Business

Almost <mumbles> years ago, I stood on the corner wearing a brand new dress suit on a hot and humid Washington, DC July day waiting for the bus to come. It had to be around 7 a.m. as I headed out to my first day of my first job after college. From that day on, I arrived at work by 7:30 a.m. until later years when I changed that to 7 a.m.

Rest

Yet, eight years before that first day of work, I struggled to get out of bed to make it to high school for the 8 a.m. bell. Somewhere between the first day of high school and first day of work, my body decided it liked the early bird routine. Living in Washington, DC, prime time TV ran from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. I rarely caught the news because I fell asleep by 10:30 p.m.

Years later, I still hit the pillow between 10 and 10:30. Actually, I’ll get under the covers by 9:30 to wind down by reading or watching TV. No computer. No exercise. No energetic activities right before bedtime. This habit works so well that I could barely keep my eyes open after a family party ended at 11 p.m. despite the fun and excitement.

I get seven to eight hours of sleep every night. Occasionally, I’ll pull in a six, nine or even the dreaded ten (too long!). Anything less than seven isn’t good. When I don’t sleep well or enough, I’m a disaster the next day. I do my best to get through it, but I’m slower, hungrier, unfocused and irritable. More research shows getting enough sleep helps your mental health, memory, performance and body healing process.

Exercise

Thanks to playing a ton of sports while growing up, exercise has always been a regular part of my routine. Well, I’ve sharpened the routine since I stopped playing tennis. I’d play tennis twice a week and then randomly exercise two other days. Now, I have a structured routine on the what I do and when I do it.

Some days I don’t feel like working out. Because of habit, I get ‘er done. Maybe I don’t work out as hard or as long. Generally, I work out around the same time each day of the week (afternoons during weekdays and mornings on weekends). Sometimes I have an afternoon meeting or an early weekend event. I adapt. It’s harder, but because I stick with it — it’s done.

Habits

Notice a theme? I have a bad habit of checking email every morning because I created it long ago. But really. How many people you know stay up late sending emails? Most of the first thing emails are spam, social media notices and email newsletters that I can read later. First thing emails rarely come from a client or family member. (Well, except for my mom who can thrive on little sleep.)

I started keeping my email client closed while quickly glancing at the inbox on the BlackBerry. Most of the time, it’s nothing. It gives me comfort knowing I’m not missing anything. Remember email is my “phone.” With Gmail, I switch to “Contacts” mode to hide the mail. Also, make email filters your friend.

Habits help with work. Every Tuesday, I do work for one client. Every Friday, I post my favorite links for the week.

You probably know all this. So why post this? Sometimes we don’t realize that we need to create new habits or why we struggle to change habits. It takes time to retrain your brain’s passageways to dump or make habits.

What habits do you have? What habits do you want to change? What habits do you value?

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As my family prepared to move in our first home, like most people — we had lots to do in the house. To do it all would mean taking shortcuts and buying low-priced items. The result would be less than flattering. The job called for prioritizing to ensure we bought decent quality items. First up: windows. We needed blinds, lots of blinds or else I would go blind with the too many windows we had. (Seriously, the eyes are sensitive to sunlight.)

Image from sxc.hu user ColinBroug

Next, bedroom furniture. Previously, we lived in military housing and chose to focus on the downstairs rooms rather than upstairs including our bedroom. The rest we added when we could or when we saw something that worked.

Good thing we didn’t do it all. It turned out those first few items we bought were my least favorites. The toddler-abused blinds need replacing. The bedroom furniture … I love its function, but not its color. I thought the wood would be a white wash wood. Instead, it was painted a bothersome faint white. We could paint it, but the colors wouldn’t work well in the dark-colored bedroom. Natural wood color works best.

This situation can happen when work slows down and it’s time to bring in new business. It’s tempting to take on every opportunity that comes along. It’s like a reverse of firing bad clients except you’re proactive. Instead of finding yourself working with a less than ideal client, feeling miserable and having to figure out how to get out of it — you skip all that.

I happened to be working on finding another client to serve when several opportunities came in. For one of them, warning signs alerted me to do serious due diligence. In the other, the prospect asked if I could write articles on X, Y, Z topics. I turned it down because I know those topics would require a lot of energy and most of it not good. I’d rather spend the energy looking for a client I can better serve doing work I enjoy.

