Creating Lena » Weekly Review

Clearing the Air (and other goodies from last week)

Helena — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:05:56 +0000

I swear there was something in the air last week. I was in a foul mood all week, and just could not get my act together. I was pissed off, fed up and didn’t really want to write anything at all, and I didn’t make it to the gym even one day. I don’t handle the change of seasons well at the best of times, but last week seemed like a particularly violent change even for me.

My initial attempt to work through it came in the form of Issue #29 of The Acorn Stash, “Clearing Mental Clutter: Tips For Giving Your Mind a Fall Cleaning” but it didn’t really work.

It actually took a trip to the driving range to hit buckets of balls on Saturday to finally get the last of it out of my system. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of unloading all your frustration onto a golf ball and sending it flying, and for most of the time we were there it was really quiet. We pretty much had the place to ourselves. :)

Anyways, I did manage to get a little writing done. The topic of the week for me was accepting yourself. As you no doubt have noticed, I’m big on talking about taking care of yourself and loving yourself. To me that all starts with accepting yourself, and on Wednesday I was seeing signs that it was a topic to tackle everywhere. I documented a few of them along with my initial thoughts on this blog, and then followed it up with Issue #30 of The Acorn Stash and a feature article titled “I am perfect just the way I am: 6 Tips For Learning How To Love and Accept Yourself“.

The one thing I did get done last week that was really big was my new PLR store — Healthy Living PLR. I was never really happy with the original store so when the domain name expired last week I just let it go. It wasn’t me and I wasn’t comfortable promoting it, so I pretty much wasted a year with a site I didn’t like enough to work on. I’m really pleased with how this one has turned out, and considering how much my life seems to be focusing on fitness and health, I feel much more comfortable confining my PLR efforts to healthy living topics instead of trying to do a little bit of everything.

My goal for the new store is to have 50 packs done and added by the end of this year. And then I won’t feel like the year’s been quite a total waste. :) I’m taking requests too, so feel free to submit your topic requests and I’ll put them at the front of the list.

So that was my week last week. I’m happy to say that things are looking up already for this new week. The sun is shining, I was able to work yesterday and get some writing done and so far today I’ve got five items crossed off my to-do list, and this post will make six! I’m looking forward to a much more productive week this week. Hope you are too!

Thanks for being here!

Workouts, Screwups, and Being Happy

Helena — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:28:39 +0000

Week in Review, September 4 to 9, 2011

It’s been a weird week here. I didn’t get a lot of writing done, and the content plan I mentioned in the Labour Day post never really materialized, but it was a productive week in other areas.

Taking care of myself has become my top priority, and if my productivity has to suffer for a little while in order to make that happen then that’s what is going to happen. (see Priorities and Productivity, 04/11/11)

First, the workouts…

I joined a new gym on Tuesday, then went for orientation sessions on Wednesday and Thursday, and met with a personal trainer on Friday. After not working out seriously over the summer, those two sessions kicked my butt good. I’ve spent the weekend recuperating, but will be back at it on Monday morning.

I’m thinking of starting a 30 day workout challenge over on my fitness blog. I’ll post something there tonight, and if you’re interested in that you’re welcome to join me.

One of the reasons I’m getting serious about my fitness is because I have type 2 diabetes. And I don’t want it anymore. :) My goal is to lose the extra weight I’m carrying now, get fit and healthy and be off my medication in a year. So, I guess I should warn you that you might be seeing more posts than usual on the topics of fitness and diabetes here as well.

On to the Screwups…

On Monday, I was so determined that I was not going to miss an issue of The Acorn Stash and it happened anyways. I stayed up until about 1 a.m. finishing off the issue and setting it up to be sent first thing Tuesday morning. I didn’t think any more about it, and by Tuesday night there were a couple of comments on the blog post for How Do You Define Success? so I just assumed that everything went out okay.

Well, you know what they say about assuming things…

On Thursday I was absolutely exhausted but determined again not to miss an issue, and worked until late writing and getting everything ready to mail. And then I logged in to Aweber to set it up, and there was Monday’s issue sitting there waiting to be sent. I set the date and forgot to actually hit the “queue” button!

Talk about feeling pretty stupid. So I ended up missing an issue anyways. :(

Being Happy

But in spite of it all, I’m still feeling pretty happy about things. In addition to the two posts I already mentioned this week’s posts included two more from the Taking Care of Yourself series:

Taking Care of Yourself: What Are You Waiting For? and
Ten Tips for Taking Care of Your Body, Mind, and Spirit

and two short posts on happiness:

How To Be Happy is a video post of an article I wrote for The Acorn Stash awhile back, and the second is a short collection of Happiness Quotes.

