National Association of Senior Move Managers

One Friday Morning 01.20.12

NASMM — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 16:08:17 +0000

We’re back from the 2012 NASMM Annual Conference & Expo. What a weekend it was – almost 400 attendees in the warm, welcoming city of Austin, TX. More conference details in a blog post next week, I promise! Until then, please check out this cool blog post I stumbled upon earlier in the week: 100 Tips About Life, People & Happiness.

This blog post sings to me this morning for many reasons: 1) We are in the first weeks of a brand new year; 2) I feel newly-inspired following our terrific conference experience last week; and 3) A cold, snowy weekend offers time for a bit of self-reflection and renewal (lots of long days and fun nights at the conference!). Just click on the photo below and you’ll be directed to the post. My personal favorites are #24, 25, 35, 37, 40, 41, 42 & 93.

(I also like #63, not as a Mom, of course, but as an association management professional: 63. Consider avoiding school. Go to lots of conferences instead.)

Which ideas among these 100 speak to you? Would love to hear from you!

Cheers to 2012: Amazing Adventures Ahead

NASMM — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:56:42 +0000

Happy Twenty 12! Hope you are enjoying a wonderful New Year’s weekend with family and friends. I am spending these “free” days alternating between working on details related to the 2012 NASMM Annual Conference (in Austin, TX in just 10 days!) and stripping our home of all things Christmas. I am always saddened by the task of taking down and storing our Christmas trees, wreaths, and garlands. I so miss the magical effect of hundreds of little white lights throughout our home. But it’s the natural cycle of our lives.

To celebrate the passing of 2011 and the dawn of 2012, I’d like to share Gretchen Rubin’s recent blog post with you. As you may already know, Gretchen is the author of the highly-acclaimed, best-selling, The Happiness Project. I love the way Gretchen thinks and writes, and I encourage you to check out her website. If our worlds would ever collide, I think Gretchen and I could be friends. Here is her post about New Year’s resolutions, in abbreviated form:

Making New Year’s Resolutions? Ask Yourself 6 Questions

Forty to 45 percent of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, and I know I always do. I’m more inclined to make resolutions than ever, in fact, because if my happiness project has convinced me of anything, it has convinced me that resolutions — made right — can make a huge difference in boosting happiness.

So how do you resolve well? This is trickier than it sounds. Here are some tips for making your resolutions as effective as possible.

1. Ask: “What would make me happier?” It might be having more of something good — more fun with friends, more time for a hobby. It might be less of something bad — less yelling at your kids, less nagging of your spouse. It might be fixing something that doesn’t feel right — more time spent volunteering, more time doing something to make someone else happier. Or maybe you need to get an “atmosphere of growth” in your life by learning something new, helping someone or fixing something that isn’t working properly.

2. Ask: “What is a concrete action that would bring change?” One common problem is that people make abstract resolutions, which are hard to keep. “Be more optimistic,” “Find more joy in life,” “Enjoy now,” are resolutions that are hard to measure and therefore difficult to keep. Instead, look for a specific, measurable action. “Distract myself with fun music when I’m feeling gloomy,” “Watch at least one movie each week,” “Buy a plant for my desk” are resolutions that will carry you toward those abstract goals.

3. Ask: “Am I a ‘yes’ resolver or a ‘no’ resolver?” Some people resent negative resolutions. They dislike hearing “don’t” or “stop” (even from themselves) or adding to their list of chores. If this describes you, try to find positive resolutions: “Take that dance class,” “Have lunch with a friend once a week.” Or maybe you respond well to “no.” I actually do better with “no” resolutions. A lot of my resolutions are aimed at getting me to stop doing something, or to do something I don’t really want to do. There’s no right way to make a resolution, but it’s important to know what works for you. As always, the secret is to know your own nature.

