Facebook Archives ~ Beth Terry

Soundtrack to Success with Resolutions

Posted on January 9, 2017 by Beth Terry — No Comments ↓

How are you doing today with your Resolutions?

Resolutions ©2017 Beth Terry, CSP — A few Secrets to Keeping Resolutions

You started out with great energy and enthusiasm. “This is the year I’m keeping my New Years Resolutions! Quitting Smoking; Losing Weight; Spending more time with Family; Finding time to read; using Social Media the right way, Blogging more, Facebooking less…” Ahh – but today is the beginning of the 2nd week of the New Year, and here you are, smoking, eating chocolate, buried on @Imgur and @Facebook and @Instagram while those goals go un-resolutely undone.

Here are three ideas.

Create a Soundtrack for your Success. The first Secret? MUSIC baby! We are all motivated by music. Find your favorites and make a soundtrack to play when you need to get going. I have Dwight Yoakam playing right now. That revs up my cowgirl heart big time! Find yours! I’m energized and have checked off three things on my Resolutions list today, including writing this, all while dancing around the office.

One technique I’ll use for simple tasks is to put on a favorite high-energy song and tell myself I need to finish the task before the song ends. Then I’m racing against the song, and mindless or repetitive tasks get done quicker. If it’s a longer project, put on an album and finish before the album does. It’s more fun than slogging through for hours and complaining the whole time.

Don’t Overwhelm Yourself by gathering all your work into one ugly pile!

Break it up! Piles of work leering at you from every corner will dropkick you into Overwhelm in no time at all. Don’t do that to yourself. We are capable of doing things well if we break down our projects into steps and then focus only on that one step at a time. That’s how you can use that one song-one task technique above.

If you want to lose weight, don’t try to lose 30 pounds in a month. You’ll get sick and you just won’t do it. INCREMENTS! Increase exercise by 10% each day. Reduce calorie intact by 10% each day. Drink more water. Slowly shift habits: eat earlier, take a walk each night, make it work for you. Cut out one thing a week or month: white flour and white sugar are good places to start if you’re dieting. Do what works for you and congratulate yourself on your small successes. It works! Increments help you not feel deprived.

Time Yourself. The song trick works. So does a clock or timer. Competing against yourself is energizing. Buy a small noisy timer or set a timer on your phone that shows countdown. You’ll be amazed how much you can do in 20 minute chunks. Say this: “For the next 20 minutes I’ll clean off my desk.” “For the next 10 minutes I’ll organize bills.” “For the next two songs I’m filing receipts for the year.” Do it this way and stop when the timer goes off or the song ends. Now you know where you have to pick it up again tomorrow or later today. Bonus: you are uncluttering your space and clearing your mind.

Be sure and Celebrate your successes. Every small success leads to a bigger Resolution being met!

Take care of yourself, we need you!

© 2017 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved

Your Social Media Detritus

Posted on February 10, 2016 by Beth Terry — No Comments ↓

What happens to your social media accounts when you die?

SEE UPDATE BELOW

social media, EverybodysLost.com — Social Media tracks are left behind when we go

I wrote yesterday about my good friend and colleague Ted Rogers who passed away. In searching for his photo to include in the blog, I realized his website was still up. Curiosity got to me and I looked up several of my other professional colleagues who had passed on. Surprisingly, several of my late colleagues are still in “active” status on these social media sites.

So here’s a question: Do you have someone in your life who will take care of your social media sites, your website and any store or products you have when you pass away? Do your loved ones even know what sites you have? How to access them? Are there clients or people in your life that need to be contacted when you’re gone? Is there a contact list somewhere that is easily retrievable for your Executor or family?

Some of my more famous speaking colleagues had huge staff that took care of their social media accounts and have successfully continued to market their worthy content and products long after they left the planet. Most of us don’t have that luxury.

Perhaps it’s time to make a list of all the above and put it in a safe place for those who need to look after your affairs when you’re gone.