Turning Down Opportunities

These signs give you the clues you need that a potential assignment or client may not work for you. Be careful when it comes to an assignment that scares you because you’re afraid to fail, not because something is iffy about the client. It may be an opportunity to grow.

• Boring. Think about your least favorite industry. Do you want to spend hours living and breathing that industry? When you work on things you despise, it takes longer and drains more out of you.
• Suspicious. You find little information about the company or person contacting you. The person may use a common email address, provides terse responses to your questions and reveal little else.
• Budgeted. I saved time for a prospect whose message implied she was focused on price. I gently responded if she was looking for a low-priced writer that I was not a fit for her.  I don’t turn down all budgeted assignments. For example, I liked an owner and his business, so I came up with a way to quote a lower price that worked for both of us.

Digging Deeper

Sometimes the first or second contact isn’t enough to decide yea or nay. This is the time to dig deeper. Someone contacted me about writing a bunch of blog posts. First warning sign. The email address came from a yahoo.com address. Second warning sign. The “From” address only had a first name, but she signed her last name in the first message. Half a warning sign.

I searched her name, email address and company name (I had to ask for the company name as she didn’t mention it in the first email — another sign) and found nothing. At this point, I decided this wouldn’t work out. Rather than turning it down, I replied with more questions. Never heard back. Hmm …

When you’re not sure about an assignment, these actions help:

• Research. Look up the client, company, email address and whatever info you have. Don’t stop with the client’s website. Go to social networks like Twitter, Facebook and elsewhere.
• Ask. It feels awkward to ask some of the questions you need to ask, but how will you feel if you take the job and hate it? Request links to related sites. For example, I received an assignment to write for sites on generic topics. Ask for links to those sites.
• Probe. Make sure you get a full picture of the assignment. At first glance, one assignment sounds like writing X articles. Read between the lines, and it could easily be more than double the work because of other tasks involved.
• Check. Your network may know about the person or company. If you find out who has hired your prospect, contact them.
• Follow up. Don’t feel pressured to stop asking questions after the first contact. Ask more questions especially if the answers reveal little new info. (This could be a warning sign, or simply someone who is rushed and wants to reply quickly.)

What types of assignments or clients have you turned down? What do you watch for when a prospect contacts you?

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I’ve spent too much time on social networks this morning that I’d better keep this short and get stuff done to enjoy the long weekend. Besides, lots of great reads this week. With a longer weekend for most of us, I figure you wouldn’t mind the extra reading. Worthy stuff. Have a whiz bang fourth!

4th of July in 2007

Brain food…

• 30 Websites to Find Free Vector Graphics: I currently manage two PTA and one other nonprofit organization’s websites. This should come in handy. Figure y’all could use it, too. [Link: Deborah Edwards-Onoro]
• Are Case Studies Helping or Hindering You: People also misunderstand what makes a white paper. Yes, it should mention the company, but not until the ending.
• 50 Powerful Time-Savers for Web Designers: Great resource.
• Google Web Fonts: Nice free fonts with no Comic Sans look alike. Whew. [Link: theparallaxview]
• How to sell your services for a higher price: Motivating read.
• 300+ Resources to Help You Become a WordPress Expert: Even I’m overwhelmed.
• What Is The Point Of Writing A Book If You Have No Online Presence? A keeper for writers. Not just for authors.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Words of Summer: Last week, I asked what you think of when it comes to summer. Vacation is the only one on this list that I’d think of.
• Pacman Tube Map: Nom nom.
• 10 Coolest Items Inspired by Alice in Wonderland: Surreal, of course.
• Archiving People’s Woes: 10 Cheerful Websites. Instant upper without the Rx. Some new. Some familiar. Some not safe for work. [Link: Gina Stark]
• 10 Amazing Geek Bars and Restaurants: Love Miracle of Science’s menu.
• 20 Animal Group Names You Probably Never Heard Of: What kind of business do flies have? Corps of giraffes? They’re serving our country? [Link: Erika Napoletano] More? OK. Fun with Words: Collective Nouns. [Link: Samuel Hawk]
• Alice in Wonderland Cupcakes: Off with her … frosting?
• 12 Coolest Typography-Themed Furniture: I do love good a font. The drawers are the only useful item, but the font is plain.
• 16 Online Gamers Unmasked: What they Really Look Like. I don’t remember the last time I created a game alter ego other than the one on the Wii, and it’s awful. These rock.

