Christmas tips from John G. Miller

The article below is written by John G. Miller the author of  ”Outstanding!:  47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional.  He gives some excellent suggestions on how to make your Christmas hassle free.  I received this in an email from a friend but wanted to share it and below he says to share with a friend so that is what I’m doing.

Here’s the article:

Outstanding Holidays Don’t Just Happen

The holidays.

A season all about Family, Faith, and Friends. For many, it’s also a time of Food, Football, Festivities, Fun—and Freedom. Not just the blessing of living in a “free country,” but also maybe—just maybe—a little less tied to our jobs and a little more sleeping, puttering, and simply doing nothing on some days! Sounds great, doesn’t it?

But how about these words? Frenetic—a crazy, stress-filled pace. Finances—jubilant joy leads to dangerous debt. Frustration—things don’t quite go the way we planned. Fear—of being alone, left out. Fatigue—we simply do too much and return in January needing the month just to recover!

The reality is this: The holidays, for lots of people, just aren’t what they’re cracked up to be. Though we want them to stand out—that is, to be outstanding—they often fall short of our expectations. But, with some work, some discipline, and some adherence to fundamental ideas and principles, we can each experience an exceptional season.

By extracting concepts from the book Outstanding!—yes, written for the world of corporations, nonprofits, government entities, churches and schools—and applying them to this time of year, we can make the best of the holidays. And since most holiday celebrations involve families—which are organizations—let’s utilize the essences of nine of the 47 Outstanding! chapters to create a stellar season!

Choose to Change: Holiday traditions are great, but remember: Any strength taken to an extreme becomes a weakness. Outstanding families, like outstanding organizations, are willing to set aside “the way we’ve always done things” now and then. Keeping the end goals of joy, fun, and celebration in mind, we might need do things differently. Never forget: Blessed are the flexible, for they cause others to not get bent out of shape!

Keep the Mission Top of Mind: If you believe the “reason for the season” is faith (worshiping God and being thankful) and/or family (traditions and coming together) then don’t forget the “Why” behind the activities. Let purpose come before tasks, otherwise, the tasks can overwhelm the mission—and what’s the sense in that?

Get Actions In Line With Values: If we espouse values like love, caring, and acceptance, let’s ensure that our behaviors support those ideas. Integrity—actions in line with stated values—is a rare commodity in our world, so let’s allow that light to shine at home. Example: If we embrace the word “humility,” let’s avoid boasting, bragging, and topping each other in our interactions. Another: If I say I believe in relaxing and resting, then draw a few boundaries and say NO! if you really want to. It’s okay to not participate in some activities this time of year.

Fight the Fat: And we’re not talking about calories here! As Dave Ramsey says, when it comes to finances, “Bother to bother.” In other words, decide to stay on top of and in control of the dollars. By cutting up the plastic money and living within our means, we’ll experience a far more joyous … January!

Forgive Mistakes: What could be a more perfect way to achieve outstanding holidays than to let some stuff slide? Humans sometimes do say the wrong thing, make mistakes, exercise poor judgment, drop the ball, and forget to act. When these things happen, it’s an amazing opportunity to choose forgiveness. Practice the words, “No big deal. Let’s forget it.” 

Let Every Player Count: A little lifting up of each person is a good thing. Careful that one individual’s needs and agenda don’t “rule the roost.” Let’s do our best to help each person—from 2 to 92—feel special. It’s a time to honor everyone on the team!

Speak Well: “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” (Proverbs 15:1) So true! As the tension and stress build, make sure that the way we talk to others—both our words and tone—is encouraging, loving, and supportive.

Listen In All Directions: In Outstanding! we write about listening in three ways: Management listening to the people, the people listening to each other, and everyone listening to the customer. My favorite part is where we take “multi-tasking” to task as a very bad habit. During these precious days, let’s set the iPods, laptops, and PDAs aside—cease the Tweeting, status updating, and surfing—and look each other in the eye, saying, “Go ahead, you are the most important person in my world at this moment and I want to hear every word you have to say.”

