Good oldies Tuesday - The Mirror has Two Faces

I watched this movie quite a while ago. I had always heard of how good it was and so one day I prepared a snack, bought ice cream, invited a couple of friends over to watch it in my house and we had a very pleasant afternoon together.

This is what I remember every time I think about this movie :)

The movie tells the story of a woman and a man. Both are professors in a University. She is very smart and very good at what she does. He is very smart but his students don’t really like his classes.

When he saw how everybody seemed to like her teaching methods, he asks for her help and from then on they develop a friendship.

She is the type of person everyone wants to be around and although she has family and friends, she never really found someone to love.

He is the more loner type of man but has had many experiences with women who left him heartbroken.

She believes in true love, the kind that makes your heart race and takes your breath away.

He believes true love doesn’t exist and that you don't need love to get married. All you need are two people who are friends and enjoy each other's company.

So after a few months he makes a proposition to her. What if they got married so they could be each other’s companions? They would get married, live in the same house but sleep in separate beds. They would enjoy each other’s friendship but would not have any kind of physical contact.

She accepts it and that's when the story really starts… Can’t really say any more, otherwise I’ll give the whole plot away.

I recommend it 100% and would watch over and over again if my dear, dear friend Aline Munhoz hadn’t borrowed it  a few years ago and kept the DVD for herself (you still owe me for that by the way) lol.

This movie is very funny, very entertaining and truly a nice movie!

A romantic comedy like you don’t see nowadays anymore. 

Time Challenge - It's time to revise!

It's time to revise everything we learned in the month of January. Bu now you should:

1. Have a very important reason as to why you want to manage your time well.

2. Have written down all your projects and choose which ones you are going to be working on right now and which ones you will leave for later.

3. Be eating at least one frog every day.

4. Do what you have to do even you don't fell like it.

If you have signed up to be my partner in this Challenge, you will be receiving extra help this week, so check your inbox often ;)

For now I will leave you a message that has everything to do with the fourth step in our challenge. Read, think about it and be ready for next week!

There's an opportune time to do things, a right time for everything on the earth: 

   A right time for birth and another for death, 
   A right time to plant and another to reap, 
   A right time to kill and another to heal, 
   A right time to destroy and another to construct, 
   A right time to cry and another to laugh, 
   A right time to lament and another to cheer, 
   A right time to make love and another to abstain, 
   A right time to embrace and another to part, 
   A right time to search and another to count your losses, 
   A right time to hold on and another to let go, 
   A right time to rip out and another to mend, 
   A right time to shut up and another to speak up, 
   A right time to love and another to hate, 
   A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

In Time

As per my dear follower Nubia Onara's request, here is the review about the movie In Time.

Didn't like it. lol

But before I get to that, let me tell you a little bit about the plot.

The story is set in the future, 2161 to be more exact and everyone is genetically altered to stop aging at 25 years of age and then die one year later. So far so good.

People don't work for money anymore, they work for time. They are paid with time and they pay everything with time. They have this clock on their arm that tells them how long they still have to live.

The main character Will Salas (played by Justin Timberlake) is poor and has to work for the hours he wants to live and so does his mother until something happens that make him go crazy, not accept anymore the fact that the rich people had centuries to live and the poor had to work everyday to earn miserable hours at the end of the month.

But some of the rich people who had 'eternity' to live were not really content with never dying, so a rich guy kills himself and gives Will all the time he had on his clock.

Will then starts enjoying the living-like-you-are-never-going-to-die kind of life and teams up with a rich spoiled/prisoner-of-her-own-time chick. And now they are out to save the world... well, the poor side of the world.

It's kind of Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. Yeah... repetitive... we've seen that kind of story before.

You don't really sympathize with their cause, the movie doesn't really end, or maybe it ends like you think it will. And that's it.

It's the kind of movie that when you start watching you think it's going to be really good. It starts really strong but then it's like the writers didn't know how else to finish it.