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I’ve used two web hosts since buying the meryl.net domain around 1995. The first charged a bit, had a lot of problems (email delivery and keeping the site up also known as server uptime) and provided subpar customer service. At the time, the rate was probably standard with fewer web hosting services and it being the earlier days of the Internet. (Yes, that is the old meryl.net logo here.)

Another web host came along that charged much less for more features than the original. Some people may not consider it the most powerful web host — it’s a smaller service than the biggies most small to medium businesses use. Because of excellent customer service, I signed up my nonprofit organization with the same web host. Eventually, someone else became the webmaster of that website and complained about the host. (I don’t remember the exact comment.)

Since using the phone through the relay service takes more time than a typical phone call, I prefer to submit questions and trouble tickets through an online system. This web host has that. And most of the time, I get a reply within an hour — regardless if I assign the item as low or high priority. Furthermore, the provider helped me with problems outside the scope.

Because of their superb customer service, I’ve stuck with them since 2003. Sure, it has occasional down time and sent a couple of messages elsewhere instead of my inbox. They’re ready to tackle and solve my problems quickly and efficiently. Like humans, companies are going to experience problems despite using the best quality products and services with a tight process in place.

Here are six easy ways to show the love to your clients and hold on to them:

1. Promote. If a client writes an article, I’ll link to it from Twitter. If I hear a writer needs to talk to someone that my client fits? I forward that opportunity to the client. When a client in the email marketing business publishes a new issue, I link to the newsletter wherever appropriate. Another client offers free webinar, and I help spread the word.
2. Remember. I wrote an article about a product the client sells. Weeks later, I come across a Lego-lized version of the same product. I shared that with the client who got a kick out of it. Sometimes it’s fun and sometimes it’s educational.  It shows I care about them and want them to be successful.
3. Listen. Sounds obvious, but freelancers might not understand the client’s request and start working on the project without understanding what the client said. It’s OK to ask for clarification. Better to ask and get it right the first time than produce something off target and have to do it again.
4. Ask. After working with a client for little while, I ask for feedback. When requesting feedback, I let clients know they can be short or long as they want without taking up too much time. I ask one open-ended and one yes/no question: “What can I do to better serve you?” and ”Are you happy with the work?” Asking also means probing to figure out what clients want. One way to do this is to ask for examples of what they like.
5. Fix. You and I aren’t machines. We make mistakes. It’s how we handle those mistakes that makes a difference. Don’t charge or add a discount to the invoice to fix something. A simple and sincere apology may be all you can do.
6. Thank. I wrote notes to clients using a cool invention known as a pen. This is one thing computers can’t replace and the reason why kids still need to learn cursive.

How do you keep your clients happy? Share a memorable customer service story where you were the customer. How about a story of how you helped a client?

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When I think summer and song … first thing that comes to mind is “Summertime” from Porgy and Bess. I don’t have many favorite slow moving songs, but that one sounds beautiful and has lovely words. Witness…

Summertime,
And the livin’ is easy
Fish are jumpin’
And the cotton is high

Your daddy’s rich
And your mamma’s good lookin’
So hush little baby
Don’t you cry

Photo from flickr user itsjustkate

It flows and captivates. Why don’t I like more slow songs? I think part of it is because they’re harder to hear and follow. For example, I love “Sunday” from Sunday in the Park with George, but I can only hear the latter half of the song. I saw the song in its entirety on TV with captions and liked it. Some of the lyrics:

Sunday, by the blue purple yellow red water
on the green purple yellow red grass
Let us pass through our perfect park
pausing on a Sunday

By the cool blue triangular water
on the soft green elliptical grass
as we pass through arrangements of shadow
toward the verticals of trees
Forever . . .

Beautiful way to describe the famous painting by Georges Seurat.

As for other things that come to mind with “summer,” it’s all the usual stuff: swimming, 4th of July, vacations (rare), the smell of suntan lotion, camp.

Over to you: What do you think of when it comes to summer? Can be songs, activities, whatever.