Someone Needs to Be the Boss: Lastly, parents, I beseech you—please parent! Family gatherings are hurt when the wrong people are in charge: the children. Let’s hold our kids to a new (yet old fashioned) level of respect, manners, and courtesy. The truth is, it’s not all about the children—and sometimes they need to know that. If your young child needs a really long “time out,” then take action. Don’t be afraid to let him or her know that—surprise, surprise!—you are the boss.

So there they are: Nine ways to have an outstanding holiday season. Share this with others—apply them yourself—and see what a difference they can make. And then come back in 2011 ready to make our organizations outstanding, too!

John G. Miller
Author of …

Outstanding! 47 Ways to Make Your Organization Exceptional
QBQ! The Question Behind the Question®
Flipping the Switch … Unleash the Power of Personal Accountability

Twitter: QBQGUY
Facebook

Be Outstanding! show: Download all of them here … http://outstandingorganization.com/podcasts/

http://www.yelp.com/ This is a wonderful website for all that local stuff.  You can read reviews about your local restaurants, stores, manicurist, etc.  You can also write a review if you so desire.  I have always written for localism so it has been easy to write some reviews about the local establishments in my area.  I also liked the fact that I could set up a profile and it allows me to connect two of my websites without having to reciprocate.  It is a cool place to connect with local people around my area.  You can also invite your friends to Yelp with you.

http://www.opentable.com/  This is the site where you can make your reservations online.  I checked out the find dining establishments in The Woodlands and most of the ones that we would frequent for those special occasions were there.  It also has a mobile application so you can easily select and make reservations from your phone.  To be quite honest we normally eat at the Peterson Grill but should we go out this is the place to make those reservations ahead of time.

http://www.stubhub.com/ This is like ticketmaster with a twist.  This site in effect took ticket scalping off of the street and put it on the Internet providing a secure market place for fan to fan ticket sales.  They don’t charge the huge fees like ticketmaster and it might give you a shot at buying tickets for event that are sold out.

http://www.angieslist.com/Angieslist I have normally not included sites that charge but I have heard so much about Angies list recently I decided to go ahead and add it.  This is the place to go to find out if the contractor of auto shop is reputable.  According to the site companies do not pay to be put on the site.  It is a place to go for unbiased ratings and reviews.  I did look and it wasn’t very expensive for a 1 year membership.  If you are in the Houston area and are still recovering from Hurricane Ike (which I know from all the blue tarps there are a lot still out there) this might be a good return for your money.

http://www.freecycle.org/ This is the second time I have included this site in this series but if you are looking for local stuff this is the place to go.  This site is cycling with a twist you are basically recycling your stuff.  This is a grassroots, nonprofit site that connects (Via Yahoo Groups) people who might like to trade items within their own community.  I joined the Spring TX freecycle and gave away my old Christmas tree to one person and decorations that I no longer wanted to another.  I guess this comes back to one man’s garbage is another treasure.  Everything posted must be FREE!!

This is my fifth in the series of websites from PC World.  If you would like to visit the other four you will find them at:

Websites about “surviving the recession”!

Websites about “Planning a vacation”!!

Websites about “Buying, Selling and Renting Stuff”!!

Websites about “Learning Stuff”!!

For all your Spring TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332

Planning a vacation is something that we as self employed individuals find hard to do.  For a long time I was letting real estate rule my life but no longer I plan vacations and I take them.  As you well know as soon as you plan a trip one of your listings sell and someone needs a home ASAP.  When that happens and I have a planned vacation I have started referring them to a colleague and just taking a referral fee.  It took YEARS for me to get comfortable with that but if you are working the entire vacation it is NOT a vacation.  Don’t get me wrong I also take trips where I know I’m going to be accessible (I like to travel) but once or maybe twice a year I plan a REAL vacation.  So here are websites to help you plan that trip:

http://www.tripit.com/ This program is still a beta site but it brings all your travel information to one place.  You will be able to add a profile, add your social networks it also allows you to add additional email addresses since we often use different emails when we travel. After spending time filling out my profile and adding my social networks I added my email addresses and found out Oops one of my email addresses is already a member.  I obviously joined a long time ago because I have no recollection and this site is not in my favorites on Internet Explorer.  Tripit has taken that in to account as I was able to merge the two accounts together. 