It's like a modern Robin Hood. Not horrible, but not excellent either.

P.S.: Now you can decide which movie review I should post here on Fridays!!! Please go to the poll on the side bar and vote :))

Mind over matter

If you have read the first book of theTwilight Saga or watched the movie, then you know that there's something about Bella that makes her extremely attractive to Edward: The scent of her blood.


He is a vampire and although he does not drink human blood, he feels extremely tempted to drink hers. The way the book describes it is that it's impossible for him to resist, everything in his body told him that not only should he drink her blood, but he NEEDED to drink it. It was his nature, the way he was, what he felt.


But everyone knows that he does not drink her blood. He falls in love with her instead.


Fiction apart, I'd like to draw your attention to this very important detail in the story. It's actually one of my favorite parts in the book. Bella asks him how come he can resist the temptation to just let nature run its course and kill her. 


His answer is: Mind over matter.


Which means his body craved for her blood, his nature screamed that that's what he needed to do, his heart told him he had all the reasons in the world to do it, but his mind... was another matter.


He knew in his mind that that was not right, it was not the right thing to do. That just because he felt something, didn't mean he actually needed to act on it. He let his mind call the shots; he chose his mind to be in control of his actions.


If you think you can't take any lessons from the Twilight Saga, here's one: He chose to let his mind call the shots in his life.


In our own lives we have urges, we have needs, we have feelings and temptation is just everywhere, but how many of us actually resist them? Go against them? Fight them?


Your mind tells you this is not the right time for a relationship or that the relationship you are currently in is not good for you. But you heart tells you that you need it, it's ok, everybody has someone, you are entitled to have someone too.


Your mind says you should be applying yourself to your studies, career, work, your family, but you feel you have time enough for that later.


Your mind tells you that sex should be saved for marriage, when both man and woman have made a life-long commitment to each other, but your heart tells you 'why not now? You both love each other and besides, the temptation is just too much to resist'.


Your mind tells you that there are certain sacrifices you have to make in your life, like leaving those friends that are not good for you for example... you feel that it would be unfair to leave those 'who were always there for you'.


Your mind tells you a lot of things. Everyday. So does your heart. 


Which one have you been listening to?


There is a constant battle between what you feel is right and what you KNOW is right.


But the question is, which one are YOU letting win?

Photo Personality

My sisters would always tease me about this picture. They said I look awful hahahahahaha.


That may be, but this is undoubtedly one my favorite pictures of me as a child, because it clearly shows my personality :)


It's very important to have and keep our personality, but it's also important to change and better ourselves.


Changing doesn't mean losing yourself. It means creating a better version of you. We need to understand that we are not ok the way we are! There's always something we need to improve, change, let go of.


Some people want a new life, a better and different life but they refuse to make the slightest change about who they are. 


If you are not getting better, you are automatically getting worse, simply by doing nothing.


So, change your mindset. Look at your own faults, see what can be improved and go for it. You will see that as you progress as a person, as a human being, your life will progress as well.


You want a new life? Be a new person.

Introducing... Good Oldies Tuesday!

Watching movies and reading books are things I've enjoyed doing since I was a little girl. I remember being really happy whenever we had to read a book in school. Most people would complain about having one more thing to study, but to me reading stories wasn't studying at all. It was having fun :)

But going back to the subject I want to talk about today... There are many movies I've watched throughout the years that I've been meaning to write about here on my blog but never really did. I usually post my movie reviews on Fridays and so there's never enough time to write about them all. So, I have decided to create the Good oldies Tuesday!

Every Tuesday from now on I will be posting a review about an 'old' movie I've watched and liked. You know... just in case you haven't watched them yet.

Do you have free time but don't really want to leave your house? 

Do you want to entertain yourself but have no money to go out? lol

Are you planning to spend the night over your best friend's house and are looking for ways to entertain yourselves? 