Here’s a handy social media checklist:

User Id’s and passwords for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, and any other social media
User Id’s and passwords for any chatrooms
List of email addresses, user Id’s and passwords
Passwords to all retail sites: Amazon, ebay, store sites, purchasing sites like paypal
URL’s and Log On information for all your blogs and websites
Any gaming or special sites you belong to
List of clients, contracts, contact information and relationships with you

Write in and add to the list…

This, of course, is in addition to information on your bank accounts, medical accounts, professional service providers and any rental or mortgage accounts you may have. Many people think of the financial checklist, and they forget about their social media presence.

Protect your family and friends from all the downsides of being contacted by people who don’t know you’ve passed on long after you’ve left. Hopefully they will miss you when you are gone. Don’t make it too hard on them to figure out your online life story. It’s just the right thing to do.

Take care of yourself, we need you!

© 2016 Beth Terry • All Rights Reserved

Update: Here’s a great article on Thrillist on What Happens to Your Facebook account when you die?

Someday Comes Very Fast

Posted on November 1, 2015 by — No Comments ↓

Suddenly you’re lumped into “elderly”

© 2014 Beth Terry, Everybodys Lost photo of grandmas — Grandmas Watch the wedding of two millenials (Mom on Left)

Loneliness in the elderly is a growing concern. Most of us think we will be elderly “Someday” but don’t realize how close that is exactly. I’d bet there’s someone living in your building or on your block that matches the woman in this Documentary by James Darby about the life of a 98 year old woman.

Our culture has made much of “feminism” and freedom for women – many women who were homemakers during the 60’s were the first to be “free to live on their own and do their own thing.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m an independent woman and I love my freedom to choose my career and make my own life choices. As someone from the 60’s I fought for equality for all. But legal equality doesn’t guarantee equal results.

Legal equality doesn’t guarantee equal results

This video shows the double edged sword of a cultural change and philosophy that left out some important pieces to the puzzle. When the family began to fall apart, most people advocating for this lifestyle didn’t think very far into the future. This woman in the video was probably on the forefront of that sea change in the way the family was organized. Her mother probably lived with the family until she died. Nuclear families were the norm until the 60’s.

Too many women, especially in the WW2 generation, were ill prepared and poorly trained in things like investments and late life planning to know what to do about their lives past retirement or post-death of a spouse. What kills me is that the children, grandchildren and great grandchildren of this woman are probably on Facebook or Pinterest 10 hours a day making thousands of “friends” instead of accessing a wonderful resource through grandma.

What’s her story?
What did she see in her life in those amazing years since 1917? She’s a walking history book!
What are her beliefs? Where did she get them?
What accomplishments does she have in her past?
What mistakes did she make that would be wonderful lessons for today’s Millenials?

I love the programs where they pair a teenager with someone like her. Even for an hour a day it would make a huge difference in the lives of both people. The teen could help with physical things as simple as washing the dishes, and this woman’s life experience could enrich that teenager’s life forever. I would love to see some high school take up a project of recording the memories of their 80 and 90 year olds in their communities.

My mom is 93 and still looks purty good as you can see in the photo above! (Yay for my genes!) She still works in the garden, she goes down to the historical society and volunteers, and she belongs to a church. Mom says she’s blessed, too. And like the woman in the video she doesn’t want to move, she’s been in her home for decades. It’s familiar and with her sight failing, familiar is a good thing.

Beyond connecting with older relatives and neighbors, we Boomers sneaking up on retirement should think about downsizing and creating “living compounds” while we are still ambulatory and have full use of all our senses.

It’s true that we don’t age much in our self-assessments (and I didn’t realize it till the gray started sneaking into my hair!) When someone asks, “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you are?” My answer is 42. What’s yours? Are you shocked by the face that greets you in your mirror? Days go by, the minutes pass, choices and decisions are made, and suddenly a much older face stares back at you…

What do you do?

Find your older neighbors and make an effort to bring them a little sunshine from time to time

If you are getting older, “Someday” comes up real fast, so take some time to plan for your life 10-20-30 years from now. There are a lot of people who do investment counseling for a living! Find them!

Learn to dance, take up a hobby, plant a garden, get a low-maintenance pet, go for walks, meet your neighbors, be involved with your family, love people and forgive them. All that will go a long way to mitigating the loneliness that comes with getting older.

In other words – take some responsibility for making your “golden years” as golden as possible. If you are 55, you have around 13,000 days before you celebrate your 90th birthday. How will you use them?

Have a wonderful November!

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