We are planning a trip this coming September to Newport Rhode Island and I found all kinds of useful information on tripit.  This is also a place to connect with your online friends and share your travel plans.  Somehow as soon as I entered my information I had an invitation from an online friend to connect.  This was one of my favorite travel sites that I checked out.  I’m not sure why it wasn’t when I set it up previously but I LOVE it now.  I think it is probably because I am more in to social networking now than I was then.

http://www.kayak.com/ According to PC magazine this is the online travel agent dujour.  You put in your dates and destinations and Kayak brings back price quotes from most of the major airlines.  It also checks with Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity to make sure they are finding the best deal.  You can also check hotels with Kayak.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ This site offers the “wisdom of the crowd” view for travelers.  As I said earlier we are planning a trip this coming September to Newport Rhode Island.  We did a time share trade so I know where we are staying but this was great to find out about local attractions.  I can see a “10 mile drive” that we will want to take.  According to the site it is “10 miles of spectacular wide-open views of the Atlantic Ocean and miles of magnificent million-dollar mansions”.  The cool thing about this site is that people who visit write reviews.  If you didn’t know where you were going to be staying this would be a great place to go and check out the review before you checked in.  I love the fact that all these sites I saw are now saved in my favorites under my registration.

http://www.roadsideamerica.com/ This is your online guide to offbeat tourist attractions.  Continuing on with gathering information for our Newport trip I put Newport Rhode Island in. I found a 1940′s fire truck atop a pub, a feet and the wave sidewalk statue but my favorite was the mysterious Viking tower.  “Did stone-stacking Vikings erect this tower, thus making it the oldest building in America? Not counting anything built by the Indians, of course? Roadsideamerica.com Report…“.

http://www.planeteye.com/ You can plan your whole trip here, airline tickets, hotel and attractions. For our trip we already have the accommodations and airline taken care of so I was mainly interested in the attractions.  You can set a travel pack and then add the components you want.  You plug in the place you want to go and it brings up the attractions, dining, and activities.  I was impressed with what I saw.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/ What I liked best about this site was the Thorn Tree Forum.  You can ask a question about places you would like to visit and then follow the thread.  It is my understanding that many of the post are by people who have been to the destinations several times.

This is my third in the series of websites from PC World.  If you would like to visit the other two you will find them at:

Websites about “Buying, Selling and Renting Stuff”!!

Websites about “Learning Stuff”!!

For all your Spring TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332

These websites are about buying, selling and renting stuff.  I have tried to make those that I can point to buying, selling and renting stuff around Spring TX and the surrounding areas.

http://houston.craigslist.org/   This was the first site on PC Magazines buying list and I have to admit it is the first on ours also.  We love CRAIGSLIST.  We bought our Canon Rebel XTi on craigslist and then also bought a flash for the camera.  We then sold one of the lenses that came with the camera.  We have also bought and sold cars off of Craigslist.

http://www.freecycle.org/ You need to be careful you put .org in and not .com.  I thought they were nuts to begin with as I was pulling up a site about cycling.  This site is cycling with a twist you are basically recycling your stuff.  This is a grassroots, nonprofit site that connects (Via Yahoo Groups) people who might like to trade items within their own community.  It can work well to have someone come and get something that you don’t want.  I guess this comes back to one man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.  Everything posted must be FREE!!

http://us.zilok.com/rental/a-Houston This site is TOTALLY focused on Renting.  The site host rental listings from people in your community for just about anything.  I looked in my area and you could rent anything from camera lenses, to a clearing saw to an RV.  You can either rent stuff or sign up to rent your stuff.  On their website they explain how you go about renting things or having items available to be rented.  This would work for those times when you only needed an item for a few days but really didn’t want to buy it. 

http://www.carsdirect.com/home This is a great place to buy a car online.  According to PC World this is the only web site of its kind that instantly shows you a buy-it-now price with no haggling.  I don’t know about you but I would almost rather go to the dentist than got to a car lot (used or new).  This is a way to get around the ordeal and make it less painless.

