and one long distance phone call

4. Meditate (at least) once a week for the next 12 weeks

5. Date night! We can do this.

6. Hang out with Friends (at least) 3 times

7. Blog 12 times to Those Kennedy Women

8. Blog 6 times to Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Women

9. Outline rest of What The Hex!

10. Fast draft What the. Hex! With online group

11. Attend (at least) 4 high school football games--Go Eagles!

12. Draft outline/structure of double secret awesome inspirational small group workshop with my mom! Ooooh, double secret...

Okay. There's my list. How about you, it's a throw down, a lift you up kind of throw down. Tell us what you want to do, or wish you could do, or what you think of my list. 

Successful Women

One day, out of the blue, my grandson Andy asked me, “You’re smart, you wrote a book, you've been speaking a long time. How come you’re not rich and successful?”

I didn't have an answer for him.

But I kept thinking about it. 

Later, I thought, why would he ask me that question?  And

 then I thought, why not?

 It was a good question.

And after much soul searching, I finally came up with the reasons why:

·        I never asked anyone in my profession for help.

·        I was too embarrassed to ask anyone for advice.

·        I never made a habit of sending “thank you notes” to clients.

·        I never made a habit of networking.

·        I never asked for referrals.

·        I never turned my old business into new business.

·        I never thought of my speaking career as a business.

·        I didn’t like to make cold calls.

I realized that when I thought I was working, I was just being busy.  I wrote and rewrote my talks, and I spent a great deal of time writing books and booklets.

I determined that writing books and booklets was a good strategy for my speaking career.  But I was not getting in touch with clients to get the bookings I needed in order to sell my books and booklets.

I don’t want anyone else to feel they have to go it alone. Which is why I wanted to gather the women’s stories in my new book to help other women - it's much easier to envision your own success if you can see the path to someone else's.

Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Women

                                                              Joan Kennedy

20,000 Days +

by: Amy Kennedy
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I dabble a bit online. This post leads me to this person, that tweet leads me to that content and before you know it, I'm calculating when I will have lived my 20,000th day.

I know!

How the heck did I get there? But more importantly, what am I going to do with this information?

So, first of all, I know you all want to figure out how many days you've been alive, right? So here's the link to The Robert D for calculation, come right back after you figure out how many days you've been alive!

He wrote a pretty cool book on the subject too:

Basically, he realized his life was not where he wanted it to be-- and on his 20,000th day he packed a bag, drove to a hotel, and figured out the rest of his life.

I'd like to do that--basically, I'd just like to go to a hotel (and swim and sauna--that last one's not a verb, I know, but I'd still like to do it). But if I can't go to a hotel to spend a couple days figuring out the map of the rest of my life, nothing is stopping me from doing it in 20 minute snapshots here and there. Right?

Remember Joan's post Don't Settle For What Might Have Been, and use a few of those 20 minutes for life planning.

Well, it just so happens my 20,000th day was...today! (I'm writing this Wednesday, August 28th) Yes! I know. And where was I? Not at a hotel. Nope, at work, and not even my work, work, at the administrative building interviewing job applicants.

It's not how I thought I'd be spending an auspicious day. But we don't always have a choice...do we (?).

I'm going to take 20 minutes, right now at 8:08 and think about this and come back and tell you what I've come up with, okay...now!

I'm back at 8:28. here's what I've got:

(I adore my "Notes" app on my iPad)

I think I made some good progress on what I want to do--with some measurable things thrown in too! I'll continue to work on it, still need to add some days for the second book and add more detail to my other changes and goals. But, all in all, I'm happy with what happened in those 20 minutes.

I liked adding the days onto my 20,000. Don't know why, I just did.

Joan Kennedy is 33,267 days today!

Patty Kennedy Bronstien is 22,078 days today!

We'd love you all to find out your number and then challenge yourself to decide what the next 1,000 days will be like for you.

Don't Settle For What Might Have Been

by: Joan Kennedy (with Amy Kennedy)

Have you ever told yourself that someday, when the time is right you're going to do what you've always wanted to do?

