Perfection is Not Required

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.

-Eugene Delacroix

A look into history you will find that our obsession with perfection is relatively new. Only in the last few centuries has the need for everything to be 'just right' really driven us. The only saying "cleanliness is next to Godliness" comes from centuries of not having running water, fire in the house and a complete void of disinfectants. And yet there were great successes.


Many times I have hesitated or even not completed a task because I thought that I wasn't doing it right or that the results weren't up to par. In sewing I have tossed entire projects because of faults that, looking back, I'm sure only I noticed. Hours of work and materials wasted, all for my need to make something look 'perfect'. Handiwork isn't the only area of our lives where our drive for perfection can distract us from progress.


I speak to a lot of people who are all or nothing. They refuse to make any forward progress because of a hundred different reasons why they can't do something. They are waiting until after the holidays to lose that weight. As soon as football seasons over they will put the time in to build that business. There is always a reason to delay, ways that the timing isn't perfect.


We discount trying. Just getting going and doing something is better then nothing at all. When trying to lose weight, small steps can lead to big results. I started by switching from regular coke to diet coke, then not ordering french fries with meals. Small bits that can be easily maintained and over time lead to a total overhaul of my lifestyle. The weight didn't fall off, but it stayed off. I'm not perfect, sometimes I have fried food, sometimes I have cake. I just consistently work on making good choices and in the end it pays off. It's not perfection, it's progress.


Same goes for a lot of our lives. No one does anything perfect the first time. In many philosophies there is no way to ever do anything perfectly. If there is anything you want to do, you should do it. Let nothing stand in your way. If you're doing it wrong, you'll learn. We learn more from doing something wrong then from doing it right the first time. Don't worry about perfection, keep your eye on success.




Have a Blessed Day,

Brandy Deming

CelticBlessings4U@Gmail.com
http://www.womenswealthandwellness.com/celticblessings
http://www.twitter.com/brandysbiz

The General Joy and Rapture of At-Home Work

I have to say the best and worst thing about working at home is working at home. The daily ability to decide what I’m going to do, when I’m going to do it and how I’m going to do it has been the ultimate freedom that I have enjoyed over the last 5 years. Though there has been many, many days when I really wanted (and sometimes needed) someone to tell me what I needed to do, how to do it and when it needed to be done. This is the fun and frustration of being at home.


I don’t know about you or your life, but I can spend days on end just tending to my family and home. I can get up in the morning, get my son on the bus, go to the gym, tend to my chore list, run errands, fix meals, help with homework, spend a little quality time with my family and end my day feeling like I have worked 16 hours (because I just did!) and never, ever have one second to actually work on my business. I am continually amazed at parents that can keep a family and house in order on top of pulling off a 50 hour work week (they say it’s 40 hours, but we all know we’re ‘at work’ for at least 50). All I have to do to keep myself on track is to think of the commute, the boss and daycare, the trinity of office work nightmares.


One of the other bitter-sweet facts of working at home is that you are home, all the time. There is nothing I love more than being able to put my son on the bus to school and being there when he gets off the bus (other than the days we play hooky and have fun around town together). When he needs me, I am there. I don’t have to call into work, I don’t have to worry about being fired and no-school days don’t make me freak-out about where he’s going to go. On the other hand, I am always home. There are three words that come out of the mouths of friends and family that make me cringe… ‘Are you home?’ I’ve recently taken to saying, ‘Um, I’m at the office.’, this usually gets me at least 10 more minutes of calm before they call back with ‘I thought you worked at home?’. You get called on everything from going out to coffee, to volunteering at the school , to picking up prescriptions. They know your home, therefore you must certainly be available.


All in all, it is a really sweet deal. There days when I would love to pack up my laptop and go into an office where someone else buys the office supplies, takes out the trash and fixes the printer, but the days of sleeping in until 8, not having to ever get in the car and spending extra time with my family outweigh them 25-to-1. Working at home is not as easy as it seems, but can be done with a little organization, prioritizing and boundary setting.