Good oldies Tuesday is here to help you! Just pass by here every Tuesday to see my recommendations, rent the movie, get some popcorn and you are good to go!

Here's a list with few movies I'll be posting from next week on (not necessarily in that order):

The mirror has two faces

Freedom writers

Soul surfer

The Notebook

A Walk to remember

The devil wears prada

Pride and Prejudice

Bourne Trilogy

Beastly

Remember the Titans

Invincible

The Great Debaters

Fireproof

Training Day

The Pursuit of Happyness

Shutter Island

American history X

The Illusionist

Primal Fear

And many others... Some of these are so old I will have to watch them again just to write the review hehehe.

Which others do you think should be included in the list? Write your suggestions in the comments below.

P.S.1: If you never have free time, you should take part on the Time Challenge here every Monday.

P.S.2: If you never have money, here's something that could help you: Tips for your finances with Patricia.

P.S.3: If you don't have any friends... well, then you have a problem. Forget about the movies, let's talk about it and see if I can help you in anyway. You can write to me here: Talk to me.

P.S.4: How on earth am I ever going to find the Portuguese titles for all these movies so I can post it on my blog in Portuguese?! Gulp...

Time Challenge - The key

If you have been applying yourself to this challenge of making time to do all you have/need/want to do, it's important that you understand a few things:

Changing your behavior is not like changing clothes. It takes time. It will take time. Don’t dismay.

You need to be committed 100% and make this a priority in your life.

You will not always feel like doing what you need to do.

Some days you will wake up in the morning all energized for the day ahead. You will have all your frogs written down and you will not only be ready to eat them, you will WANT to eat them. Your alarm will go off in the morning and your immediate response will be I'M READY!  

But sometimes you don't even feel like getting up from the bed and throughout the day you just feel too tired to do anything difficult.

Sometimes you want to work hard, sometimes you just want to watch TV.

There are days that everything goes according to plan and there are some that everything turns into a total DISASTER.

Some days you feel like this is working and sometimes it just feels like a waste of time.

And here's the secret to succeed in spite of the bad days:

You must ignore what you feel.

If you rely on the way you feel, you will always be going back to square one.

So, whether you feel like it or not, you MUST press forward, you must continue with your tasks, you must carry on with eating your frogs. This is not a step but the key to succeeding in this Challenge. 

If you’ve tried to do something important before and failed, if you signed up for this challenge on December 26th and are not doing very well or have already given up, just look back and you will see that the reason was exactly this: You didn't feel like doing everything written here or you didn't feel like it was working, or you didn't feel like trying anymore or you didn't feel like you could.

You don't feel like going on? Go on anyway!

Don't feel like making that list of things you need to do tomorrow? Do it now!

Feel like doing everything else on your list but eating that giant, ugly, fat frog? Take the first bite!

Most often than not, YOU WILL NOT FEEL LIKE doing what you need to do, but you MUST DO IT ANYWAY.

If you can overcome your own feelings, then you can overcome everything else in your life. If you can't...

So the lion fell in love with the lamb

It was November 2008. I started seeing all these posters on the buses in London. It was about a movie and it showed a picture of a young guy holding a girl. The letters on the top said 'Twilight'.

A friend of mine from the US, knowing how much I enjoy watching movies, wrote to me suggesting I should go watch it. I went... And the story I saw in the movie was like no other I had ever seen in romantic movies before...

Bella was not going around trying to find Prince Charming, like we see many girls do nowadays. She actually liked her life. She didn't go to parties, got herself drunk now and then, blamed her parents for her mundane existence or tried to be better than the next girl. She didn't try to fit in the mold of 'teenage life'. That was really nice to watch.

Then she finds Edward...

Yes, Edward is a vampire in the movie. I don't particularly like that part, but again, we are talking about a movie here and they have this sort of thing in movies.

Edward is a very different kind of guy. He's NOT after girls or after proving himself to others and when he finds the girl he truly likes, he is not looking what she can give him, but rather what he can offer her, what he can sacrifice for her. He wants to take care of her and make her happy.

