Life List Stories and Inspiration

This is a particularly unique New Years Eve for me as I’m going to be flying for about 12 hours, and will likely be on public transportation at midnight. Will it be like the “Merry New Year” of Trading Places? I don’t think so. (If you have no idea what I’m talking about, see the flick!)

In anticipation of my airport time, I made up a bunch of SuperViva-esque postcards where you can write down 5 goals. I figured what better place to think about your 2009 resolutions than on a plane where there’s nothing else to do? Yet I’m getting scared about offering them to people. I figured I might as well emote here in advance, in public, so that I’ll feel accountable for actually doing it. It would be pretty wimpy to report back that I didn’t even try, eh? (I had the same feeling when thinking about the public brainstorm this summer which was a big hit.)

And that’s the joy of having buddies to share your goals with - that they’ll call you on it. I’d love your cheers, and I’m happy to do the same for you on whatever you want to dare!

Happy new year

Susie

Last Sunrise of 2008

Tags: 984Commentshttp://superviva.com/blog/2008/12/need-motivation-for-flying-into-2009/Need+Motivation+for+Flying+into+2009%212008-12-31+13%3A13%3A13Susie

Inspired by a MORE Magazine article on 10 Great Jobs for Midlife Women, here’s a list off the top of my head of some interesting jobs requiring “smarts, savvy, and experience” that I’m guessing either have real potential…or that I find a little amusing:

1. Assisted living anything. Any role related to assisted living, including becoming a real estate developer of communities targeted to people downsizing who a) need some kind of help but not full-time b) want to be near their friends c) want to feel independent.

2. Artisan food maker. Now that Foodzie has come along, you have a great website that makes it easy to start a food business wherever you are and sell online, with all your effort going into creating great food products. (PS - They’re so great I’m working with them!)

3. Expert in whatever you want to be. The evolution of the Internet and social media (online video, social networks, Twitter, books on demand, e-books…phew the list is too long) makes it possible for you to position yourself as an expert in whatever field interests you. Of course you have to deliver or you’ll be called a snake oil saleswoman. I like this personal branding blog which discusses approaches to branding yourself as well as cheese in a can.

4. Sewing machine consultant. It took me forever to find information online on how to thread my sewing machine. While I would have hired you for some quick advice it may not be quite a moneymaker. However a business where you teach sewing and help parents make costumes for kids definitely has some possibilities.

5. Pole or belly dancer. It seems like everyone suddenly is taking pole dancing and learning to belly dance is one of the most popular goals on SuperViva. Some of the best belly dancers I’ve seen are in their 40s, so shake on, even as a side job in a restaurant.

6. Decluttering / downsizing consultant. Oh yes, we all need that. Partner with moving companies and be there for kids who are having a hard time helping their parents separate the wheat from the chaff in an effort to move to a smaller place. It’s a little different from idea #1 but a perfect companion career.

7. Virtual personal assistant. Get my software updates, iPhone/iPod/iTunes/eyeballs all synced up, advise me on year end tax stuff etc etc etc. I know plenty of people who are not overflowing in money but are more willing to give up money than time to optimize their lives. If you are great at managing your own life, think about how you could help others and make a nice flexible career of it.

8. Anything you want to be. Don’t limit your career to a list of advised careers. Figure out what you’ve always wanted to do and how you can make it happen. Get some ideas on SuperViva as well as Vocation Vacations.

More Magazine listed “online professor” as one great career. On the flipside I recently that the advent of online classes makes it possible to take classes from any state or community college within your state, from home. Pretty cool eh?

If you have interesting “midlife” career ideas, please share away! Self-promotion is even encouraged here.

Tags:   work979Commentshttp://superviva.com/blog/2008/12/great-jobs-for-women-over-40/Great+Jobs+for+Women+Over+402008-12-30+16%3A20%3A40Susie

I love to help people think about their life goals and try writing them, or making a collage, to see how it can change you life.

Someone once commented that “The aspect of SuperViva. I love the most is getting ideas by browsing other people’s goals - that has been really useful for me, to help inspire me to achieve some new things. I also love having the list of achieved goals - it was great browsing other people’s and thinking “Hey, I’ve done that already!” and checking it off.”