I feel like I’m finally starting to get a handle on what, exactly I’m supposed to be doing with my life. I need to do some more processing on it, and now that I’m finally finished the first reading of The Success Principles, I’m ready to go back and do the exercises. I have a feeling that a lot of answers will become clearer as I work through those.

So that’s a wrap for last week.

What’s Next?

It’s looking like another busy week! I have four sessions scheduled at the gym so I’m really hoping I don’t get my butt kicked as bad this week.

I bought a new course on diabetes treatments today, and I’ll be reviewing that at some point once I’ve gone through the whole thing. I’ve got a couple of internet marketing courses to go through as well, and a new book to read.

On the writing front, look for two new issues of The Acorn Stash (Monday and Thursday), a new post on the Getting Fit blog about the fitness challenge, and a new post here every day. I don’t have a list of topics for this week yet, but for sure I can tell you there will be at least one post in the Taking Care of Yourself Series. Other than that, I’m open to suggestions, so leave me a comment or drop me a line and let me know what I can help you with.

Thanks for being here!

Week in Review – 3 September 11

Helena — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:53:20 +0000

Wow, I can’t believe that summer is on it’s way out of town already. It seems like it just got here. And while I’ll miss the blue skies and the sunshine, I have to say I won’t miss the humidity and the high temperatures.

I haven’t done a “week in review” post in awhile because, frankly, I wasn’t getting enough done to warrant it. But since I’ve restarted The Acorn Stash newsletter, I’ve noticed that I’m also getting a lot more of other things done too.

On this blog, there’s a new post in the “Taking Care of Yourself” Series titled Tips for Creating Healthy Eating Habits which goes over some of the things that you need to be aware of when it comes to diet and healthy eating.

The whole series started as a way for me to talk about things you can do to take better care of yourself so that you don’t end up with type 2 diabetes or heart disease. And talking about them is a good reminder for me too, because I pay a lot more attention to how I’m caring for my self when I’m telling you what you should be doing. :)

If you missed any of the previous installments you can find them here:

1. 5 Baby Steps to Putting Yourself First
2. Six Tips for Creating Me Time in Your Busy Day

Be on the looking for a new installment this week.

And on The Acorn Stash,

Issue 24 was all about change and how we can deal with making changes in a more user-friendly way instead of getting all stressed out over them. You can read that article here: User Friendly Change: 5 Ways To Make Dealing With Change Less Stressful.

Issue 25 focused on happiness and gratitude and how they go together. The full article is here for your reading pleasure: If You’re Happy and You Know It.

I’d love your feedback on the articles, so feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line.

Challenge Updates

I also detailed the challenges that I’m participating in this month. You can find that list here.

So far I’ve managed a post every day for Nablopomo, even if a couple of them were kind of short. I’ve got my PLR goals for both the seller’s and the user’s challenges laid out on the forum there. And today I got set up on The Challenge forum with a team and downloaded the Manifesto to read through.

So it’s shaping up to be a busy month, and I’m excited to be back at it.

Enjoy the long weekend!

Thanks for being here. :)

Looking For Balance

Helena — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:29:32 +0000

The Week in Review, January 10-15 2011

I’ve decided that even though I got more done than I thought I had this past week, it’s still not enough. And yet, at the same time it’s probably too much when I think about the housework and exercising that got put off in favour of writing just one more page.

Balance is something I always struggle with. It seems that I can do one thing well at a time to the exclusion of all others… When I get on a roll with my work, I keep at it until I’m pretty much falling over from hunger and my eyes are so tired I can’t see straight. When I’m firmly entrenched in workout mode, nothing else gets done because I spend most of the day at the gym and then am ready for sleep as soon as I get home. What I need is to find a way to be able to work out, and still get real work done on the same day. And we won’t even talk about the housework…

So what I’ve decided to do, again, is to re-do the Wonder Woman Challenge. Every time I do that, and make myself take time out of everything else to do the daily self-nurture practices, things start to fall into place. Maybe one of these days it will actually take and I’ll find my balance. :) In the meantime I’m going to enjoy taking better care of all of me.

In the meantime, here’s the scoop on what got done this week, and what’s on tap for next week…

This Week:

New blog post: Six Ways To Find and Keep Your Motivation on The Acorn Stash

New blog post: Four Ways Clutter Causes Stress and What To Do About It on Stress Tips From The Acorn Stash — Yes, this is a new blog. I wanted to keep the stress-related stuff separate from the rest of the site because there’s so much to write about there that really doesn’t fit with the rest of what The Acorn Stash is all about.