And that, my friend, is the whole secret behind the Twilight fever.

People like Edward and everything he represents when it comes to love life.

Some crazy people like the fact that he is a vampire, they even dress all in black trying to look like one. I'm not talking about these people. I'm talking about those who like the love story, who like they way the boy treats the girl. They see it on the screen and wish they could experience that in real life. 

So no wonder while 'the lion was falling in love with the lamb', a lot of girls (and older women too) were falling in love with Edward Cullen!

And that's one of the bad things about Twilight, not because of the movie itself, but because of the people who watched it. Girls see this fictitious perfect guy and now they are after him, they want someone like Edward. They want him and dream of finding him.  But how crazy is that? It's like trying to find Thor or the Batman! Hello??

Edward Cullen is as real as the vampires in the movie, but many girls are right now on a quest to find the one who will sweep them off their feet just like Edward did with Bella. They want the perfect guy and yet they are not perfect themselves... Is that even fair?

Continues next Thursday... 

The Help - A follower's review

This is the beautiful Bruna. She's been a faithful follower of my blog since I started writing. She recommended this movie to me last year when I hadn't yet watched it and so I asked her to write a review for me and here's what she has to say about it:

During the 1960’s women got married, and with a husband came children, and with children came a maid…

Black women in those days were expected to clean up after their employer’s kids and take care of them from the time they were babies, until they were grown, got married and got a maid of their own. The mothers didn’t really take care for their kids; instead they would hand that responsibility to the maid, together with all the cooking and cleaning.

However, our main character Skeeter (Emma Stone) is a single woman in her 20’s and was looked upon by her mother and friends as someone not fit for the society at the time. She was not married and didn’t have any children because instead of going for the norm, she opted for studying and getting a degree in writing.

The story turns even more interesting when Skeeter comes back home from college, and finds out that the maid who raised her and cared for her better than her own mother, was no longer working at her house. After that she started noticing more how other African-American women were treated and perceiving how their life as a maid was really like, she decided to start a book based on the maids point of view.

This movie is very inspiring. It shows us not to be scared to stand up for what’s right. 

In the movie we see how the maids were scared to tell their stories, afraid of the punishment they might get from their employers. But through her attitude Skeeter shows them that no one should be afraid to be different and make the difference, regardless of their color, culture or background.

Emma Stone did a wonderful job portraying a girl who goes against the flow and does not accept the rules and concepts of a society where the color of one's skin dictated how they were treated, what they had and how they lived.

I totally recommend this movie; it has something to give and the story is truly captivating.

Bruna Araújo

I agree 100 % with you Bruna! This movie is very good, funny and entertaining! I had a lot of fun watching it.

I just didn’t agree with what the boyfriend did. He was an idiot...

Last Saturday in the YPG...

Last Saturday I participated in a YPG event called 'Clash of the Tribes'.

It was an event where all the YPG from Houston, Austin and San Antonio came together to kick start the YPG Tribes Competition in 2012.

Issachar was the most lively of all the tribes there and so they started the competition ahead of everybody else. 

I'm seriously considering joining one of the tribes here in Houston... :)

If you want to know more about the YPG, you can find more info about us here youthpowergroup, here whereugoing and here ypgblog. 

We meet every Thursday at 7:00 pm and Sundays at 1:00 pm :)

Because we are Strong!

Time Challenge Step # 3 - The Frog Diet

A few years ago I read this very nice book about time management and it taught me one of the most important lessons on how to organize my time.

It taught me to eat frogs.

Yes, if I wanted to get a lot done throughout my week, I should eat at least one frog every morning.

Here's what the book says:

'It has been said for many years that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long.'

How true is that? 

Your frog is the most important task you have to do today, the one that you will most likely leave for 'later' (and you and I know very well that later means never, or some day when you cannot postpone it any longer because everything got out of control). This is usually the most boring task, the one you DON'T want to do, that one you feel tired just by thinking about it, but also the one that will have the greatest positive impact on your day and life and will bring the most results.