But still, you may come to SuperViva and decide it’s not for you. So, I thought, why not help you find a way to make and keep your life list that works for you?

Option	Cost	Pros	Cons
Paper (journal, notebook)	Very low	It’s creative and tactile. I personally love thinking through things in a journal. Check out Moleskines!	You could lose it! Gets messy over time, requiring rewriting… although this could be a plus for your creative process. Overtime it’d be hard to track and reorganize a long list.
Online or computer text editor (private blog post, Yahoo! Notepad, or the list apps on iGoogle)	Free	Very simple, easy to cut and paste. Private, if you choose to make it so.	Fairly static
Excel (on computer) or Google Docs spreadsheet (online)	Free	Classic way of organizing a life list, you can add categories in columns and check off as you go, add dates done etc.	No cons if you mainly want privacy
To Do list applications (Remember the Milk for example) which also has an iPhone app	Free	Very simple (although more oriented to daily type tasks). Integration with Jott so you can post by phone, which now is a paid-for service. You can also add it to iGoogle.	I’m not sure how well you can categorize and how easily a long list would be to manage.
Public blogs or message boards, where people list their life lists.	Free	If it’s a vibrant community this can be a quick simple way to connect with other people to help you.	Realistically this works best if you’re working on a couple of particular goals. It doesn’t make a lot of sense for a lifetime list unless it’s your own blog.
Other life list websites	Free	If finding other people to get input is your main thing, check out 43things or Your100Things (from a life coach). Or you might find a Facebook app to share your goals. (FYI there’s a way to see SuperViva goals in an RSS app on Facebook.)	Several limit you to 100 or fewer goals; or require goals to be public vs. allowing them to be private as SuperViva does.

Do you keep your life list some other way?

(PS if this is helpful, please consider donating to fund SuperViva’s efforts.)

Tags: 966Commentshttp://superviva.com/blog/2008/12/various-ways-to-make-a-life-list/Ways+to+Make+Your+New+Years+Life+List2008-12-28+03%3A52%3A59Susie

I’m having a ball compiling the ideas people provided for 75 Things a Woman Should Do in Her Life and can’t wait to get it online. (I got sidetracked with a list of things to do in winter, just in time for the solstice!)

I had to share a nugget from one response advocating chickens, saying “When I got my first chickens, while I was living in San Jose, California in the 1980s, the heart of Silicon Valley, every woman who came to my house said, “I always wanted to have chickens.” Given that “I always wanted to do that” has been a long-time SuperViva theme - and that I’ve only known one person who wanted to have chickens - I had to put it out there.

Have you always wanted to have chickens?

If so you’re in luck. Christine Heinrichs brings you How to Raise Chickens which focuses on raising traditional breeds in small flocks. Also How to Raise Poultry comes out in April, about ducks, geese, swans, turkeys, guineafowl, game birds, ratites (ostriches, emus and rheas), pigeons and, of course, chickens. More than 200 color pictures in each book.

I will admit though…there’s nothing better than fresh chicken eggs and Foghorn Leghorn.

Tags: 964Commentshttp://superviva.com/blog/2008/12/i-always-wanted-to-have-chickens-not/I+always+wanted+to+have+chickens+%28Not%292008-12-21+05%3A51%3A31Susie

The Open Forum business blog has a detailed and clever analysis about what went right with the Obama election campaign. In Dale Carnegie Meets Barack Obama: Winning Friends And Influencing People In A Web 2.0 World, Brent Leary observes the parallels between how the campaign managers used video, word of mouth marketing, and other tools to connect with, endear, and influence voters using similar techniques to those prescribed by Dale Carnegie in How to Win Friends and Influence People.

If you need to wrangle a constituency to your side or win new customers, give it a read!

Tags: 962Commentshttp://superviva.com/blog/2008/12/how-to-make-fans-and-influence-people/How+to+Make+Fans+and+Influence+People2008-12-19+00%3A43%3A48Susie