New PLR Pack – 5-pack of articles on meditation. You can check out the descriptions and word counts here: Meditation PLR

I also finished the watching the videos for the Quick Cash Workshop and have started working on my new service-based website. While I love blogging and created Amazon sites like my At Home Cardio Workouts site, I really love helping people get their own sites set up. Most of what I’ve done online for the last several years has been the behind the scenes stuff like setting up blogs and forums for people, so I’m going to be offering my services to do that again.

On Tap for the Coming Week:

Blog Posts – look for something new on The Acorn Stash. The mailed newsletter will be going out Monday morning, so there will be at least one new article there this week, as well as at least one new on the Stress Relief Tips side of things. My focus this week is going to be on creating at least one new post for each of The Introverted Marketer, and I Am Getting Fit. Those two have been pretty much ignored so far this month, and are in dire need of some TLC.

If the weather cooperates, I plan on getting out for some fresh photos this week as well. I’ve noticed that since I’ve started swimming and spending time in the gym that my photo walks are few and far between.

I also plan to get the services site finished up and ready to launch, and to spend some time updating all of my Amazon sites.

Just For Me:

And just for me this week, in addition to my daily Wonder Woman Challenge practice, I’ll also be heading back to the gym. I kinda slacked off this week and am starting to need my swimming fix. There’s just something that feels totally decadent about floating in the pool while it’s 20-below and snowing outside. :)

Have a great week! Leave a comment and let me know what you’re up to this week.

BTW, the two giveaways I’m playing in this month are still going on. At last count the Self Help Gifts one had 900 gifts, and there’s some good ones there so have go take a peek if you haven’t already.

No related posts.

Week in Review – October 10-17, 2010

Helena — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 19:25:32 +0000

This week that just passed has been a wonderful week here in the Ritchie madhouse. :)

Starting with Thanksgiving weekend last weekend, we ended up doing a lot of outdoorsy stuff on Sunday, going for long walks in Lakefield, and up around the locks on the Otonabee River.

It was back to the grind on Tuesday, starting with a trip to the gym. Since I had not gone the week before due to having a cold, I lost all the momentum I’d built up on the elliptical machine and could only go about 2 minutes before feeling like I was gonna die! It didn’t take long to get back into it though, and by Friday I was up to 6 minutes — my best so far!

It seems my aqua fitness and aqua yoga classes are starting to pay off too. On Friday the instructor actually complimented me by saying I looked very fluid in the water. That made me feel really great and gave my always-tenuous sense of self-confidence a much appreciated boost.

On the work front, I didn’t get a lot of writing done. I messed up my NaBloPoMo month by missing a day (or was it two) of posting this week. And I’m nowhere near meeting my goal of writing 10 pages a day this month. Must learn to do better at getting work done before going to play in the gym!

The biggie this week, however, is that I DID manage to finish up the first article pack for sale on my new PLR site — TheBestPLRContent.com. I’m so very proud of myself for doing this and even emailing my small PLR list about it because that completed my Overcoming Fear challenge from the weekend.

I also fixed up the Introverted Marketer blog this week, and added the “about me” page. I’m trying to keep up posting here and there both on a daily basis, and I sorta dropped the ball this week.

My Boys Halloween Costumes blog is doing well and starting to see some sales, so I’m also pretty pleased about that.

And that’s the high notes for this week.

Here’s a rundown of this week’s blog posts:

On Helena Ritchie.com

October 10 – Thanksgiving Sunday Stroll
October 11 – Thanksgiving Stroll, Part 2
October 12 – Powerful Water
October 14 – Clear Skies Over the Marsh
October 15 – Canal Reflections

On TheIntrovertedMarketer.com

October 12 – a short Productivity Update
October 14 – Day 11 update
October 17 – the new About Me page

On TheBestPLRContent.com

October 14 – Exercises for the Thighs and Buttocks PLR Article Pack

One thing I should mention too, is if you’re in the market for PLR content, I do take requests. There’s a spot on the PLR site where you can submit your topic requests and I’ll handle them on a first come, first served basis.

On tap for the upcoming week is more time in the gym, more inches to lose and more minutes to tackle on the elliptical machine. As far as content goes, I have more posts to add to the Halloween Costumes site, and I’m already working on the next PLR pack on meditation.

I’m looking forward to an even more productive week this week. Hope you are getting everything you want done as well!

Have a great week!

