How many things do you do at once? Three? Five? Twenty five? Multi-tasking has become a way of life for so many of us. We cook dinner while yelling at the kids, talking on the phone, and watching television, all at once, missing out on the scent of the onions frying, the burble of the boiling water, and the excitement (or frustration or despair) in our child’s voice. We do e-mail, talk on the phone, and attempt to file, simultaneously, all in the attempt to save time. But what ends up happening is we burn the dinner, and slight the kids, mis-file that document and forget to note the appointment we made while on the phone. The end result is that often multi-tasking takes more time in the long run than if we’d slowed down and did just one thing at once. So this week, subscribe to the belief that “less is more”. Make a point of doing at least one task a day all by its lonesome, without doing five (or two or even one) other things at once. Use that as a breathing space in your day.

How much time do you take for yourself each day? Do you run all day, doing, doing, doing for your Gremlin and for others, until at night you simply fall into bed, exhausted, without taking even a second to recharge your batteries? We all need down time, time when we are simply being instead of doing. This week, take at least half an hour a day (longer is better) for yourself. You might take a bubble bath or a long walk, curl up with a good book or even go to a movie. Just make sure that what you do is strictly for yourself, and not for others.

You’ve got your goal, you’ve got your list of steps. This week, you finally get to take action. Choose one item on the list, and do it! You’re now on your way towards your goal. If you’re truly committed to this goal, continue to choose one or two items a week to work on.

Is that goal you’ve set solidly in your heart and mind and body? If not, revisit the goal. Does something need to be changed, or do you just need to visualize it longer? Spend another week on it, if you need to.If you’ve made that goal your own, however, it’s time for the next step. Brainstorm a list of steps to take to achieve that goal. Work on that list all week. Don’t worry about getting everything down there at first. Keep adding to it as you go along. Remember, nothing is set in concrete; you can always go back and change, delete, or add something. Don’t worry about the order; in fact, you might try doing something non-linear instead of an outline, such as mind-mapping or clustering.

What is one area of your life that you’d like to improve? Think carefully about it, and write down a goal for that area of your life. Spend ten minutes every day this week really seeing what it would be like to attain that goal.Visualize it.Involve all your senses.Soak that success into your bones.

Last week, we practiced accepting praise. This week, let’s practice giving it. Here’s the trick: instead of complimenting the thing or the action, acknowledge the person behind the action.Change “I love your dress” to “I love your dress. It really shows your flair for style.”Instead of “Good work today,” try “Good work today. You were really committed to making that deadline.”Aim for ten times a day, and see what smiles you get.

There are two parts to a compliment: the saying of it, and the receiving of it. Society has trained us to be humble and modest; too modest. So self-effacing, in fact, that when people say nice things to us, we shrug them off. We don’t hear them.“I love your dress.” “Oh, this old thing? I got it on sale years ago.”“Good work today!” “Yes, but I didn’t get this done, I could have done this better and . . .”We need to stop and really hear when people praise us. And believe them. Let them into our hearts. So ten times a day, all this week, when someone applauds your work, appreciates your efforts, or says anything nice at all about you, stop! Take a deep breath, let it soak into your bones, then simply say “Thank you.” Think you don’t get ten positive comments a day? Start listening for them.

We’ve spent the last three weeks discovering how we can deliberately choose what viewpoint we want to have about the issues and events that make up our lives. Here’s the take home message from this exercise: we get to choose how we want to be with anything and everything. This week, choose something you’re stuck on, and go through the whole process. Notice what viewpoint you’re coming from, generate several new ones, try them on, and then choose one.

Perspectives in PlayWe’re still not done with perspectives yet. When you played with new ones last week, you tried each one out, briefly. This week, go back to the list you made. Are there any new perspectives you’d like to add? Now, choose one, and just for this week, really live from that place. Don’t worry, it’s just for now. You can always go back and choose another, later.

Last week, you started to pay attention to your perspectives on what’s happening around you and in your life. That’s just the first step, though. You don’t have to be stuck in the perspective you’re in. This week, choose one or two issues, and make up four or five different ways of looking at them. Be crazy and creative. How would a fox look at this issue? A wise sage? A child? After you’ve invented these new perspectives, try all of them on for size. What does it feel like to look at this issue from this new place? Rest easy, now, you can’t do this wrong.