We usually tend to do the opposite. We choose the easier and enjoyable (or at least less boring) tasks first and after they are completed, we are simply too tired to do the long, boring, tiresome and more important one. No wonder we are always leaving it for the 'next day' (which also means 'never').

If from all the hard things you need to do today, you choose the hardest and stay with it until it's completed, you will go on with your day with a sense of accomplishment and relief since your most important/difficult task is already done.

'If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first'. 

Here's another thing, many times we are surrounded by frogs, especially if we've been postponing eating them for a long time, so if you have two or more very hard tasks to do today, choose the hardest one and do it first.

Last but not least:

'If you have to eat a live frog, it doesn't pay to sit and look at it for very long.'

Which means you have to do your most important/boring/hard task first thing in the morning so you can get it over with.

We all have frogs to eat today and everyday and the longer we take to eat them, the fatter, bigger and uglier they get. So, here's what we will be working on everyday this week:

1. Make a list of everything you have to do tomorrow  

 2. See what your most important task is, the one that if completed will have the most positive impact on your life today - usually the one you tend to postpone

3. Do it before you do any other tasks. Do it first thing in the morning and don't start anything else until you have finished it

  

I've already been using this method and it really works. So, let's agree on something, shall we?

Everyday this week we will come here at the end of the day and leave our comments on how our day went. We will say how many frogs we managed to eat, what is working and what is not working ok?

Writing this post is one of my frogs for today :) So, this one is eaten... on to the next one!

P.S.: If you’d like to join us in the next phase of the Time Challenge, just click here.

The Grace Card

For those who haven't watched or even heard about this movie before, let me explain what it is about.

This is an inspirational movie about a family who suffer the consequences of a horrible tragedy that happened 17 years ago. Since it happened, the Mac family was never able to be happy again, the father was never able to forgive himself, the son never felt any connection with his father and the wife is just lost in the middle of it all. Until a stranger entered their lives and started awakening things in them they'd rather leave dormant.

It shows how forgiveness is a much more powerful weapon than hatred. It shows how faith in God can actually change people on the inside. It shows how much someone can suffer when they just can't let the past go.

It has a great message. It's a great movie... or at least it was supposed to be.

Yeah... I'd love to be able to come here and say how wonderful this movie is. It actually had everything to be very good. It had the   idea, the concept, the objective and the intention, but it did not have the right production. So, unfortunately, I cannot say it was a great movie.

They couldn't have chosen worse actors. You know when an actor is good when he makes you believe that whatever he is saying, feeling or showing is true. If he is devastated and cries, you can almost feel his desolation, his despair. Such is not the case with the actors in this movie. Everything is so rehearsed, so forced, so fake that you and I could have done a better job.

I had to actually endure all the bad acting just so I could come here and have a full review to give you.

The plot does not develop nicely. One scene simply jumps to another and the whole thing is soooo predictable. 

It's a pity really. I wish this movie could have a had better production and a higher budget, so they could hire better actors and come out with the great movie this story deserved.

But I commend them for trying.

I just wish people would invest more in movies like this instead of trashy ones like 'Friends with Benefits'!

Do I recommend The Grace Card? If you can endure all the bad things I described above, yes. If no, then not really.

Which is a shame because I really wanted to :(

Why I'm writing about Twilight...

You might be asking yourself why I have decided to talk about Twilight here on my blog.

The answer is very simple. This is one of the most, if not THE most discussed movie nowadays. The love story has captivated people all over the world. Some hate it, most people (and when I say people I mean girls) love it and others are just crazy about it.

So, what's the hype all about? What is it about Twilight that has so many people infatuated with this saga for the last three years?

If you are a follower of my blog, you know that I strongly believe that you should THINK for yourself and not be influenced by the thoughts of others. It's like I'm often saying, if you don't think for yourself, others certainly will.

