Peace of Mind Organizing

Highlight reel for 2009

31 December 2009

2009 was a year of ups and downs for me. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone. As I finish inputting data into Quickbooks for the year, I realize that my revenue is down, which isn’t great. I’m chalking it up to the economy. But so many really great things happened in 2009 that I view it as a year of success and progress.

Here are some of the highlights of 2009 for me:

Going to Australia and speaking at the AAPO conference. My brother has lived in Australia for 18 years and I’d never visited. It took the promise of meeting some fantastic organizers to get me there. I had such a great time meeting the enthusiastic Aussie and Kiwi organisers. Having such a great reception for my talk on harnessing the power of the internet was the icing on the cake. And it was absolutely wonderful to spend time with my brother and his family in their natural habitat. I can’t wait to go back.

Starting the Declutter Happy Hour e-course. I’ve been wanting to develop some kind of product to help people who live outside of St. Louis. So I partnered with life coach Shannon Wilkinson to create what I think is a really unique product that combines organizing expertise with the power of hypnosis and neurolinguistic programming (NLP). It started out as a teleclass and then became a 28-day e-course. I hope it’s the first of many products I develop. Working with Shannon has been an absolute treat.

Getting my CPO-CD® credential. I’m really proud of the work I put into becoming a Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization® and the learning and knowledge it represents. The highlight isn’t just passing my peer review and receiving the credential. Experiencing the mentoring from the fabulous Margaret Pearson-Pinkham, CPO-CD® and completing the written and oral assignments were richly rewarding.

Working with professional organizers in my own home. As I mentioned Tuesday’s post some of my favorite blog posts of the year were about how I worked with professional organizers Karel Worley and Aby Garvey in my own home. Talk about fun! And I’m still reaping the benefits. The NSGCD requires people in its Level III certification program to hire a professional organizer. It’s a brilliant idea. I can’t wait to do more in 2010.

Doing more public speaking. In 2009, I spoke to eleven groups (including being on an NSGCD panel), the most I’ve ever done in a year. Each time I do it, I get more comfortable and enjoy it more. I hope to do more speaking in 2010. (If you have a group who could use a speaker on organizing, check out my Speaking page.)

Getting some fantastic, regular accountability. This year I started accountability sessions every two weeks with Margaret Lukens a professional organizer in the San Francisco area whom I’ve long admired. On some occasions, we’re joined by the inspiring Wendy Davie of New Zealand. Having that kind of accountability—and having the ability to seek advice from these great pros—is an incredible opportunity.

Getting more involved with NAPO. I’ve been very involved with my national association on the local level, being a founding board member of NAPO St. Louis (and president for the last two years). But this year, I became more involved on the national level, joining, and eventually chairing, the Quick Poll Committee, serving on the national Nominating Committee to select candidates for national office, and helping test the new NAPO website, prior to its premier this summer. It’s great to be able to give back to an organization that’s done so much for me and my business.

Working with wonderful clients. That’s really what it’s all about, isn’t it? Being able to help people change their surroundings and habits, and, by extension, their lives. I specialize in working with chronically disorganized clients and the work we do together can be transformative. There’s nothing better than that. The new service packages that I debuted on December 1 this year will help me help clients even more.

Tagged with: aapo, accomplishments, accountability, declutter happy hour, napo, napo st. louis, nsgcd, speaking

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