New habits really do make a difference.  You can live larger when you’re aware.  I worked with a client this morning who wanted to make some changes.  So we instituted a practice where she wrote down her spending every day.  Here it is close to the end of the month and her budget said $300/month for food and she’s hit $317 so far and realizes she really needs more food for the end of the month… so do you start eating the rest of the eggs for the next few days or re-evaluate the use of your budget?

Sometimes all it takes to live better is to have an awareness of what you’re doing.   Change can happen when we realize what we are doing so we can make simple changes to improve our quality of life at work and at home. 

(c) 2010.  Anne McGurty. Strategize & Organize.

That’s a new skill that Lunch and Learn participant Elizabeth Stone of For Rent Magazine will implement right away after attending my lunch and learn session.

“Anne is easy to listen to and she made it clear that she learned to be organized my making her own mistakes.  She doesn’t give the impression of being better than people who are less organized.”.    Elizabeth Stone, For Rent Magazine, Denver, CO

Testimonial provided by Patricia McCue, Trainer, Weidner PRoperty Management.

Anne was extremely helpful and knowlegeable about coordinating outfits and putting things together.  I was in very good hands today.

Provided by a client at Ann Taylor, where Anne McGurty is a lead stylist. 

(C) Anne McGurty. 2010

I was watching the Hollywood’s Extra and they had a special guest, Tim Gunn.  Tim is best known as being the host of Project Runway as a fashion consultant.  As much as we all love clothes, right now, a lot of us cannot justify spending money on extra clothes.  Tim endorsed this statement, that right now, and just for now, let’s try to work with what we have.

Personally I love clothes and I also love the philosophy to make the most of what you have.  Keeping it simple and realizing that we don’t have to have everything.  This past year, actually just in the last six months, I’ve gone from a size 10 to a size 4, so I’ve had the need to buy or rework my wardrobe. (You can catch a glimpse of my closet here as this picture is a snapshot of my closet.)    Since, I’m like everyone else trying to watch my nickels, I’m being very selective about what I’m purchasing.  I’ve also in the last few months, been working a few hours a week with Ann Taylor as a lead stylist, working with clients helping them with their wardrobe…so I’m immersed with great fashion and wonderfully style that offers perfect pieces t o develop your wardrobe and personally replace what I need.  Keeping it simple with basics is always where to start.  So before you get started, check your closet and see if you have these basics, if not, then you may want to go shopping.  As I’m replacing my wardrobe, I have used this as my guideline. 

Step 1:

When going through your closet, there are six fundamental questions you should ask yourself:

1. Have I worn this within the last 12 months?
2. Does it fit me now?
3. Do I feel good when I wear it?
4. Do I look good when I wear it?
5. Am I comfortable in it?
6. Does it hold any special sentimental connection for me?

Step 2:

Have you answered no to any of these questions, then you can purge or donate these items.
In Style magazine’s “Wardrobe SOS,” April 2007, UK Edition, put together an ultimate wardrobe checklist, using the combined wisdom of their fashion experts. This comprehensive list includes timeless and classic pieces along with fun and quirky fashion outfits to create your own sense of style.

Step 3:

The article here mentioned really helps to put things into perspective.  Here are some of their recommendations combined with suggestions on today’s trends for a versatile and practical wardrobe: (use this as a checklist for what you have in your closet.)

Jeans and Pants

• Two pairs of trousers which vary in style. Wide-legged pants or man-style trousers and another pair that are a more timeless, classic cut.

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• Two pairs of jeans in different cuts. Fitted, straight legged or flared and wide-legged or man style. This can include skinny jeans if you have the body shape to wear them.

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Coats and Jackets

• A really great, well-cut coat. A timeless trench will take you from season to season.

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• Two jackets. One that can be teamed with pants and the other that looks good over dresses.

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Dresses and Tops

• Long-sleeved T-shirts or tops in varying weights but in basic colors such as black, white or cream.

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• One classic, fitted white shirt, crisp and classy.

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• A cashmere sweater and cardigan in a V-neck and round neck.

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• A few great day dresses which are easy to wear and versatile for any occasion. One of these should be the indispensable wrap dress – smart, sexy and timeless.

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• A colorful evening dress which makes you feel great.

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• The ultimate little black dress.

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Handbags and Shoes

• One pair of wild look-at-me, statement shoes for those times you want to be noticed.

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(personally, I have the most amazing pair of Christian Dior Pumps with a rubber sole and camouflage print… they are truly a statement shoe!)

• A pair of versatile, sophisticated black medium-heeled courts.