4. Ask: “Am I starting small enough?” Many people make super-ambitious resolutions and then drop them, feeling defeated, before January is over. Start small! We tend to over-estimate what we can do over a short time and under-estimate what we can do over a long time, if we make consistent, small steps. If you’re going to resolve to start exercising (one of the most popular resolutions), don’t resolve to go to the gym for an hour every day before work. Start by going for a 10-minute walk at lunch or marching in place once a day during the commercial breaks in your favorite TV show. Little accomplishments provide energy for bigger challenges. The humble resolution you actually follow is more helpful than the ambitious resolution you abandon.

5. Ask: “How am I going to hold myself accountable?” Accountability is the secret to sticking to resolutions. That’s why groups like AA and Weight Watchers are effective. There are many ways to hold yourself accountable; for example, I keep my “Resolutions Chart.” Accountability is why number two is so important. If your resolution is too vague, it’s hard to measure whether you’ve been keeping it. A resolution to “eat healthier” is harder to track than “Eat salad for lunch three times a week.”

6. Ask: “Are there any small, nagging issues weighing down my happiness?” (This is really a subset of number one.) They aren’t major happiness challenges, but rather, the ordinary problems that be-devil us.

Have you found any strategies that have helped you successfully keep resolutions in the past?

When I Get Older . . .

NASMM — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 20:52:08 +0000

Happy New Year! Whoa, I apologize for not posting here for over a month! Truly, I wanted to write so many times, as we’ve observed so many things we wanted to share with you. Time just did not allow me the opportunity to do so. Jennifer and I are working 24/7 on the fast-approaching 2012 NASMM Conference. So many details are involved with two of us planning and executing a 4-day professional conference for 350+ people! We love every minute of it, but we are forced to prioritize our time. As a result, blogging was (sadly) put on the back-burner this past month. The good news is 2012 will be our largest conference to date!

Following the NASMM conference in mid-January, we will return to blogging, tweeting, and posting on Facebook and LinkedIn all the observations, stories, videos and more that we find during the course of our work on behalf of NASMM. Until then, I thought you might enjoy this short video clip:

When I Get Older | Social Isolation and Seniors

Thanksgiving 2011: A Generous Slice of Gratitude

NASMM — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 18:24:13 +0000

Many thanks to the readers of this blog for taking the time throughout the year to check in with us at NASMM. We truly appreciate your comments, “likes,” and “shares” via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Our tiny spot in the vast blogosphere just wouldn’t be the same without you!

~ Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends ~

One Friday Morning 11.18.11

NASMM — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:00:50 +0000

Bottle cap philosophy says it all. Your thoughts?

No “Ha ha” in Hoarding

NASMM — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:00:47 +0000

Last Monday evening, my husband and I attempted to cope with the end of Daylight Savings Time by watching (mindless) TV after dinner. I’d like to say this activity is out of the ordinary, but it’s not. We like to watch TV. There I said it. We both have graduate degrees, but we’ve always liked to watch TV together. We only secured a cable provider three years ago, after raising four kids, because we knew . . . we just knew . . . it was not good for them or us. Now that we’re (semi) empty-nesters, we’re free to indulge ourselves.

November is one of three Nielsen-rating “sweeps” months, so the networks usually haul out their best episodes during this month. It’s also when we in the bone-chilling Midwest begin to hibernate for our long winter’s nap.

We are huge, longtime fans of How I Met Your Mother, and CBS has placed a new sitcom immediately following it for our viewing pleasure: 2 Broke Girls. We own a remote, and we could change the channel, but we decided to give it a try several weeks ago. It’s actually a pretty funny show. Last Monday evening, however, CBS crossed the line. Not like it’s the first time. Maybe I am just hyper-sensitive to any reference to hoarding and those who hoard (because of NASMM and the work of our Senior Move Managers), but we didn’t find this episode humorous.

The series is set in Brooklyn. This particular episode, entitled And Hoarder Culture, has one of the two broke girls, Caroline, answering a Craigslist ad for a professional organizer. She needs some extra cash beyond her waitress gig at the diner, and she thinks (and even says) anyone can be an organizer! When she discovers a hoarding situation at her first home visit, however, she coaxes her friend, the other broke girl – sassy Max – to assist her.