Brain food…

• Old School Book Marketing Techniques for Digital Age: Book business card — brilliant.
• How to Tell If Your Website Sucks: How timely. I just finished judging 100+ sites to write an annual top websites article. Many of websites got knocked out because they had the problems covered in this infographic. People will argue that popup windows can work — depends on popup.
• How To Respond To The “Pick My Brain” Question: Worth memorizing. [Link: John Haydon]
• So You’re Having a Bad Day: That was me on Monday, but nothing serious. Just an off day. It happens. I got through it. It’ll happen again. And I’ll get through it even though it won’t feel like it when I’m in the moment.
• The 50 Best Short Stories of All Time: Impressive list. I haven’t read short stories since college, and yet this list captures the ones I remember. Only one missing is Edgard Allan Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. That freaked me, but I’ll take that over The Telltale Heart. I also did my 11th grade thesis on James Thurber. Boy, I wish I saved it.

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• The 30 Harshest Author-on-Author Insults in History: Faulkner, Emerson and Capote insult Twain, Austen and Kerouac.
• Zork: Free download for your PC or Mac. Wow. I played this game on my first computer, an Apple ][+. What do ya mean, "What the hey is Zork?"
• America According to Twitter: Apparently, I live in Metroplex. Supposedly, I was born and bred in Funkytown. Column Five also has many other infographics. [Link: Bitrebels]
• Top 10 Manliest Quotes: We shall have our fight … [fill in the blank]. [Link: Esther Schindler]
• 10 Funny and Fabulous Flow Charts: Like Mental Floss always makes me laugh. Beware: these charts can waste hours of your life. [Link: Michelle Mangen]

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What did I do last weekend? (Technically, two weekends ago.) I sat by the pool watching my family swim. I finished Catching Fire. (Four out of five stars.) I cheered on the Dallas Mavericks as I watched the parade on TV in the comfort of my own home. I discovered the newest shows on Broadway while enjoying familiar ones. (Yes, it meant watching the Mavericks and the Tony Awards at the same time.) I worked on the blog. I did article research.

I confess those last two are work-related. That doesn’t happen often — just when I have deadlines to meet or a lot on my plate. The blog has been around for so long and has gone through many changes that it has a few problems. I’ve tried working on the problems last week, but it took longer than expected taking up too much business time.

But it wasn’t always like that. I used to work in the evenings and one day on the weekends. I’d work on my laptop outside of my office where I could get more comfortable and be with my family. Some of these activities weren’t for clients, but for marketing and networking.

Despite connecting with some great folks, most of these activities didn’t pay. While I value getting to know others, I value my family first.

Aha Moment

I caught the final episodes of The Oprah Winfrey Show including one with memorable insight from author Toni Morrison that hit me. She described an incident when her young son came to her with a drawing while she worked. “Oh, that’s nice,” she said.

He ripped the drawing.

“Why did you do that?” she asked.

Apparently, the look on her face was less than thrilled with the interruption. -Gulp- I’m guilty of that. After hearing that story, I worked to change that and my son’s attitude became more positive. But I still need to keep practicing as I’m not batting a thousand.

Stopping the Insanity

I have four walls and a door to draw the line between my office and my home. Even with solid walls, the line between the two lives still blurs. Writers, freelancers and solo-preneurs can’t always draw a line between home and work to keep out the disruptions.

They can set rules. They can change their attitudes. They can dump activities that aren’t working.

I must’ve done something right. On the occasional Saturday or Sunday, my son asks, “Are you working?” or “Why are you in your office?”

Over to you: Do you work in the evenings and the weekends? How do you draw the line between business and home? If you could have it your way, what would you do? How can you make that happen?

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I was born and bred in Fort Worth. I’ve lived in the Dallas / Fort Worth area for my entire life except for the six years I lived in Washington, DC. So all my favorite teams are the ones from here including the Texas Rangers, Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Stars and the Dallas Mavericks. I stuck with all of ‘em through great years and forgettable years. When folks kept saying the Mavs were a joke and never contenders, I reminded them of the Mavs’ good years in the ’80s with Mark Aguirre, Rolando Blackman, Roy Tarpley and Brad Davis.

Thanks to Donald Carter for bringing the team to Dallas. Thanks to Mark Cuban for turning them into champions in a short 11 years. The Mavs almost did it in 2006, you know?

Meryl's Dad in USAF Uniform

Dads. Happy Father’s Day to all the involved dads out there who play catch with the kids, take them to school, help them with homework and be there for them. I’m lucky to be married to one of those dads. My dad (in loving memory) was one, too. We played catch many times, he took me to lots of Texas Ranger games, he embarrassed me on my way to school by waving at me while taking his morning walk and he was always there for me.