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• Comfortable ballet flats in different styles and colors.

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• A pair of walking boots and a pair of statement boots, fashionable and trendy.

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• One really serious handbag which brings class to an outfit and that you are proud to wear.

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Accessories –Jewelry and Sunglasses

• A few pairs of sunglasses in different colors and styles.

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• An ever growing range of fun costume jewelry –high street and vintage, which allows you to update your outfits and show your individuality.

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I’m adding, Accessories – Scarves

• A statement silk scarf (Hermes is my preference), a warm cashmere winter scarf and lighter weight oblong scarf.   

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Step 4:  Know what you do not have in these categories or too much of.  If you have too much of something in one of these areas, you may be a little off balance thinking you have so many clothes, but in reality you don’t have a complete basics list yet. 

Step 5:  Buy only what you need, love, and goes with your other colors and styles in your wardrobe. 

Don’t Be a Fashion Victim – Especially now

Never feel that you have to follow fashions.  Do know what looks best on you.  Instyle.com has a tool where you can answer a few questions and identify your shape for your body, try it out and see if you have those shapes and the items appropriate for your wardrobe.

Have fun!  Be creative, enjoy your clothes and wear them.  There’s no sense waiting for that special occasion.  I’ve learned that every day you wear something you feel great in, the day becomes a special occasion! 

© Anne McGurty. Strategize and Organize.  2010.

As the new year is beginning, I hear how most people have traditionally wanted to lose weight in the new year; however, this year close to that resolution is people want to fix their finances. After a tough year of adjusting to changes in the economy, it’s not surprise that people added this reality check to their resolutions.  I know I have gotten much more conscientious about how I am spending my money.  For me it’s pretty simple, I keep it to 4 simple steps.

1.  Write down all my expenses and income.  Even that $1.62 at Starbucks. 
2. Analyze your spending habits. I’ve spent over $9 already this year at Starbucks and it’s only the 7^th of January.   I’ve also spent $175 on groceries.
3. Make changes based on habits that are not serving you.  Ok, that cup of coffee at Starbucks, am I really enjoying it or is it just killing time while I’m waiting for someone?  What about my craving for an apple instead of strawberries for dessert with my dinner?  As I found myself in icy weather coming home, did I really need to stop off at the market or could I make do with what I had in the refrigerator.  Those strawberries were actually what I had planned!
4. Maintain your records.  By continuing this process, you start becoming accountable, even if it’s just to yourself. 

Yes, I agree these are very simple and maybe obvious steps to fix your finances.  But I have to be realistic that not everyone realizes what they are doing to add to the problem.  Like organizing and as I say in my keynote,” things don’t clutter, we clutter and when we understand why we can make simple changes to improve the quality of our life at work and at home. “

©Anne McGurty. Strategize & Organize. 2010

I was having dinner tonight with a client and we were reviewing her professional evaluation for her job.  She asked me to help her in documenting how to go about maximizing the process.  For her it was about getting the right words on the paperwork so that she could be focused when meeting with her boss.  I highly recommend that everyone be prepared for an evaluation and if it’s helpful to run it by another professional or trusted friend, you will realize your strengths and opportunities for growth.

We identified that she was not particularly fulfilled in her “life”.  She wanted more than anything professionally to get a certain title, especially since she had been doing the work for the last year and she honestly feels the title and corresponding promostion is well deserved and appropriate.  Personally, she wanted nothing more than to “get married.” 

In preparation for our meeting, I did have her fill out several assessments.  The reason I had her do these exercises was to look at her whole emotional and professional life.  I know she has been feeling stuck, actually even a bit lazy, for a while and with these assessments it really helps to narrow down what’s truly going on here.

The results indicated that her self-fulfillment was extremely low along with self-discipline and tendency to self-sabotage.  It really jumped out to me as these are common attributes for many people who tend to be disorganized as they often feel stuck and may not see the value of “cleaning up” or doing things differently.  SO I’m thinking would your self-fulfillment be any better if you weren’t constantly sabotaging your organized systems.  

How are you sabotaging your own success?  It’s like the person who’s on a diet and let’s their guard down when someone brings a special treat to them and to please the other person they indulge.  Their goal of weight loss and personal self-fulfillment is now again put off to another time.  But you may say, it was really tasty and my friend made it and went out of their way to bring it to me.  Hmm, who is really getting the satisfaction out of that interaction?  What happened to your self-respect?