So, I'd like to draw your attention to the messages this movie sends out. As in most movies, there are always good and bad things you can get from them and Twilight is no different. So based on the fact that I have read the Twilight books and watched all the movies so far, I'll give you my opinion about what I think the good and the bad are.

My hope is that after you read my opinion, you might THINK and draw your own conclusions about it. My intent is that you learn to think for yourself and not let a movie, a trend or people think for you.

To those who say that this is a vampire movie and therefore it's an evil thing, here is what I have to say:

Is the idea of vampires and the fact that they feed on human blood something evil? Yes.

Is it absurd? Yes.

Is it real? No.

And because they are not real, I'll be able to write about it the same way I write about any other movie. There are good things. There are bad things. I'll show you both and you make up your own mind. You shouldn’t rely only on the bad things you hear about it, just as you shouldn't rely only on the good.

There are some people criticizing me for even talking about Twilight. Some are appalled at the fact that I even know about this story. Hello!!! I review movies. Will I not have an opinion on one of the most talked about movies nowadays?

If you don't like the movie and want to criticize it, you are free to say so in the comments below. If you don't like the movie and want to criticize ME, don't be surprised if your comment is suddenly removed. 

So, come back next Thursday for the first chapter on my series. It's called ‘So the lion fell in love with the lamb’.

P.S.: Have you already guessed what is it I hate about this movie? I kind of gave you a hint today…

Time Challenge Step # 2 - Think on Paper!

Now that you already have a strong reason for changing and learning to manage your time well, it's time to get practical.

Here is a rule you must follow if you are to succeed at this: Writing.

That's right! Writing down the things you need, want, wish and will do. If you want to get organized with your time, you need to get into the habit of writing your plans and to-do's down. 

Some people will read this and say that they've got no time to write down their list of to-do's, that they've got little or no time as it is. Well, of course you don't! If you don't have this habit, you are probably not a very organized person when it comes to your daily tasks and that's precisely why you think you don't have time.

Every book and article I've read about time management talks about this. Everyone I know who manages their time wisely, do so because of this very principle: They don't think only in their heads when it comes to the tasks they have to perform daily, but they also think on paper. Every time I manage to get something done and well done is because I followed this rule.

There's something about writing things down that makes everything much clearer, much more real and achievable. 

So, even if you don't have this habit, even if you don't like it, even if you think it doesn't work or hasn't worked for you in the past, do it anyway. Let's take one step at a time ok?

So what's the next step in our challenge? Here's what we will do this next week:

* Divide everything that's going on in your life right now into projects. Yes, we will call it and see it as projects from now on. Your projects could be for example, your home, your job, your school/college, your church, a course you are taking or are planning to take, a blog, a book, your health, weight loss etc. Basically everything you are doing right now, everything you were supposed to have done a while ago and things you still want or need to do.

Write them all down, one by one. That can be on a notebook or on your computer if you prefer. It doesn't really matter, as long as you have everything there in front of your eyes. When you do this, you may realize that you don't have as much to do as you had previously thought, or that it can actually be done if you work in an organized manner. Maybe you will see that you just have too much on you plate right now. 

Now, you need to look at your projects and decide which are the most important ones RIGHT NOW. When I did this last week, I had a total of 13 projects and I quickly saw that it was impossible to work on all of them at the same time and so I decided to postpone some of them for a later date/time in my life. I did not give up on them, I just postponed them so I can work on what's really priority right now. They came down to a total of 8.

Not very hard to do, is it? 

I've been doing this and it has been working wonders for me :) That's why I am able to write this post days before I actually have to post it. Yes, the Time Challenge is one of my 8 projects.

If you have any doubts or questions, you can write to me here or in the comments below. Now, let's get to work! More coming next week.

The Twilight Saga - Breaking Dawn Part I

I find it quite difficult to write a review about a Twilight movie. I don't know, maybe it's because the whole Edward thing seems to have a lot of girls going crazy these days...

