Hey everyone. Good morning and greetings from the West Coast again. I want to talk to you about a really important topic today, getting organized. I heard on the news this morning, here in Vegas, that today is the first day of school for many kids. I can only imagine what that means for many of you moms who are involved in that whole process: the shopping, the preparing, the planning, the organizing, the driving, and then getting your life back together.

It’s interesting because my intention today was to do part two of a summary of the Global Leadership Summit that I attended last week, and it will be part of that because I had the pleasure of sitting beside a really fabulous young woman. She is the Senior Leadership Development Manager at a major international corporation, and it was her first summit.

We hit it off right away because I have a background in human resources. Not only were the topics and the speakers compelling, but we got into a personal conversation which, attached to that newscast this morning about kids going back to school, it caught my attention because she was coming from a young mom’s perspective. She’s in her mid-40’s, she just got remarried, blended family, six kids. I, as you know, am divorced, heading into senior years, compared to her. That’s all. I’m not saying that in a negative way.

It was interesting because we got into the topic of being organized. She was saying to me, “Your life must be so grand because you work alone, you live alone, you can do what you want, you’re in beautiful hotels, you can work out when you want and read when you want,” and so on. Interesting perspective and true, to a degree.

She was telling me how difficult it is for her—with the six kids now, an ex-spouse, her husband’s ex-wife, her ex-husband, and her working full time in a very senior role—to get organized and to, in fact, take any time for herself. In the end, after two days of conversations during the breaks and lunch breaks, we came to this one conclusion. It all comes down to mindset. It doesn’t matter your age, your marital status, your family’s status, your health. It doesn’t matter. The bottom line is what is your goal, what is your dream for yourself and for your family, and how bad do you want it?

Yes, I do have a fabulous life. I’ve created a fabulous life. I’ve done my time with stepchildren, ex-spouses, aging parents, and so on, but here’s the deal. Even though I’m on my own, it would be very easy for me to lay around in these gorgeous hotel rooms, to sit around by this fabulous pool that I’m at right here, now. Can you see that? It’s absolutely beautiful here and there’s hardly anyone here too. Sure, I can sit and order room service and I can sit around the pool and live the life of Riley, but the bottom line is my top focus these days is health. I’m turning 66 years old this week. I feel good, I believe I look good, and it’s because I’m organized, and I take the time and I make the time for self-care.

What I was sharing with her is what is your dream for your family and what’s the dream for your life? You can make all of the excuses in the world that you’re busy running to kids’ events and they have to go to this and they have to go to that. My personal opinion is that kids are way overscheduled these days anyway. They need quiet time, down time, meditation time, creative playtime. That’s my two bits.

Here’s the deal. What’s your challenge in getting organized? Where are you procrastinating? What’s your self-talk around getting things done the way and the time that you want to get them done? It really comes down to what do you want, how bad do you want it, what are you prepared to do? What is it you’re doing to get organized?

I shared with her my calendar tactic for families, which is get the family together, get a calendar for the year, put it on the wall, everybody grab their dry erasable pen and start to talk about getting organized, living life as a priority and living in the moment.

I heard some people saying yesterday, “Oh my gosh, summer is almost over.” Yes, and what have you done about it? We still have two weeks in North America, so what are you going to do to ensure in September that this has been a summer to remember? It’s up to you.

Get organized, talk to your family members and, if you’re single like myself, then figure out what you want and make it happen, which is what I did here this past weekend.

I was also on the phone with a good friend this morning. It’s her birthday this week too, and she was saying, “Because my birthday is in the middle of the week, there’s not really going to be much happening.” I said to her, “It’s your birthday. Make something happen. Don’t wait for other people.”

That is the message for this morning. It’s the message for your life, it’s the message for the day, it’s the message for the week. Get organized, create the life you want, take responsibility, and make sure you’re not sitting back in a week, a month, in a year with regrets, because this is the only life that we have.

It is about communication and people can’t read your mind. If you’re doing any special celebration this week and you’re not getting any hints about anything special, take charge and plan it yourself because that’s what I’ll be doing, and I’ve done it for a few years. I can tell you it’s a great way to go.

That’s my little rant for this morning. Leave your comments. I’d love to know what you do to get organized and ensure you’re living your best life and a life without regret. Then be sure to read my blog post because I’ll write a blog post summarizing the key points of day two of the conference last week.

I’ve got to go shower and change and get on with some work because it’s just not all play here today. Thanks for joining me.