Discipline takes a role in self-sabotage.  For example, my client’s desire to get married were easy for me to talk about, as I’m single too.  So I asked her what action she was taking to meet someone, was she going to single’s events, registerred with an online dating services, being active in activities that she enjoyed?  Her answer was “Nope!”.    This situation is where the self sabotage comes in place.  If we’re not doing anything about what we want in the long run to achieve our self-fulfillment, how can we possible ever get there.  We need to take action.   Can’t do it yourself, hire a coach or get a buddy to support you. 

Discipline, self respect, and now the realization of what you may be doing are great first steps to making changes in your life for greater self-fulfillment.  You can now assess what it is in your life that you want, is it that new promotion, the title change, the spouse/significant other, whatever it is, once you’ve identified it, then you can start planning on what disciplines you need to put into action to get to that fulfilling place.    I know I want to practice more yoga this year.   So you guessed it, I’ll need to discipline myself to get it on the calendar every week.  Namaste!   

© Anne McGurty 2010.

No, I’m not talking about your wardrobe, I’m talking about roles.  How many different roles do you play in your life?

I worked with a client a couple of years ago helping him with time management and the approach that I took was to look at all the roles that he played.  I think it was his assistant, who picked up on the term “hats”, and we played off of that through the coaching.  I’ve since incorporated the phrase into my description.  Thanks Sara. 

How does identifying your hats help you in managing your time?  We can look at your primary roles in life and start planning some balance based on those roles.  When I first did this exercise, I realized these were my hats (I recommend you limit them to seven).

1. Spouse/significant other
2. Friends
3. Family
4. Work
5. Personal – fitness health self care
6. Personal – learning, development, spiritual

Now how do I figure out how to improve my time management based on this list.  Well, it looks like my life is pretty simple, however, there was a time a few years back where I focused all my time on developing my business, felt torn that I didn’t have time for my family or friends, and my health, exercise was going by the wayside and forget dating! It really did seem a little bit ridiculous that here I’m training other’s for life balance and all I did was work.

So now I have a system that helps me get life balance and get satisfaction in all areas of my life.  Now that I knew what my priorities were, I could plan my time acknowledging those priorities.  Each Sunday afternoon, I recommend you take a good hour each week and look at what you are doing for the upcoming week.  In that planning time, identify how you are going to fill in time on each of these hats.  If you are looking at the week, and you have no time scheduled for family, chances are you are a bit off balanced with quality time with your family.  I noticed that I was lacking in personal fitness and friends and when I recognized that I remembered that my friend, Ann, loved to bike ride and so did I, so I started to arrange a combination of my personal and friend time with her for awesome bike rides.  We spent the entire summer that year riding our bikes through the Colorado bike trails.  Our goal was to hit 100 miles in 1 day before the snow flied – I think the best we  achieved was around 70 miles.  Not bad though!  I felt incredibly fulfilled.    Now if there are other areas in your life suffering, it’s kind of your own fault, because you know what you need to schedule and if you’re not scheduling it, you creating the chaos in your own life imbalance. 

Other ways that I started working this list:

1.  Spouse significant other – I posted an ad on an online dating site and made a commitment to schedule something “single” oriented each week.  This year I need to update my photo and profiles.  I’ve changed a bit this past year (see item 6 J )
2. Friends -  I looked at my list of friends, and made a commitment to rotate calling each of them and arranging visits.  I also was able to identify those who really were not reciprocating and knowing that you can make decisions about who you are spending your time.
3. Family -  Like friends, I  looked at all of my relatives and started being systematic about calling, sending birthday cards, and arranging for visits.
4. Work – I had to break down the areas of my business similar to this overall process and identify how to spend my time.  I heard once, 80% of your business comes from 20% of your work, so I needed to identify those activities to maximize this area.
5. Personal/ self care – So many of us avoid this area and for me it’s about my diet.  If I don’t take time every morning to commit to what I will do for the day, I lose focus.  So self care includes careful planning of my meal plans, scheduling time with doctors throughout the year and getting in that yoga class.  I have enjoyed the benefit of losing 35 pounds this year, by getting this area back on track into my planning. 
6. Personal/learning, development and spiritual.  Not everyone sees the difference here with self care, but it is clearly a separate area for me.  We can go on doing all the others, but without some personal growth into my weekly planning, I stay too stagnant.  I have a curiosity for life and crave new opportunities.  The only way for me to achieve that is through research and learning and sitting back with meditation to listen to what’s next.

I’m so grateful for this process.  Gratitude.. hmm, new blog topic.  I’ll work on that.  In the meantime, see how many hats you are wearing and decide how to schedule them all into your week.  The assignment for productivity and life balance is to schedule time for each hat, each week  … no matter what. 

© Anne McGurty. 2010