We never see the actual client; we only hear him (and his mother). The inference is that he’s one of those unstable grown men still living with his mother. Caroline and Max mine a lot of laughs out of his collection of Butterfinger wrappers, doll heads in a fish bowl, and more. Caroline feels Max is exhibiting some of her own hoarder behaviors, due to Max’s inability to recognize her feelings for Johnny, the local quirky (and sensitive!) graffiti artist. This “Aha!” moment convinces Max to act on her feelings – to disastrous results – later in the show.

CBS dances around the connection between emotional health and hoarding behavior, but they only briefly explore it – and only as it relates to Max hoarding her feelings for Johnny. The big joke of the night (insert laugh-track’s “ha ha ha”) is the apartment guy and his mounds of stuff. Max and Caroline never attempt to examine what’s happening with him, nor do they call in a mental health professional. Uncharacteristically giddy, Max expresses almost child-like excitement at the possibility of interacting with a real-life (not TLC/A&E network) hoarder. (This part is where I kind of lost it.)

Oh yeah, Caroline and Max also tell their client they will clean out his huge toxic waste of an apartment (46 kittens in a box?? really??) for $100 a day – in New York no less!

Maybe I am not a cool Brooklyn hipster. Maybe I am being a “Debbie Downer.” (See, that reference alone shows how truly uncool I am!) I simply think this episode diminishes the organizing profession, and those organizing specialists who help individuals and families with challenging hoarding situations.

Hoarding is a profoundly serious and growing problem in our consumer culture. It requires considerable expertise to navigate the path of working with someone who hoards. I wonder what NASMM’s sister organization, the Institute for Challenging Disorganization (ICD) thinks of this 2 Broke Girls episode. For that matter, did you see it? What are your thoughts as well?

I’ve read this show is considered the breakout hit of the 2011 fall season. It’s part of a growing trend – the return of the sitcom amid our economic malaise. TV Guide states that 11.5 million people watched the 2 Broke Girls And Hoarder Culture episode.

That’s a whole lot of people who laughed at hoarding last Monday night.

One Friday Morning 11.11.11

NASMM — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 16:36:50 +0000

THANK YOU!

One Friday Morning 11.04.11

NASMM — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:00:01 +0000

7 billion people and you: What’s your number?

The world’s population is expected to hit seven billion in the next few weeks. After growing very slowly for most of human history, the number of people on Earth has more than doubled in the last 50 years.

Where do you fit into this story of human life? Click on the link below or the image above, courtesy of the BBC, to find where you are in this world. Interesting . . .
7 billion people and you: What’s your number?

One Friday Morning 10.28.11

NASMM — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:36:38 +0000

This thoughtful post is from WrinkleThink, a blog founded and maintained by Senior Living Communities, LLC, a Charlotte, N.C.-based company that owns and operates 12 retirement communities throughout the Southeast. It offers a fresh perspective – a bit different from the usual aging-related stuff in the blogosphere. It’s entitled Young Man, and the author is Jason D. Johnson:

I am still considered a young man. I know this to be true because almost every day someone addresses me as “Young Man” instead of my given name.

Yesterday was a trial run for me on what it will be like when I am not a young man. I started the day by waking up and realizing that I had a tremendous amount of sinus pressure affecting my left ear. This muting effect would haunt me all day, complete with a significant amount of crackling and popping making it difficult to hear, especially in noisy settings.

Then I received a set of stitches in my abdomen. Thus, those beauties rendered me useless in picking up heavier objects, bending over or stretching my body in any regard.

At my afternoon eye appointment, I, of course, got the ole eyes dilated. Always good fun, but yesterday I believed they administered the super juice on the dilation. My vision when reading was far blurrier than under normal dilation and it persisted way into the night.

And in that great night, the main drain line in my house split open in the basement. My wife was out of town, so I was left to fumble around in the basement with a flashlight, blurry vision, a bad ear and limited mobility (the stitches made it so I couldn’t stretch to turn on the ceiling lights and I couldn’t carry anything down the steps to help me reach the ceiling lights or fix the problem). I felt like…in short…a useless man. A useless man who now had to figure out a plumber I could trust.