Um, you mean like every day?!

For some of us that day never comes: I don't have time right now. I will when I have more money. When I lose weight. When the kids are in school. When the kids are out of school.

It doesn't matter what kind of excuse we use, they all keep us from doing the things we say we want to do. When we have no specific plans for getting anywhere we always have a ton of reasons to explain why we don't, why we can't, and why we haven't.

Uncertainty breeds stagnation. So does overwhelm.

Guess what you need to work toward what you've always wanted, go ahead, guess...give up?

When the big hand gets to the 3...

Twenty minutes. Yup. If you don't make progress toward what you've always wanted in the next twenty minutes, when will you? In the next twenty minutes after that? Sooner or later you have to pick a twenty minute time frame and get started.

Don't be concerned with long range goals in the beginning. Decide first what it is you want, and don't get hung-up on that--just chose. Then set a goal, or goals covering the next twenty minutes--if you decide to go longer than twenty minutes, that's fine, but you may want to stick to twenty for the first week to avoid the dreaded "overwhelm." You can't believe what you can get done in twenty minutes.

Even though seemingly small and modest in impact, they are important--small goals accomplished one after another add up to big achievement. Like, "big dream" achievement.

I'm part of a writing group and one of the things we were taught was to set a timer for fifteen minutes and just start writing (no, we can't write the same sentence over and over again a la Jack Nicholson in The Shining... all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy...) the crazy thing is I can write anywhere from 300-450 words in fifteen minutes--one page of a manuscript is 250 words, so I can write a page and a half in fifteen minutes!

Re-think what can be achieved in twenty minutes!

We know you can find twenty minutes somewhere in your day to start working toward what you've always wanted. Tell us what you plan on doing in the next twenty minutes, we can't wait to hear.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! RIGHT?

By: Joan Kennedy

Champagne, Oyster Stew and Resolutions are all synonymous with New Year’s Eve, especially resolutions.  We’ve all made them, and also forgotten them in a matter of days.  Typically it goes something like this:  I want to lose weight, get a better job, make more money, find a great guy!

But have you ever heard of anyone saying, “I just achieved my New Year’s Eve Resolution!"?  I think not. Resolutions fizzle faster than bubbles in an open bottle of champagne.

You need to change resolutions to GOALS.  This part may get a bit dreary for you, but it does change the dynamics.

Once you’ve decided on what you want, there are definite steps to follow.

*The first step is -- right out of the gate -- you need to have a strong desire.  It’s the motivating force within all of us.  Without desire, nothing happens.

*The second step is to put your goal in writing.  The most important part of this step is to be SPECIFIC.  Avoid general statements, such as, “More money.”  More money can be finding $20.00 in the pocket of a pair of old jeans hanging in your closet, or a $10.00 bill in a purse you haven’t used since last summer.

After one of my talks, several years ago, a woman approached me, and told me about a goal she had wanted to achieve.  The goal was to find a man.  Not an ordinary man.  She wanted a man who was handsome, intelligent, humorous, and one who had money.  She found him!  He had all the right attributes. "But," she said, "I forgot one thing, he shouldn’t be married.”  Damn, damn, damn.

*The third step is to refrain from talking about your goals with others.  It’s great when someone says, “You can do it!” It gives you a feeling of confidence.  Yet many people, including your friends, don’t always give you the approval you had hoped for, and that can keep you from moving forward.

*The fourth step is to have a time frame.  A target date will give you a sense of urgency.  Write your goal on a 3x5 card, and keep it by your bed.  Read it first thing in the morning and the last thing at night. Create a definite plan for achieving your goal. Make a commitment to do one thing every day toward achieving your goal.   

*The fifth step is to visualize yourself in the possession of your goal. Your Imagination is that part of the mind that plays a great role in achieving your goal.  First the vision and then the accomplishment

Now, back to New Year’s Eve, and my wishes for you… Good Health, Wealth, Love, and Lots of Fun.  And, If you’d like, you could change my wishes into your goals for the coming year, or not.  HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Let's hear about your goals, and if you'd like, we'll help you tweak them.