My Week in Review 2010-3

Helena — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 17:06:35 +0000

With week 3 of the new year in the books, I have to say that it was the best one so far. I was able to reconnect with two people I hadn’t been in touch with since before Christmas, and both ended up bringing a little work my way. So while I didn’t get a whole lot done on my own to-do list, I was able to help out a friend.

It’s so nice to be able to have the flexibility in my schedule to be able to just drop everything when someone needs my help. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m really not happy unless I’m helping someone else meet their goals. Usually when that happens, I get re-inspired to meet my own as well, so it’s a win-win all the way around. :)

I did get out on Friday to take some pictures in the country. Not too many though because while I noticed lots of scenery and subjects I would’ve loved to capture, there was still a lot of ice built up on the sides of the road and I was a little nervous about pulling off. My son was with me because he had the day off work, and we were able to map out a couple of possible routes for nice scenic bike rides once the weather gets better.

I also haven’t posted any of Friday’s pictures yet so last week’s photo posts are:

Morning Solitude
Up Close and Prickly
Through The Red Branches
Frosty Morning Revisited
A Wintry Afternoon
Reflections in the Pond

And life at The Acorn Stash blog has been really quiet too, with just one post last week:

When Creativity is Like Parenting.

I also started reading a really good book on the topic of networking. It’s called Networking Like a Pro: Turning Contacts into Connections and I’m really learning a lot from it. That prompted me to spend a little more time this week on both Twitter and Facebook than I have in ages. I’m not very good at the whole social thing, so I’m really enjoying learning ways that even an introvert like me can improve my networking skills. (Here’s a link to the author’s Facebook page if you want more info. In the interests of keeping this blog non-commercial, I’m not linking to the book itself.)

After last week’s post, Storyteller commented that she often spends more time nagging herself about what she didn’t get done than congratulating herself for what she did accomplish. I found myself agreeing that I do the same thing, and so this week I’m not going to moan about what is still left on my list to do. Instead I’m going to stop here, and feel good about all the things I did do and make a promise to myself to be happy this week, and get even more done.

What about you… do you celebrate your accomplishments or beat yourself up because you should be doing more? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Have a great week!

My Week in Review 2010-2

Helena — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:17:45 +0000

This week I have to say I wasn’t as productive as I’d intended to be. I kind of overdid it on my exercising this week it took two days for me to recover from that. I can see that I really do have a long ways to go if I’m going to make that triathlon in July. :)

On the posting front, I did make a post here every day except Friday because that was my first day feeling energetic enough to get some writing done, and so spent the day putting together the most recent issue of The Acorn Stash Newsletter. I still have to create the cover for it, and post the table of contents over on the blog, but the issue itself is ready for download.

This week’s photo posts included:

Scenes From the Path
Raindrops on Maples
Around the Lift Lock
My Afternoon Stroll
Sunday Sunset
and Sittin’ on the Dock

I also posted three new wallpapers with quotes on happiness. My favourite of the bunch is this one:

Happiness is like jam. You can’t spread even a little without getting some on yourself. ~ Anonymous

I’m thinking this week that I might add a few new ones without any quotes that are based on my own photos. What do you think?

And that’s unfortunately about all I got done. From the list I posted last Sunday I still have to set up a blog for the fitness stuff, and get started on the weekly Squidoo lenses. Those two tasks will head the list for the coming week, along with the usual photo posts and articles. I’m planning on heading out of town for at least one day this week to do some “country” photos. I’ve seen a few amazing shots of fence lines and snowy fields in my blog travels this week that have inspired to me to go out and capture something other than water and park paths.

Here’s to another amazing week. What do you plan to get done this week?

My Week in Review 2010-1

Helena — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 01:43:14 +0000

Now that the first week of the year is officially over, it’s time to reflect a bit on how it went and what that portends for the rest of the year. I wrote out a lot of goals and plans before the year started, and as usual, I’m off to a slower start that I wanted. But I’m not at a complete standstill, so there’s still hope for me! :)

I’ve fallen in love with doing photography stuff… almost to the point where I have to remind myself that I’m a writer first and foremost. So this week my focus was more on writing than it was on pictures. I missed two days of posting, and where once I would have stressed over it and tried to double up another day, I just let it go knowing that there are lots of days left to do more than one post if it’s warranted. Today is shaping up to be one of those days. :)

Here’s a quick rundown of what’s new online this week:

On HelenaRitchie.com

Photo posts:

Rails and Trails
It’s Monday
Going With the Flow – where I also talk a bit about how one of my major goals this year is to live more in the flow instead of trying to structure each and every moment.
Urban Sunrise

This Week in Review: November 15 to 21, 2009

Helena — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 21:53:24 +0000

So, the idea behind the Monday outlook post was to set myself up for a more productive week. Now that the week is over, I can report my results to you…

I failed.
Miserably.
Brutal would be an understatement.