Best advice for the week: How to deal with criticism in one single step: “Don’t care. You’re not going to please everybody.” Even the nicest people have a few non-fans. You can produce the most beautiful work product and your boss, editor, client loves it. Someone, somewhere out there will hate it.

Brain food…

• How to Create a 5 Step Facebook Marketing Strategy for Your Blog: This one is doable for just about everyone.
• The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Taking a Vacation: Not just for entrepreneurs… Americans, too. My husband had been doing a lot of research on human resources stuff for his international company and Americans are sorely behind other countries in benefits and other areas. I challenged him by asking questions like “Maybe we have a better salary? Maybe we have a lower cost of living?” He had solid answers for all of them.
• 10 Reasons I Don’t Answer Your Email: I reply to most emails. The ones that don’t get a reply often fall into one of these 10.
• 3 Steps You Can Take to Reduce the Firefox 4 Memory Leak: Memory has been a Firefox problem for years. I had two tabs open and Firefox managed to hold on to 1,000,000K of memory one day last week! Bad, foxy, bad.
• World’s Worst Freelance Advice: Write what you know… seriously. If I followed that advice, I wouldn’t write about cars, Billiards or buffaloes.
• Book Marketing Q&A: Q&A worth listening to or reading.

For fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Coolest (and 5 Worst) Father’s Day Gifts: My husband would love that Corvette Wall Shelf.
• 8 Weirdest Dog Breeds Ever: Some of these look familiar as they’ve appeared in movies and TV shows.
• Praha Opening: Choreography in a Skydive Arena. Very cool. Yes, watch to the smooth ending.
• 12 Funny Signs Found at the Beach: Some not safe for work.
• 15 Coolest Pictures Taken at the Right Time: I have one of those (not on Oddee, mind you). I captured a lightning bolt by the Washington Monument. I’m not a good photographer, but am proud of the picture that I have it on the wall in my office.
• Neon Movie Signs: Wow.

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The Mavericks make me extra proud to be a Texan. Not because they won, but how they won. Last time the Mavericks made it to the finals was in 2006 against Miami Heat — the same team they beat to win this year’s finals. It’d be easy for the Mavs to taunt them and play up on the revenge angle. They didn’t. I grew up playing and watching sports. It turned me into a competitive and driven gal. It also showed me how easy it was to get angry and want revenge on the opponent.

Mavs Man at Kids' Elementary School

Miami players LeBron James and Dwayne Wade mocking Dirk’s illness. Actions like that can easily rile up the opposing team, but Dirk and Mavs remained cool.

Mark Cuban. You know the guy is brash and always in your face. Throughout the finals, he stood in the background and shone the spotlight on the Mavs instead of himself. This is the guy you least expected to let Mavs founder and original owner receive the championship trophy, but he did. Cuban stood by while Donald Carter accepted the trophy. He also cut back on blogging and tweeting during the finals.

Here are the 10 business lessons from the Dallas Mavericks:

1. Let actions do the talking. The Mavs didn’t mock or smack talk. Rather than talk up a big game, do your best work and let it speak for you. If you make a mistake, correct it and apologize instead of making excuses.
2. Operate as a team. Yes, Dirk is the star of the team, but he had off days especially when he had a fever. The Mavericks already knew how to play like a team, so it came easy for them to carry Dirk’s load.
3. Work hard. Dirk stood out because he worked hard and practiced for hours. When the team used to practice in a public fitness center while American Airlines Center was under construction, Dirk would stay after practice was over and keep shooting baskets until a member asked him to leave. [Source: The Dallas Morning News letter]
4. Share credit. Mark Cuban let Donald Carter hold the trophy first.
5. Show restraint. When the game ended, I wasn’t sure it was over as the Mavericks walked around or exited the court. They didn’t celebrate by jumping around and rubbing it in. Even fans showed restraint in not destroying city property while celebrating.
6. Trust your team. Coach Rick Carlisle found a balance in coaching an experienced team by trusting the players. He also gave ownership to the players such as letting veteran player Jason Kid run the offense.
7. Shut out the noise. Ignore what’s irrelevant. Focus on what needs to be done.
8. Speak up. Coach Rick Carlisle spoke up twice when Mark Cuban was having one of his “moments” during a game. Cuban did.
9. Keep fighting. The Mavs made big comebacks in a few playoff games. The Lakers had a 15-point lead and the Mavs came back to win. The Mavs did it again in Game 2 in Miami.
10. Adapt as needed. Carlisle benched players even though they were instrumental in previous games.

