So far 78 people have had their homes transformed this year through the Organise your Home system.

That’s 78 families and at least 150 kids, from what I’ve been told

I just need 4 of you to say YES to reach a personal goal…but more importantly, this will mean saying YES to peace, calmness and happiness and lightness for you and your family.

Check it out here and see if this is something that could work for you.

P.S. If you sign up to my list, you get a 20% off coupon which you can use immediately

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – 2006

The week between Christmas and New Year is, hands down, my favourite time of the year.

I absolutely love it!

That’s because it’s the time I prepare my diary (calendar) but, most of all, it’s because I do my year-end review and goal-setting for the next year.

A colleague of mine paid me the biggest compliment recently (she doesn’t even know it!) when she told me that of everyone she knows, I’m the only one she’s ever met who is this intentional about my goals.

It’s because I firmly believe that if you drift through life, there will be tons of things left undone simply because of lack of intention.

I don’t want that to be me.

Anyway, back to the process…

Some of the year-end thinking can be done as you go about your life (in the shower, while driving, etc.) but there comes a point when you actually need to sit down with a gorgeous pen and notebook, or with your laptop, and make the time to write things down.

There’s tremendous power in creating a sacred space for your thoughts, dreams, intentions and goals.

Phuket, Thailand – 2006

It’s also the perfect time to start the new year with a clean slate – isn’t that so appealing?

I’ve booked out a half day tomorrow for exactly this purpose. If that’s not enough time (these things sometimes take a lot longer than you plan), I’ll take another two hours on Thursday, and if I need more, again on Friday.

Some of the things I’ll be thinking and writing about are:

• my biggest accomplishments this year
• things I definitely don’t want to repeat
• the things I need to let go of – commitments, relationships, emotions
• my word/ theme for next year
• what my definition of success for 2011 will look like
• and finally, the actual goal-setting

and so on

What about you? Have you created your sacred space yet for your 2011 goal-setting?Loch Lomond, Scotland – 2008

I’ve been on leave from my full-time job for the last two weeks and I go back on Tuesday.

That has been all the incentive I’ve needed to get our home sorted to start our week purposefully.

Today I

1. cooked a meal, enough for 8 portions (4 meals for us)
2. made my weekly menu plan, both for us and for the kids, and made notes about when I have to actually cook (I don’t cook every day)
3. decluttered my fridge and freezer (is it just me or is there something so satisfying about finishing bits of food, throwing away old foods and organising it all nicely?!)
4. threw a load of laundry in the machine, ready to go first thing when I wake tomorrow
5. tidied the kitchen and laundry

Even though everything isn’t as clean or as organised as I’d like it to be (don’t even think about peeking into my laundry), I feel calm, organised in my mind and ready to tackle the week.

We women are the home managers (in most cases) and if we’re prepared and organised, the whole tone of the home is peaceful, calm and in order – just like I like it!

How do you start your week off purposefully?

And just in case you thought life was picture-perfect, this is how it goes around here

There are only 6 days til Christmas.

At this point you have a choice – you can stress and run around trying to do it all or you can let go.

When you visualise the two choices, which sounds more attractive to you?

What can you let go?

• the need to have a perfectly decorated house
• the illusion of super mom
• running around to the shops daily
• running around to lots of events
• hosting the perfect lunch or dinner
• your own expectations of yourself or others

When you think about Christmas, what do you feel?

Do you feel overwhelmed and just a little bit stressed at everything you have to do? Or do you feel excited at the idea of spending time with friends and family?

My best Christmases have always been when I’ve been organised, prepared and more importantly, when I didn’t leave everything right up until December.

Here are a couple of things to consider so that you have an organised Christmas this year:

Your vision for a great Christmas

Decide, together with your family, if you want to celebrate with many spiritual activities, spend time at home with just your immediate family, do lots of baking, etc.

Christmas cards

Will you be sending cards by themselves, or with a family newsletter? Or will you be sending cards at all? Do you have a list of recipients?

Christmas gifts

Will you be giving gifts this year? Are you making any gifts or are you buying them all? Do you have a gift-giving budget? Remember to budget for gift wrap, gift tags and, if necessary, postage to your loved ones who live in a different city.

Christmas Day

Where will you spend the day – with your parents or his? Or will the family gather at your house? Who will cook the food? Which recipes will you use? Do you know where to find them?

How far in advance should you plan?

Well, that depends on how much stress you can tolerate! Personally, I like to have gifts done by the end of October and cards by mid-November. That’s because I really don’t enjoy the stress of having to get the perfect gift with no time to spare. Add to that the crowded malls and you can practically see my blood pressure rising!

