You're Never Too Old To Learn

I'm killing two birds with one stone.  No, not literally, but I am doing TWO things that I NEED to do, at the same time.

I want to learn more about nutrition and write for my blog, so, I thought that in order to hold myself accountable for both, I would do some blog posts about what I learn.

I was always a skinny kid with high metabolism who never really worried about eating right.  Eating vegetables was not my priority or my desire.  In fact, I would sit at the table, like most kids who do not want to eat their food, and waste time until my family would get tired of seeing me there and take my plate.  I also used to throw my peas under the table in hopes that my little white dog would eat them.  Well, apparently, my aim was not so good, because she would give me up by trotting around with peas on top of her head.

As a 40ish-old woman who now weighs considerably more, who has type 2 diabetes and who still doesn't like vegetables, I find myself teetering on obesity and a life of hospital stays.  Due to a recent bacterial infection, I lost 24 pounds in 3 months and now that I am getting healthy again, I don't want to gain the weight back.  Now couldn't be a better time to make some changes!

I'm going to be learning out of two awesome books: The Complete Idiot's Guide To Total Nutrition written by Joy Bauer, M.S., R.D. and Nutrition For Dummies written by Carol Ann Rinzler.

Stay tuned to learn with me!

REPOST: How To Delegate

We all get to be the boss sometime in our life, whether it be with our work, our school, in our homes or with our children. Being a leader has it's challenges. There is a job that has to get done and you either need help with it or you need someone else to complete the task. There is a certain way the project needs to get done and usually a time frame that has to be met. Knowing how to ask for that help and see that the project gets carried out is a skill some people need a little help with.

#1: Describe the job and the outcome that needs to be reached. For example: "Today, we need to get this mailing out to all of our clients."

#2: Specify who's responsible for meeting this goal: "I would appreciate your help in spearheading this project and seeing that it gets completed today. Can you please take care of this?"

#3: Describe the steps that need to be completed so that the project is successful: "It's important that we make enough copies of this memo so that all of our clients receive it. We will need to put it on letterhead, prepare labels and envelopes and tri-fold the memo so that it fits in the envelope. Then, let's make sure that the correct postage gets applied and that the mail is done before the carrier arrives at 4:00 pm."

#4: Ask if there are any questions or concerns with accomplishing the task: "Do you have any questions? Do you think that you will be able to get this mailing out by 4:00 pm today?"

As the employee being given the task, this would be the time for you to clarify the instructions to make sure that you understand everything that is being asked. Far too many times, employees feel intimidated and they proceed with a project without fully understanding what needs to be done. This leads to mistakes and delays in completing assignments.

#5: Make yourself available to the employee and check on their progress.

#6: When you see that the job is completed, praise your employee: "I see you got those memos out. Thank you so much for taking care of that, you did a really good job. Those memos were really important."

The steps above can be applied to any sort of delegation, whether it be asking your kids to do a chore or working with groups for community service. Following these steps will help make you an effective delegator.