Have a Blessed Day,


Brandy Deming


CelticBlessings4U@Gmail.com
http://www.womenswealthandwellness.com/celticblessings
http://www.twitter.com/brandysbiz

Help the Community to Help Yourself

Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community.

-Anthony J. D'Angelo

Being a part of the community (online communities too!) can help boost your sense of worth. Sometimes being a part of something bigger then yourself can give you a larger goal to work towards. Solidifying your place within your own community can take years, but there are some great ways to get started.

Town hall meetings are a great way to meet the most influential and active members of the community. At school, being active in the PTSA. Also look into local clubs, Masons, Eagles, etc. By being around those who already have roots in the community, you learn more about ongoing important local issues. One cup of coffee with a few folks who have been living in your area for ten or more years will give you more information then the local paper. Not only do you get to increase your standing in the community, make new contacts, you get to have fun!


Shopping local is another great way to meet people. Especially in the non-tourist season, mostly local people shop local. Start a conversation with a fellow shopper or the owner (usually the one behind the counter), this can certainly help you get the feel of the community. The economic value is incredible as well. If you shop at a big chain like Wal-Mart, only about 9% of what you spend stays local, by shopping local you can boost that percentage to 50% plus. Not to mention that the money that is spent at a local shop is usually spent local as well. A dollar spent locally gets re-spent 4-8 times.


I'll end with volunteering. The food bank, the school, the library and the local chamber of commerce almost always need volunteers. Helping others always gives me a boost. I think that if more people were helping other people, we wouldn't need so many anti-depressants. Nothing can snap me out of a funk faster then helping someone in need.


Besides the positive effects on yourself all of these activities can lead to a healthier business for you. People that participate in all these activities show a higher leadership potential and usually have more contacts then those who do not. Good for you, good for your business and good for the community!




Have a Blessed Day,


Brandy Deming


CelticBlessings4U@Gmail.com
http://www.womenswealthandwellness.com/celticblessings
http://www.twitter.com/brandysbiz

We Are The Dreamer Of Dreams

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible.

-T.E. Lawrence

We all dream. We buy a lotto ticket and think of all the things we could do with 200 million. We think of how it would be if all of our troubles just up and vanished. But very, very few of us actually dissect those dreams into manageable chunks.


When my son was around 5 I realized that I didn't want the life that I had. I'd drop him off at daycare around 6:30am and pick him up around 6:30pm. I remember spending hours thinking how nice it would be to have someone take care of us. Just to be able to take him to school and pick him up was something so far out of my reach that I'd stress over it. Then there came the turning point, it started to affect him.


He'd act out in school, then the school would call me and I'd come in. Then he'd start acting out more. I then realized that the hours spent away from me wasn't just a necessary evil, it was harmful. That's when I took action. I started looking at all sorts of ways to work at home. I saw myself being able to get to the school in the middle of the day, I saw myself getting him on the bus, I FELT that this WAS GOING TO HAPPEN! Then a job offer came through and it was working from my home and it was mostly what I was looking for. This was the first time I had used pure determination and positive thinking to make my world better. I have been working from home for 4 years now and it has been one of the best decisions of my life.


Dreaming and hoping are good. They are a fantastic way to feel out what you want in life. I have a dream board. If I want something, I break it down. How much will it cost? What do I have to do to get it? What is a reasonable timeline to set myself to achieve this dream? I get pictures of what I want and I put it on my dream board. I look at that board many times a day. It keeps me motivated on my goals. I KNOW I will get everything on that board, I see myself several times a day driving that RV, smelling the Scottish air, driving that new car. The best feeling in the world is when I go up to that board and take something off of it.


Find the difference between fantasy and dreams. You can reach your dreams. Anyone can, it's just a matter of how.




Have a Blessed Day,


Brandy Deming


CelticBlessings4U@Gmail.com
http://www.womenswealthandwellness.com/celticblessings
http://www.twitter.com/brandysbiz