Out of the eight challenges I set for myself, I met two and a half:

1. There is new content on the Thoughts of Christmas blog. (challenge #3)
2. I went wandering down one of the river paths and took some new photos. (challenge #8)
3. There is new content on The Acorn Stash blog, and on this blog. (challenge #6 – considered only half done because there are still more blogs that need new content.)

It’s an improvement over last week since I only completed two challenges last week. But it’s still brutal.

Am I embarrassed? You betcha. But more than that, I’m seriously ticked off at myself. Mostly because I have no excuse other than that I was totally, utterly, and completely unmotivated to write. And so I didn’t.

It’s not even like I can say I had a ton of other stuff to do because I didn’t. In fact, I didn’t even step foot outside the house all week until I went out Friday morning to take pictures and get groceries.

If I’m really honest with myself, I think I have to say that I’ve lost my passion for internet marketing, at least the way I’ve been doing it for the past several years. The whole keyword and market research thing has left me thinking that there has to be something more. I think for awhile I’d much rather write on the topics that interest me and make me happy, and hope that they interest you and make you happy too. I realize that I won’t be able to please everyone, and quite frankly, I’m okay with that.

And now on a more positive note…

I had no problems being motivated to train this week. With some great results, I might add! After just one week of weight training and cleaner eating, I managed a 4 percent reduction in body fat. So the week wasn’t a complete loss. :)

And I do plan to do better on both the challenge and content creation fronts this week. I’ll post my plans for the week as soon as I have them figured out, so stay tuned.

And have a wonderful week!

Here’s a summary of this week’s content:

Some Thoughts of Christmas Traditions
Christmas Shopping Survival Tips

New Wallpapers For You

Monday Morning Outlook
Order and Chaos Side by Side

A Week of Beginnings and Endings

Helena — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 16:17:56 +0000

It’s been a week of beginnings and endings here this week. I suppose that’s not surprising since the two do go hand-in-hand in the bigger scheme of things.

I always get a little maudlin and a lot reflective as I see the kids heading back to school. It brings back a lot of memories for me of home and the excitement I used to feel at starting a new year and knowing deep down that it was going to be my year. It never really was … I was a social misfit back then, and I still am. The only difference between then and now is that now I know I’m not the only one. :)

On Monday I celebrated the unofficial end of summer by going for a long walk along the canal and the lakeshore. It really reminded me of home (I grew up spending my summers on Lake Erie), especially when I got a sniff of the poplar trees. In that moment, I think if someone had offered me the chance to go home again, I would’ve jumped all over it.

Tuesday it was back to work with two days to go in the 30 day PLR Giveaway. I’m so proud of myself for keeping up and making it through writing a fresh blog post every day for 30 days. I learned a lot too, and will be talking more about that in an upcoming issue of The Ritchie Report. For now you can read the posts from last week here:

Wednesday was “Good Energy Day” and I had a real “Aha” moment as I was playing on twitter and scrambling for something to write that morning. That’s where the beginnings come in but I’m not ready to say a whole lot more on it yet. For now I’ll just say that I’m a little more clear on the direction I should be going, and that I don’t think it was a coincidence that my moment of clarity came on Good Energy Day.

By Thursday I was exhausted and ready for a break. I don’t know about you, but whenever I finish a really big project I need to take a day or two to recuperate. So I did a lot of thinking and very little writing for the rest of the week.

And that’s my week in a nutshell. I’m behind in my writing again (what else is new?) so I’ve got a truckload (I’m thinkin’ about a brand new F250′s worth) of articles, updates and research to get caught up on this week. I also made a public committment to get 10 new videos made and posted on YouTube by the end of the month, so I need to get crackin’ on that too. :)

How was your week? What are you looking forward to? Leave me a comment and let me know!

Other items you might be interested in:

1. My friend Ronnie Nijmeh over at PLR.me is giving away some really cool audio and video gifts in anticipation of his upcoming launch. You can pick up these gifts and get on his early bird list at the same time here:

2. I joined a new social network last night. I know… just what we need right? I spent some time looking around the site last night and it looks pretty cool. It’s called HelloHello.net and they give you points for doing various tasks like visiting your profile, sharing photos, writing blog posts, etc. It just opened, so if you want to make sure you get your user name, now’s the time to check it out: HelloHello.net