http://www.greenzer.com/ This site brings environmental safe products to the consumer.  They look for companies that walk the walk and are making products that are environmentally sound.    They describe it best in their own words “Greenzer is a next-generation shopping engine designed to make environmentally conscious shopping easier. At Greenzer, we’re building a unique service for consumers to browse, compare and shop thousands of greener products from dozens of our carefully chosen merchant partners.”  You sign up for a free account and start shopping.

http://www.amazon.com/ I’m not sure why Amazon was not on the PC’s list but I couldn’t talk about where to shop online without talking about Amazon. I love their wish list function.  My young adult children make a wish list and then I let my fingers do the shopping.  I am not a big shopper and this saves me from driving around trying to find these items.  I found out this last Christmas that when I ordered directly from my daughter’s wish list it blocks her from knowing that I have ordered the item but stops anyone else from ordering the same item.  I learned that one the hard way by looking at her list but then not ordering from the list.  We ended up with a couple of duplicate items last year from her friends going on the wish list and ordering the correct way.

http://www.ebay.com/  Ebay was also not mentioned but it is another of my favorite shopping places.  We have ordered all kinds of items off of ebay; some popular and others that were not.  We have ordered a lot of items for our sail boat.  Now if it is a popular item you might be in a bidding war but I love that part of the process.  There’s something that gets the adrenalin going when you are bidding against someone else.  The last few seconds of the bid can make the difference between winning the item or not.  Now I set a limit as to what I want to pay so I don’t get caught up in the moment.

As I said this is my second in a series about Useful websites.  If you would like to visit my first it is at: 

Marchel’s picks – Websites about “Learning Stuff”!!

For all your Spring TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332

This is going to be a series and the first are websites about Learning Stuff. I am only forwarding the FREE sites so none of these cost. 

http://answers.yahoo.com/ I use Yahoo as my home page and have visited this site before.  You can ask questions and then get answers back.  I believe my question was “I think my cat has eaten rat poisoning; what do I do?”  This was quite a few months ago and I didn’t wait for the answer but went immediately to the vet.  As it turned out he had not eaten rat poisoning but was sick from an infected flea bit.  It is a cool way to ask questions and get answers though.   Other visitors rate the answer on usefulness.

http://www.howstuffworks.com/ This site is all about learning how stuff works.  You can learn about the history of NASCAR or find out about vulture vomit.  We have vultures that hang out at our Yacht Club and now hearing about that I will make sure not to scare any.  Is a cyber war coming; this is the place to check it out.

http://www.instructables.com/ This is the site for the do it yourselfer.  Find out how to make things yourself.  You can find out how to make an ice pack vest for your horse or how to of braid your horse’s tail.  There’s instruction on art, crafts, food, games, etc. etc. etc.  If you are thinking green you can go and learn how to make your own LED light bulbs.

http://www.fixya.com/  This is a site for technical support, manuals and troubleshooting for consumers.  Now this is a REALLY cool site.  Say you are having problems with a lap top or a digital camera you can go and ask one of their top experts.  At the moment I have everything running but there have been a number of times where I have needed technical help with my gadgets.  With this site you can either post a message on the site or have a live chat with one of the experts.

http://www.livemocha.com/ This is a free new approach to learning languages.  You can connect with native speakers around the world.  This gives you the opportunity to learn, practice, share and connect.  If you are planning that trip to Italy here’s the place to start learning the language and the best part it is FREE.

http://www.about.com/ This one was not on PC’s list but I added it as it is where I go to find out about just about anything.  You can go here to solve a problem, get something done or make a decision.  You can browse their channels or explore topics.

http://dictionary.reference.com/ and http://thesaurus.reference.com/ I have to admit these were already on my favorites as my spelling is not what it used to be.  I often use the thesaurus to come up with a different name for the same word.

http://www.anywho.com/ You can find anyone here as this is your white and yellow pages on line.  Thanks Fred Doleac for sharing anywho.

If you have some other website that fit in to the “learning stuff” category please let me know and I will add them to my list.

For all your Spring TX Real Estate needs, contact me today!
Marchel Peterson
Results Realty
Cell: 832-721-8332