Since it's hard to fully express my opinion in only one post, I'll be starting next Thursday a series of posts about it. So, if you are those people who really like Twilight, stay tuned every Thursday. If you are not, stay tuned anyway so you can share your opinion as well.

There were a lot of mixed reviews when Breaking Dawn came out, most critics hated it, some liked it and some had crazy ideas about it. This is what I think:

I liked it :)

I liked it because they stayed quite true to the book, just like New Moon. I don't particularly like the whole Renesmee story and I think it just spoiled something that was already good, like 'raining on the wet' as they say in Portuguese, but I'll let it pass lol.

I think the actors were very good, much better than in all the other Twilight movies.

I LOVED the wedding! But I don't think that Bella's dress was supposed to be like they showed it in the movie... too revealing for Bella's character and my taste.

I also enjoyed all the speeches at the wedding, especially Charlie's!! I think he's so funny (don't ask me why) both in the books and in the movies and I think they chose the perfect actor for his character. 

The soundtrack was nice, especially the wedding song... it's so beautiful!

The honeymoon... what can I say about the honeymoon in Brazil? Well, it was in Brazil, so of course it was going to be nice lol (just joking). Again, very close to the book, feathers and all.

There are some things that you don't understand though if you haven't read the book. Some things are not explained right, like when the wolves are talking and Jacob refuses to obey Sam; if you don't know the story, you are quite lost in that scene. Just like the friends that went with me to watch it. I had to keep explaining things throughout the movie, it was hilarious!

But apart from that, I liked everything else. It was good enough for me :)

But I must tell you that there is something about Twilight in general that I DON'T like. I think I even hate it... But anyway, if you want to know what it is, come back next Thursday.

Have you already watched it? What did you think? 

Leave your comments. I reeeally want to hear them!

Who is this little girl?

Do you know her? She will soon be telling a story, but she doesn't speak English... yet :)

The reason is very important

If you are anything like me, then you are not very good at following too many directions at the same time. 

For example, if you teach me anything new by giving me lots of instructions, I will have a hard time learning whatever it is that you are trying to teach me. I function much better taking a few things at a time. So based on this small deficiency of mine, I will give you small steps every week on learning how to manage your time well.

As you can see on my previous post on this subject, I'm far from being an expert at this, but I aim to get there someday, hence the Time Challenge.

I have tried to be organized many times before, but never really succeeded because of a lot of factors, but there's one thing I have recently noticed that I never had before. If I am to succeed at this I need to understand that knowing the reason why I want to change this about myself is absolutely crucial to make it happen. The problem is that many times we have the wrong reasons:

Here are some reasons that although good, were never really enough to make me change:

1. If you are not organized with your time, then you are not normal, not really efficient in what to do and therefore you start building a bad reputation for yourself 

2. You want to have some peace. You just want to be done with all your tasks so you don't have to worry about them anymore

3. You have too many things to do and you feel overwhelmed

4. It is the right thing to do

5. You don't want people after you, demanding that you do this or that. Again, the peace thing.

If any or all of these things are incentive enough for you to want to change, good. Use them! It's important that you know why and what you are changing for. However, if you have thought about the above, you tried to change it but didn't succeed, then maybe your reason is wrong.

I have asked myself 'why is that although I improve in this area of my life, I never seem to be able to really change?' The answer was 'You are not really focusing on your real reason'. Once I understood that, I had the motivation I needed to try again, to try harder, to do better and make all the necessary sacrifices to achieve my goal.

I will not tell everyone here what my reason is, it's very simple actually but very, very important to me. That small detail I'm only telling my partners, who signed up for this challenge with me.

But here's the first step towards time management success:

Find out why you want to change. If your reason is not good enough or strong enough, then you have to find a better reason, an end result that will make your sacrifices worthwhile. 

If you have no reason, then you don't really need to change, do you?