What other lessons did you pick up from the NBA finals? What are some examples of these business lessons in action? What’s your most memorable business lesson?

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School is officially out on Monday. We had to make up two days due to the FIVE snow days we had this year. Although I like the school year schedule, I’m glad it’s out for a little bit as the kids need a break. No more nagging about homework and studying for a couple of months. Nonetheless, wish school would be year around with more breaks instead of one long break and two medium ones. But I know that’s not efficient for a lot of reasons and summer gives kids a time to take part-time jobs, go to camp or do special programs.

What’s one of your most memorable last day or last week of school memories?

Brain food…

• 10 Modern Dilemmas Twitter Presents on a Daily Basis: Thanking for tweets is a big one. I tend to limit that to DM or if it’s something different, I’ll do it in public. Don’t want to add noise to stream thanking for my own stuff.
• Words We Don’t Say: Hugo Lindgren shares a list of words and phrases left by the previous editor. Words You Don’t Say: People wrote in sharing words they never want to read again. The one word I always change in every article I edit… “utilize.” I think that’s my ultimate cringe-worthy word.
• B2B Fail: Confessions, Apologies, and Questionable Motives: Did you get a bunch of “Are you taking on clients?” emails? Me, too. The story behind that…
• Nurse reveals the top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed: In the past few years, I’ve been making an effort to live my best life so I don’t have these regrets.
• Top Ten Myths About the Brain: All those characters conking their heads and forgetting their life? Myth. Writers, find another gimmick. [Link: Diana Adams]

And for fun because we’re allowed…

• 10 Amazing Ultrasound Photos: I think the rock it dude is really doing the I love you sign.
• The Value of the National Spelling Bee in the Age of Spell Check and Predictive Text: My almost third grader is the only one of my three kids to learn how to write cursive in second grade. It used to be covered in third grade, but with so much more material to cover and the use of computers — they changed when they learn cursive. I’m just glad schools still teach it. I hope the handwritten note never goes away. I get chills whenever I come across something my dad (in loving memory) wrote as he had a writing style that I always knew was his. Actually, every member of my family does except me.
• How to Make Harry Potter Butterbeer: The weather grows warmer and the last film comes nearer. I actually made this for my family using this recipe. The whip part was the best. I stirred the whip into the drink, but just didn’t quite warm up to it. Very easy to make.
• Douglas Adams … on Kindle … how meta is this? [Link: Esther Schindler]

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I’m sure you haven’t been keeping tabs on how often I blog or noticed fewer blog entries lately. Most people don’t for most blogs, email updates and websites. We get so much information that we don’t stand by wondering where the latest update is from so ‘n so.

It pangs me not to keep this blog updated much lately. But then I remind myself that I’d rather deliver nothing than something useless to you even if it affects search engines.

You don’t need a reminder of the advantages of consistent updates and blogging. What about making time for it? All the experienced bloggers tell us to make time for blogging and to stop making excuses that you don’t have time.

I do that for family.

I do that for volunteering and giving back.

I do that for clients.

I do that for exercise.

I do that for sleep.

If we “make time” for everything we want to accomplish, soon we’ll find ourselves losing sleep and overdoing it to the point that our brains feel overloaded. Speaker and author Jill Konrath wrote about this in The Year I Lost My Brain and How I Found It Again. Then today I read the top five regrets people made on their deathbed.

Multitasking is not always a good thing. It divides your attention, thereby sacrificing the quality of the two or three things you work on at the same time.

Oprah is right when she says, “Live your best life.” And that means sacrificing blog entries. If I work to accomplish all the things I’d like to do, it’d sacrifice at least one of the above and that would not be living my life. I’m not going to put off things just to make something happen.

I don’t want to regret not spending more time with my kids at every age. I already wish I had spent more time with my daughter who was growing up while I still had a corporate job and less flexibility. By the time my boys came along, I had the flexibility and fewer regrets.

In the past year, I’ve made time for things we hadn’t done together as a family. We saw the Harlem Globetrotters. We went to the State Fair. We went to the city’s International Festival. We went to the Texas Tornado hockey game. We went to LegoLand.

What will you make time for? What will you let go? How are you living your best life? How do you feel about blogging regularly or inconsistently?