I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about order. When I was younger I had a person in my life who preached continuously about “setting order.” So, as I’ve grown up I have always had an appreciation for those people who seem to be well organized, structured, and ordered.

At this point I must make a confession. Organization has never been one of my strong suits. I’ve sort of created a “what works for me” mentality over the past few years, and thankfully it worked for a while. That is, until a little while ago.

As many of you know, I’ve been in a stage of metamorphisis lately; losing weight, starting new businesses, going back to college, writing my first novel, and practicing my public speaking skills. I am already a success because of my attitude and actions. So just last week I started feeling this insatiable desire for order.

The cell phone store I own had a flood about two weeks ago and I lost a lot of stuff and I’m still waiting for the landlord to replace the floor. I could have gotten angry about the whole thing, but instead I’ve been persistent and it looks like today will be the day that the work gets done. I’m exctied about that in so many ways.

I’m converting some of the back space into an office for me and others so I can have more order in my life. Even when I’m working at the store I can be in the back office working on my novel, writing sales letters for different products, designing websites and classified ads, or even just taking a break on the sofa because I installed a doorbell ringer that dings whenever someone comes in the front.

I believe that setting order in your life starts with decisions and investments. I purchased the door bell alarm for about 40 bucks. That investment now allows me the freedom to have my own quiet office where no one disturbs me (save the customers ).

I also just purchased an IMAC for my bedroom so that I can lock myself away in the room and write articles like the one you’re reading, work on the novel some more, or do other productive things that I can’t do in the main living area because of the noise of the tv and people.

And speaking of the bedroom, today I am dedicating myself to bringing it to a state of complete order. As I grow and change I find that I can’t sit by any longer and let things slide. Setting order is the next logical step in my path. Remember, this blog is an adventure in personal development! It’s a journey
Here are some things you can do right now to begin setting order in your life.

1. Decide on cleaning that one area you’ve been puttting off.

2. Determine 3 things you can buy to make your life more productive, and buy them as soon as you can.

3. Commit to taking an extra 15 minutes each day to organizing your paper work.

4. Set aside a private space to maximize productivity.

5. Allocate an hour each week to filing, copying, and saving important paperwork.

6. Never do later what you can do right now.

7. This goes with # 6, DIRDIN. This stands for: DO IT RIGHT, DO IT NOW.

When you follow these principles, you can begin to have a more productive life, which leads to a happier, more fulfilled life. So get started today, you’ll be glad you did.

PS - Soon and very soon this page will have a whole new look. It’s going to be much more professional and nice looking, easy on the eyes if you will. I’m hesitant to say a date because the project isn’t in my hands totally, but the design for the project was approved on Friday so more than likely it should be up by the middle of next week. So you have that to look forward to! Also, be ready for a new website coming soon! I love secrets…

2 months ago I thought blogging was little more than people with no lives talking about movies and entertainment news. I was oblivious to the idea. This happens sometimes with all of us. We may hear about something going on, but we dismiss it easily because we have no tangible example to see. That is how blogging was for me, something that people somewhere did, but not me!
I must confess that I did have an xanga that I used occasionally, but I didn’t really view that as a blog. It was more or less something I wrote it when I was bored and it was probably read by about 10 people. I heard about people blogging and making money or getting famous even. I thought that was all just the luck of the draw, until I finally took a good look into blogging as a business. And that is why you are here today reading this blog entry.

I think everyone should attempt to have their own blog to be able to discuss what’s on their mind. Blogs are tools we can use to reach other people with whatever message we want. The important thing to realize is that the message must be one that we believe in or the reader will instantly know whether the author is genuine or not. Before we delve into all that, though, let’s cover a little background on blogging. I will style it with a Q & A type structure for ease of use.

Questions and Answers

A: A blog is short for the term, “weblog”. In simplest terms, it is a website that contains updated entry’s about topics of interest to the author and reader. A blogger is the author of those entries. Blogging is the act of writing a blog. Easy, huh?

Q: Is blogging expensive?

A: Surprisingly, no. If you use GoDaddy for your domain name and hosting, you can get started for about 12 dollars up front, and then about 6 dollars a month thereafter. That will give you your own domain name (www.whateverxxx.com) and hosting. If you don’t understand what hosting is, maybe blogging isn’t for you. . The best software to use for your blogging is WordPress. It works like a charm and the best part about it is the low cost investment. It’s FREE! Check out their site for more info and how it works.

Q: What should I blog about?

A: What shouldn’t you blog about? That’s the real question. Blogging works because your potential audience is the entire internet. As long as you know what you’re talking about and don’t hold back information, you can build up quite a following in only a few months. Popular blogs include water cooler topics, personal development, movies, politics, and business advice. The important thing to remember is that almost anything goes. If it’s of interest to you, odds are others will be interested to.

Q: Can I make money from my blog?

A: Yes, you can. There are some people who make a full time living just blogging. They are good writers and talk about popular topics. Broader topics like personal development are easier to make money with compared to basket weaving, because of the sheer number of people interested in each topic, but the truth is that both can make you a very good living. Just remember, you have to be dedicated and ready to blog for at least a year before you can expect to make any money at all.

Q: Where can I get some more information?
A: There are entire sites dedicated to helping you make money with your blog. The most popular (as I’ve seen) is Problogger.net

Problogger has all sorts of articles and tips on blogging and making money. A GREAT article to read is by the ubiquitous Steve Pavlina. He has an article called “How to Make Money From Your Blog.” I highly recommend this article as it reveals all sorts of interesting tips.

Well that’s enough for now. I’ll blog part 2 of this article at a later date. For now, get started looking around Wordpress, Problogger, and Steve’s Article. They will prove invaluable.