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It sure is great watching the athletes compete to win the gold medals. Especially watching Michael Phelps on his gold medal spree, he makes it look so easy, like a child’s play to swim and win those races. But we all know that these athletes spend many years preparing, training and practising for this moment, to win the Gold Medals. If you can pause for a moment and visualize their lives, they spend many hours per day training and practising, foregoing other pleasures and activities that we all enjoy. All with an aim to win that gold medal. A single-minded focus on being the best, winning the race and taking home that coveted prize. Their every action, every thought is to take them closer towards their goal.

Well, just as these athletes have a clear target and how it motivates them and inspire them to strive and prepare, each one of us can transform ourselves into achievers only if we also had a clear target like them. Be it a healthy and happy retirement, be it living on the beach in retirement or whatever your target gold medal may be.

Do you know what gold medal you are striving to attain?

If not, take some time to think and clearly define what it is that you want to achieve in your life? If you already know your gold medal target, work on visualizing it as vividly as possible, put together a plan for what you can accomplish this year to get there and focusing your thoughts and actions on achieving it.

Enjoy your journey to the gold medal as much as you’d enjoy the achivement of that goal.

By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist
Guest Blogger

As a consumer journalist and blogger, I’ve written about how to organize clutter a number of times.

Why?

As an avid researcher, I save more articles than I enjoy filing. As a result, the articles stack up.

However, over the years, I’ve made progress. Every time I write about clutter, I learn new tips.

Recently I met Rita Rosenkranz, one of the authors of the book “Put Your House on a Diet: Declutter Your Home and Reclaim Your Life,” at the Pacific Northwest Writers Association conference. I decided to write about what Rosenkranz and her co-authors Ed Morrow and Sheree Bykofsky had to say to help boomers with their cultter. See my post, “Is Your Household Too Fat and Bursting at the Seams With Clutter? These Clutter Tips Help Put Your House On a Diet,” on my blog The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide.

Here are the best ideas I’ve learned from writing about clutter over the years:

My friend, the planner. My daughter suggested I use a planner because I was having problems keeping track information from phone calls. It works. With the details of your life written in a planner, you’re better organized.

Instant sorting. When the mail comes, I decide right away what to do with it. If it’s a meeting, I write the date, time, and phone number in my planner. I recycle the meeting notice. Then I don’t have to worry about getting it filed. Bills to be paid go in a special file. Junk mail and most catalogs are immediately recycled. The few catalogs I keep go in a file.

Nix on garage sales. I seldom buy anything at garage sales these days. More stuff makes the clutter problem worse.

Photo opportunities. I’ve purchased archival sleeves of various sizes for my photos and have assembled more than four-dozen photo notebooks. With supplies on hand, I’m able to organize photos as I get them.

Kitchen fun. My kitchen now gets prompt attention. I work on it throughout the day, putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher as I go along.

Less helps. I subscribe to fewer magazines and keep the remaining ones a shorter period of time. I keep fewer manila envelopes and cardboard boxes for items I’ll be mailing.

Knickknacks absent. When I moved into my new home, I didn’t unpack my knickknacks. I don’t miss them. Dusting is much easier now.

Clothes therapy. I’m sorting my clothes and giving away those I don’t wear anymore.

Books, books, books. I’ve cleared out a space for new books in my bookshelf. That way new books don’t stack up on my dining room table, on my desk, and in the living room, waiting to be read.

My biggest breakthrough with clutter is realizing that I must work on it often, at least several times a week. It takes constant vigil to keep things organized.

Clutter is a hot topic these days. Clutter adds to stress to people’s lives, the experts say. They’ve got books for you.

Check local bookstores and libraries for topics such as:

• “Clutter’s Last Stand: It’s Time to De-junk Your Life” by Don Aslett.

• “Organizing From the Inside Out: The Foolproof System for Organizing Your Home, Your Office, and Your Life” by Julie Morgenstern.

• “1001 Timely Tips for Clutter Control: Knowing What to Keep, When to Toss, and How to Store Your Stuff” by Frank W. Cawood.

You can also hire a professional organizer to come to your home and help you. The National Association of Professional Organizers offers listings of professional organizers throughout the United States.

Or check the yellow pages of phone books under Organizing. Hourly rates range from $35 to $80 for help in the home. Some firms charge an initial assessment fee.

People who have chronic problems with clutter can contact Messies Anonymous for ideas and resources.

For more information for boomer consumers, see my blog The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide.

We all know that we have two parts to our brains. Our left brain that is analytical in nature and our right brain is the source of our creative juices. Some are more left brained while some others are more right brained. But how much do we know or realize the capabilities that our brain gifts us with? How much do we understand the capabilities of each of these parts?

I can almost hear you say, why should I care?

Yes, Why should you care?

If learning about this helped you live your life more holistically, if learning about this helps you relieve some of your stress-points, if learning about this changes who you are for the better that you always wanted to become, wouldn’t you care?

Judith Auslander of Wise Heart Coaching (commercial break: Judith has joined the privileged group of Boomer411 trustees. So watch for her web site/article recommendations on Boomer411) shared this insightful video, titled ‘My Stroke of Insight’.

Click here to watch the video, titled ‘My Stroke of Insight’.

In this video, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor, neural anatomist shares her own experience in an engaging, gripping conversation with us. To keep the element of surprise, I am not revealing her experience. But I am very positive that it will touch you and stimulate you to look at your life differently; it sure touched me. Be sure to sit down, relax and watch the video with a calm and open mind for maximum learning.

As you watch this, think about how annoyingly left-brain oriented, as a society, we have become. What a wonderful gift it would be to our lives to find that Nirvana, that inner joy to resonate throughout our lives?

After you watch the video, scroll down and answer this question…

Who has the power or control to let that life force, that inner joy to resonate throughout our lives or not?

Do post your comments/thoughts on the same.

Did you say where is my lense?

Na aah.. not the lense you wear on your eyes! But the lenses that help you see information on the web.

Say What?

Well, I am talking about the Squidoo Lenses. (For those hearing it for the first time, Squidoo is a website that allows users to create lenses or web pages on a particular topic. Thus it is a lense on that topic and hence the name). So where are the squidoo lenses for Baby Boomers? and how do I find them?

Say no more. Your wish is answered by Susan via the SquidBoomers lense. She has compiled a very interesting collection of lenses on topics of interest to Baby Boomers. Also, to top it all off, Susan also runs a blog on the same subject that gives you more information on these lenses and other related topics. So check it out. You’ll probably find something that takes you back to those good ole’ days.

So did you say where is my lense? Find it all right here.

GM is coming out with vehicles that are more adaptive to older eyes, older bodies. And other automakers are thinking to follow suit. As Baby Boomers get older and reach retirement age, along with it come the health related issues and reduced eyesight. This is hightime for automobile makers to take notice and redesign the cars to accommodate this changing needs of Baby Boomers. Make no mistake. For those manufacturers that sieze this opportunity, it is big business. Apparently, GM is coming out with vehicles equipped with high-tech gadgets that help with blind-spot monitoring, lane departure warnings and so on.

Chuck Nyren of the Advertising to Baby Boomers blog has posted the following nice post covering the recent Business Week article on the subject, ‘The coming Boom in Boomer Friendly Transport‘, as well as his own prediction on the topic much earlier. This articles also talks about the need for the roads, road signs themselves to change to be more convenient on the aging bodies. Click on the links above for further reading on this topic.