Goofin' Off and Tapping Into My Strengths

I apologize for a partial hijacking of my normal stitching and quilting blog to mix in some time management stuff.  I am working through time management on my own so that I can get back to the activities that give me the sanity I need to get through the other "stuff" that goes on in my day-to-day life.  I have a great life and am not complaining--I just feel like the past year has gotten away from me.  Feel free to read through if you think you're interested or just scroll on down to the day-to-day fun stuff with quilting and stitching pictures.

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. 

We only have today. Let us begin."  --Mother Teresa

There is so much truth to this.  I can't worry about what time is past.  I can't recoup the time I've lost.  I just need to reorganize myself and my time so that I can just begin with today.  

Tapping into my time-management strengths

This past year has come and gone.  I wasn’t able to accomplish many of the things I would have liked to.  Recognizing I want to get more done in 2020, I’ve realized that I’ve got to treat my time like an investment.  If I want to make 20 charity quilt tops in 2020, that means I’ve got to invest my time in gathering fabrics, rulers, rotary cutters, and other quilting supplies; cutting out shapes; and sewing these precious squares and triangles to create completed tops.  That precious quilt top is the return on my investment…and the interest on that return is knowing that children, families and seniors will be able to enjoy a warm quilt that was made with my time, sewing machine and love.  (Isn’t love the most important investment to include in a quilt?)  

That’s what my 2020 is going to be about…taking back control of my time so that I know that I’m spending it the way I need to so that I can feel fulfilled and still be of service to others.  I’ve come to realize that even though I don’t always feel in control of my time—like when a Disney comes out with a new discount promotion and I have loads of vacation requests coming from clients unexpectedly OR the dishwasher breaks two months after the warranty runs out and all dishes need to be washed by hand during the holidays OR a family member is having an emergency and I need to go spend a large chunk of time at the hospital—despite all of that, I really am in control of many aspects of my time.

In order to take back control of my time, I need to take a deep dive into my life and look at my tasks and see how I can restructure them and put a new schedule in place.  I know this will me to take a self-examination and be honest with myself about some things.  In addition, I’ll need to some tools to help me along.  I have read more than my fair share of self-help books, so I need to go back over my notes and thoughts that stood out to me and see if I can recognize what has helped me in the past.

Assessing my strengths (and weaknesses)

I have reached a point in my life where I have begun to discover my strengths and appreciate them for what they are.  

• I am a great listener.  
• I accomplish the most when I am using a checklist.  Some self-help gurus say not to make checklists.  Without my checklists I would not get much accomplished.  
• I am organized (although that organization may occasionally look chaotic at times to an outsider).  There is a method to my madness.  
• I have a love and compassion for people and a desire to help them.  
• I am good with numbers and enjoy looking for a good bargain without sacrificing value.  
• I believe in quality over quantity—once I have mastered something to the point I can produce great quality, the ability to produce more quantity follows suit.  

Like any investment, I need to figure out which of these brings the greatest returns towards my end goals for the coming year.  I really missed the mark for my goals in 2019, and looking at the list I can see how not leveraging those strengths changed things.  I need to remember that I can’t try to do everything…or I’ll have time for nothing.

Now that I’ve talked about some of my strengths, I guess I should admit to and come to terms with my weaknesses.  

• I try to do too many things.  
• I try to please too many people and often don’t leave enough time to do things for myself.  
• I sometimes suffer a little too much FOMO (fear of missing out).  For example, I want to join a quilt-a-long because I see so many of my friends doing them…except the projects that I really want to work on like a charity quilt don’t fit the guidelines of said stitch-a-long.  

It's time for me to set some guidelines for meeting my goals in 2020 and recognizing and embracing which of my strengths will help me accomplish these goals.  It's also time for me to diagnose which of my weaknesses are hindering me the most so that I can work towards eliminating them or improving them.

What are your strengths?  I am glad we don't all have the same strengths.  The world needs a variety of talents and strengths to create balance that helps us function as a whole.  Thank you to all my fellow bloggers who share their strengths, tips, and talents.  I have grown so much because of you and all that you so willingly give impart!

Elf-ing Around Last Week

I was able to attend a work conference last week for my travel business.  It was held at the Sheraton Grand Seattle.  Since the conference included complimentary valet parking, Mr. Goofin' Off and I decided to carpool in together for the day.  He starts work at 7:00 a.m. and the conference didn't start until 10:00 a.m., so that gave me about three hours to do some reading, catch up on emails, and visit the gingerbread display at the hotel.  You could actually see his building from the room where the conference took place. 

Mr. Goofin' Off's Building is the One With the Large Diagonal Beam

The theme for the gingerbread display this year was "ElfLife".  Often, the lines for the displays can get very long.  Fortunately for me, when it opened at 9:00 a.m. in the middle of the week, I was the only person there.  I got to spend quite a bit of time enjoying the gingerbread displays.  Here are a few shots of my favorites: 

Gingerbread Display Inspired by the Movie "Elf" - (Santa, I know him!!!)

Inspired by the Keebler Elves

Santa's Workshop and Elves--Wait, Is That Russell Wilson of the Seattle Seahawks as an Elf?

Aren't they just so delightful!  

Goofin' Off With Update from the Week of 12/08/2019

Okay, so it wasn't much...but it was something.  As the winter begins to wear on, I needed to work on something with color.  I went to Etsy and found a design I fell in love with.  I made a new start and will be rotating this with my Mickey and Pirate Friends piece.  This new project's pattern is only four pages...and three of those pages are partial pages.  I'm not telling you what it is just yet.  But here is my start.  

Progress on New Project as of 12/16/2019

This may not look like much stitching to you, but for me this was a real win to sit down and work on this.  I am so excited to see how it will turn out.  This will be a block that I will be sending and donating to Love Quilts. 

Any guesses yet?  It's hard to tell from this picture, but this is going to be loaded with lots of purples and pinks...just what I need to beat the winter blahs.