However, I kid myself if I think that’s what it’s like to be significantly aged with various impairments to my health. I still ambulate with no hindrances. My hands bend without arthritis pangs. I only take one pill a day and I don’t have to take that one. My children don’t live hundreds of miles away from me. I still drive at night, almost every night without thinking twice about it. I have no sentimental bond with my house. I haven’t lost a significant loved ones to death. I still have the hope of more life in front of me than behind me. I haven’t watched the generations after mine overlook the traditions and values known to me in my youth. I am not concerned with my legacy. I have no dependence upon others to live. I am not…the list could go on forever.

This is a good lesson for all adult children to remember. We all think we know what it’s going to be like or what it is like for our parents to age, but we really have no idea. We aren’t them. We haven’t felt the tectonic shifts of psychology in our 60s, 70s and 80s. We haven’t yet felt our bodies give way.

So don’t emulate. Don’t guess. Don’t place your desire over theirs. It will only make the aging process…the caregiving process…the placement process…that much more difficult, should you guess wrong.

Falling For . . .

NASMM — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 10:30:36 +0000

The dismal economic news is unrelenting. The word “terrorist” inserts itself into our lives on a daily basis. The U.S. 2012 Presidential election is already sapping my interest, and it’s over a year away. Surely, there’s some good info/fun stuff out there for us. But what?

I read everything I can get my hands on – newspapers, magazines, websites, blogs, and – of course – books. As a Chicagoan, I follow the Chicago Tribune columnist, Mary Schmich. They say “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, ” so I hope you don’t mind if I take her lead and catalog a few things I am enjoying in Autumn 2011. In no particular order, here goes:

1. The Paris Wife - My friend, Jane, and I are hosting our Book Club’s monthly meeting this Wednesday, and I’ve been devouring our selection with delight: The Paris Wife by Paula McClain. The story of Ernest Hemingway’s first wife, Hadley, The Paris Wife explores a variety of themes: marriage, monogamy, art, friendship, family, trust, love, adultery, and fame. The author’s holistic treatment of the main characters, Hadley and Hemingway, helps us to remain interested and invested for the entire read. Looking forward to having French-inspired savories and sweets to complete the evening – wine, brie, croissants, pear tart, etc. What’s better than a good book, and friends to share it?

2. All things pumpkin! I love this time of year when the flavor of pumpkin gets unleashed from its long slumber. Absolutely everything gets a swath, slather, or swipe of pumpkin. My favorite is pumpkin cheesecake with a shortbread crust. Mmmmm . . . what’s yours?

3. All things Apple! Not the fruit, but the computer company. Love the many features of the new iOS 5 update for the iPhone 4 and iPad. Makes me think I got something brand new without spending a dime – another smart move from Apple, the folks who invented smart. Exceeding expectations is always a winning business model.

4. Pan Am If you’re like me, you anxiously await the fall TV premiere season – hoping the next Friends or Friday Night Lights is around the corner. It almost always never happens. Truth be told, it’s not happening this year either. The one show I am making a point to watch, however, is Pan Am. The characters are well-crafted, and the plots are innovative and evolving. Best of all, it’s not a regurgitated cop show or soapy medical drama. Better yet, it’s not reality TV either. Yay! Maybe it’s the Baby Boomer in me, but I love the whole 1960s flavor of Pan Am – which will have to satisfy until the early 2012 return of Mad Men.

5. A few weeks ago, I found this Albert Einstein quote on Pinterest, my newest online hobby-obsession: “Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere.” The older I get, the more I believe it. The more I am around Senior Move Managers, I am absolutely convinced of it.

6. The NASMM website OK, you just knew I had to circle this whole thing back around to Senior Move Management. Seriously, the newly-designed NASMM website (along with the ability to capture e-commerce payments online) is a game-changer for NASMM this fall. Google Analytics tells us our “unique visitor” hits are way up since launching the new site August 1st. Additionally, we’ve received numerous positive comments about the easy navigation and robust content on the new site. We will continue to monitor and tweak the NASMM website as needed, but so far, so good!

What are you falling for this fall? Would enjoy hearing your list too . . .