Layout of the Chameleon

You know, just in case you didn't see enough of it yesterday.

I made the dividers last night and set up a tentative system. This is subject to change based on my needs.

The front pocket contains my extremely classy Barbie 29 month calendar and a small Moleskine.

Since I no longer have a desk job, this is the easiest solution for me. I put them in the side cargo pocket of my scrubs when I get to work. They don't weigh the pants down and I have my calendar and a note-taking device available at all times.


The yellow post-it reminds me of what I need to do. Work tasks are on the bottom half, personal on the top.

This is one of the tabs that I made last night. I used the original tabs as a template, traced around and cut them like that. While each one is a different pattern of cardstock I tried to stay in the binder's color-scheme.

There are 2 colors of sub-tabs. They are not labeled yet because this layout is not finalized. But as you can see, I tried to stay in the color-family. Right now, they are my Goal list, Grocery List, Health & Fitness, and Personal Finance tabs. Like I said, these are tentative.

The only thing that I have in the back pocket is a pad of the list post-its. I'm a creature of convenience so this works for me.

I hope that you enjoyed the tour of my Filofax.

The Chameleon is Here!

But I'm a dork. Instead of the A5, I ordered the personal size. When I saw the box I was going to send it back, then I made the mistake of opening it.

Yeah. I fell in love with it immediately. It's so pretty! My leather on my red Hampshire is beginning to peel, or something so I guess it needed replaced.

The Filofax junkies have probably seen pictures of the PS Chameleon a hundred times already but I'm going to post pictures anyway, so here we go!


The color is called Spring Green. It's actually much prettier in person. The leather is soft. The inside front has slots for business or credit cards and a pocket to put miscellaneous papers in. The back has a zip pouch to put loose items in.


As you can see, it does not lie down completely flat. Yet. But that's okay. I'll have it broken in pretty soon.



Anyway, I was feeling a little inspired after putting this together so I went to Joanne's and bought some scrapbooking card stock to make dividers with. I just need to figure out how to make the tabs not look ghetto.

I've been hanging out on The Personal Excellence Blog and want to make a Life Handbook. But I think that I'm going to need an A5 for that. But I really like this little Filo and am glad that I made this mistake.

I Swear...

...and I curse, and I use colorful language. I'm trying to quit. Been working at it for about a month now but it's harder than I thought it would be. Especially because I thought that I was alone in this. But this morning I saw this post on the Musings of A Carribean Princess blog http://caribbeanprincessmusings.blogspot.com/2011/05/on-swearing-is-it-time-for-us-to-shut.html

I feel so much better knowing that I'm not alone in this. I thought that I was just being a prude and old-fashioned etc... Whatever. I don't like cursing. It doesn't fit in with the person I wish to be and I'm done with it.

Now I'm more aware when those words come out of my mouth and am now sometimes catching myself before I utter them.

Here's to a cleaner, more articulate way of self expression.

RPM, or What Am I Getting Myself Into?

I'm swinging around the idea of working my way through the Tony Robbins Rapid Planning Method (RPM) process again.

For those of you not in the know, RPM is quite possibly the mac-daddy of planner programs. The way it's designed is large, cumbersome and time-consuming. Makes Franklin-Covey look downright amateurish.

I'm not knocking it. RPM, that is. For some people, it's the planner system that works. But for me, it's a huge time-suck. And the binder is like carrying a large brick all the time. For these reasons, I only plan on doing a part of it. Not embracing the whole system.

I once spent a weekend filling almost an entire college-ruled spiral notebook with an RPM plan. At the time, I was running an x-ray department at an Air Force medical facility so there was plenty on my plate. But like I said earlier, RPM = Time Suck so, I streamlined it to suit my needs at the time. And boy, did it work.

But times change.

Now, I'm retired from the USAF and am a general x-ray tech at a large trauma center with no where near the responsibilities that I had before. My life has been pretty aimless for quite a long while now.

Once I get into my new place, I'm going to sit and go through the discovery process, called "The Magnificent Seven" again. I think this will help me develop the focus I need to progress.

We'll see.

Baby Steps

"The secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda. What you become is a result of what you do today." -John Maxwell

I currently work in an environment that is not conducive to personal growth. It can be more than a little frustrating especially now that I'm aware of it. You become what you hang around and I spend way too many hours of the day around people I don't want to turn into. As a matter of fact, I was becoming one of them. But not anymore.

Now, when there's downtime, I read personal development books on my Sony E-reader, check out blogs and scribble in a little Moleskine that I keep in my pocket at work or in my Filofax. I let the rest of them sit around and gossip.

I've created some extra duties for myself but I need to take on some more. So tomorrow, I'm going to look around for something that needs updating, which should take me all of five seconds, and start working on that. I hate feeling unproductive and that was pretty much my morning today. I don't want a repeat experience.

Still waiting on my A5 spring green Chameleon. *taps foot impatiently* Feel like I'm in a holding pattern and it's making me antsy. The majority of my life as been one big holding pattern and I no longer want to wait for my life to start.

Like Mary Morrissey said in Beyond the Secret, "Baby steps will get you all the way up Mount Everest if you just keep taking them."

I'll just keep plugging along...

New Life List Version 1.0

In the intrest of getting my act together, I've sent all of my old whiny notebooks to the shredder. It was keeping me locked in my previous, non-progressing state.

Now, I've started anew. Starting with a list of what I plan to do now that I've finally started on my new-life journey.

-Read, read, read. Personal development books (reading Jillian Michael's Unlimited right now), biographies and so on.

-Journal. I've only written around things I needed to get out of my system before. Now, I'm just going to write. I can't fix my life if I don't know what my issues are.

-Listen to music I like and if I want silence, enjoy that as well.

-Finally learn to play that guitar.

-Work out, of course

-Most importantly, heal. I've been emotionally bludgeoned and healing is necessary.

This is just a preliminary list. I'm sure it will change as I move along.

Stay tuned.

I've been a planner junkie since I started using a calendar to keep up with my homework in the 9th grade. This was in 1977.

Through the years, I have used generic planners, Day-Timers, Day-Runners, Franklin Quest/Covey, Geodex, RPM, you name it, I've tried it. Anyway, I always go back to the Filofax. This is in spite of the fact that they've discontinued the Shopping List pages (indespensible to me).

There something about the quality of the binders and the papers that keeps me coming back. I've been carrying around the same red Personal Hampshire since 2002.

Well, to go with my new life, I just ordered a green Chameleon! In A5 no less!

Excuse me while I geek out a little.
*does happy dance*

I'll post pictures as soon as that puppy comes in the mail.

New Beginnings

Change of plan. Change of atmosphere. Change of everything.

The past three years alternated between sublime and horrible. I'm no longer the same person.

I'm in a new residence. Not the one that I originally planned. I changed my mind at the last moment. Now I need to plan how I will spend my time. Make a list of things I've wanted to do and never got a chance to. Read and journal and sort out all the things that have brought me to this place.

Finally going to get my act together. This is going to be fun!