I like to start planning at the beginning of October and I set myself mini-goals of compiling my card list first, then planning backwards so I write out a certain number of cards per week until they’re all done by my self-imposed due date. I do the same for gifts. I also wrap a few gender-neutral gifts just in case someone pops around with something for me.

It’s relaxing for me to prepare a beautifully-wrapped gift with a gift tag because I believe that presentation is part of the gift. Something I do that has saved me lots of money is I no longer buy Christmas gift wrap. Instead, I buy red and green coloured craft paper and matching ribbon. I can use the paper year-round with a different bow so that it doesn’t look Christmassy for birthday gifts.

This year, get organised for Christmas so you can welcome the season instead of dreading it.

On a scale of 1 – 10, how are you doing with Christmas prep right now?

I’m not sure what happens in the rest of the world but in South Africa, companies usually pay employees by 15 December, so they have money for Christmas.

That’s lovely in theory but it does mean there’s a long, long wait between the December and January salaries.

I wasn’t always as self-disciplined as I am now but I was always a quick learner.

After one really bad year where all the money was spent early on, I vowed to never get in that situation again.

We’ve never used credit cards so that was just not an option.

I’ve now done this for about 12 years and it works beautifully.

When I get paid in December, I move the money I’ll need for the 3 weeks in January plus a bit extra to a separate savings account.

Out of sight, out of mind or… what you don’t see, you can’t spend

It’s simple but very effective.

This way I always have money in January when everybody else is broke. And everybody thinks I’m very clever when I tell them my “tricks”.

What do you do about the long wait? Or what happens on your side of the world?

P.S. In the Organise your home system, there’s an ebook on finances called 10 steps to your financial freedom which has even more fantastic tips.

P.P.S. If you’re getting paid this week, my coaching challenge is to put the January money in another account.

Pic by Jeanette Verster Photography

Something very exciting happens this Sunday 12th December.

I’m going to be on TV!

Last week Thursday I was interviewed by Zuraida Jardine for season 2 of Life’s a Journey, a new health and wellness magazine programme on SABC3. The show airs on Sundays at 4:30.

South Africans, please put a reminder in your phone now (thank you!), watch the programme, tweet, facebook and tell me what you think.

Would it surprise you that I’ve already started working on my goals for 2011?

I’m not ashamed to say I’m a passionate goal-getter.

I’m the type of person who’s happier taking charge of my life than letting life happen to me.

So I set and achieve goals. I would never have managed to travel as much as I have if I hadn’t consciously set those things as goals.

This is me at Victoria Station in London – I love this pic Dion took of me. What does it say to you?

Here’s how I do my goal-setting, very, very briefly:

1.       I think back over the year that’s been and write down what went well and what didn’t. This could take up to an hour or longer, depending on how the year went.

2.      I then look forward and think about what I want for the year ahead. I really spend time getting clear on my vision, fleshing it out fully. This is also when I think about my ONE word for the year.

3.      Then I take my goals form (in the Time Management Purpose Pack) and in each of the areas of my life, like Family, Health, Spiritual, Business, I write down 1 – 3 broad goals.

4.      I then check each of those goals and make sure they align with my One Word or theme and more importantly, that I’m excited by them and that they feel authentic with who I am. E.g. One of my values is Balance so if I have too many goals, I start to feel out of control and therefore, inauthentic with who I am. So if this happens, I go back to the drawing board to simplify some more.

5.      I also make sure that they are within my control. E.g. with my business, I can only control my actions. Yes, I do set the intention to have x clients bringing in y mo.ney but the things I can control is how much marketing to do, in which ways, how often, etc. I can’t actually control the clients’ behaviour and whether they choose to coach with me or not. Does this make sense?

6.      I then choose 3 – 5 goalsvto work on for the first 90 days, schedule the work and get to it.

7.      I like to add one or two quick wins to get started so that when I achieve those goals, I’m motivated to persevere with the harder ones.

I’ve had the privilege (because I do count it a privilege to work with the wonderful people who coach with me) to work with some women recently and we’ve already been touching on their goals for next year.

I wanted to do something spec.ial for all of you so I’m giving you a 33% disc.ount cou.pon off a 30-minute goal-setting session for the next 72 hours only. Use the disc.ount code GOALS in the shopping cart.

All that means is this – you have to book and pay for your Success Strategy Session by Sat 11^th 12pm EST/ 7pm South African time but the session can be scheduled all the way up to 31 January 2011.

That said, if there’s areally good reason why you can’t have your session by 31 Jan, tell me – we’ll work something out

Are you a goal setter? Have you started for next year? Tell me I’m not the only one!