I used to be absolutely horrible at remembering birthdays. I always seemed to remember either 2 months too early or 7 weeks too late. I had tried many different methods of organization out there, yet very few were effective for me. So I figured, why not create my own simple method. Here now, is the method that I now use with great results so far:

1. Get Up-Do-Date Information: I use Plaxo so that I always have everyone’s up-to-date information. For more information on this tremendous service, please read: Update your Address Books Automatically. Also, if you use MySpace and other social networking sites out there, they will make you aware of upcoming birthdays. For more information about using MySpace to promote yourself and/or your business, please read: 9 Ways MySpace & Facebook Can Work For You
2. Organize The Birthdays: I then created a spreadsheet that lists everyone’s birthday on 1 page and made it very easy to read at a quick glance. This spreadsheet is organized by month, so you can quickly look at November for example, and see that on the 16th, is my birthday. After you have added all of the birthdays per month, sort the names by birthday. Also, you may want to add November 16th to your list (my birthday)~Download my spreadsheet with sample information~
3. Create Cards: At the beginning of the month, I set some time aside to look at the list of birthday’s, and write out all of my birthday cards.
4. Send Out Cards: Since the cards are all made up, all I have to do it mail it out a few days before their birthday.

This method has been very easy for me to follow because I only need to look at it 12 times a year. Simple enough for anyone to use. Now don’t forget to add November 16th to your spreadsheet 

How many of you would feel uncomfortable doing any of the following:

• Eating dinner at a nice restaurant with yourself
• Going to see a movie by yourself
• Shopping by yourself
• Seeing a Seattle Mariner’s Game (sorry, I’m a little biased) by yourself

If the thought of going anywhere in public alone frightens you, take a deep breath, and ask yourself this thought provoking and philosophical question… Why?
I asked a few people this question and always got the same response back. Doing activities alone makes people feel uncomfortable because they don’t want others to think they don’t have any friends. I understand this, because I felt the same. Once or twice I had gone to go to a movie by myself and I ran out of there as soon as it was over, for fear that someone would see me.

Things changed for me after I watched The Secret. One of the speakers, Lisa Nichols, spoke about how she didn’t look like any of the “beautiful” people while she was growing up. “It wasn’t until I stopped and fell in love with Lisa, full lips, round hips, mocha skin, afro, that the rest of the world began to fall in love with Lisa.”
If you can’t go out with yourself and enjoy your company, how will others? I spoke to a friend of mine, Ashley Holman, who told me that once or twice a month, she would go on a date with herself. She did everything from dinner a movie, to renting videos and drinking wine. Not only did this give her a chance to slow down and relax, but it also gave her the opportunity to fall in love with herself.

Take a few moments to complete an inventory of yourself. What qualities do you have that make you unique? At first I struggled with this, I always looked at the differences as weakness instead of turning them into positives. If you ask me now who Rohit Rohila is, you will get a wonderful answer. Rohit Rohila has a big beautiful smile, he is short which makes him a great hugger, and he has deep brown caring eyes.
Take yourself out on a date with yourself tonight and fell in love 

The other night I was supposed to meet with a person that I am coaching at 6:30 PM at a local coffee shop. At 6:45 I called and left a message. At 7:00 PM I left another message. Finally at 7:30 I left to come back home. The coffee shop is 15 minutes away from my house, and to get ready for the meeting, it took me about 30 minutes. So all said and done, I had just wasted 1 hour at the coffee shop, 1 hour driving back and forth, and 30 minutes getting ready for a total of 2 and a half hours.

I finally got a text message around 10:00 PM that said, “Hey, I fell asleep after I got off of work. Sorry.”

That’s it, no real apology, no real explanation. How likely do you think I am to work with this person again?

I started thinking about how little apologies mean because of how little thought goes into them. How many times a day do you hear, “I’m sorry” said with no emotion or sincerity? Here are 7 points to include in a sincere apology:

1. Be sincere in your apology- “I’m sincerely sorry…”
2. What you did- “That I missed our meeting.”
3. Why you did it, don’t justify by using the word ‘because’- “I had fallen asleep when I got home from work.”
4. How the other person felt- “I know that you must be feeling that I am not reliable…”
5. How it impacted the other person- “And that you wasted a lot of time waiting for me…”
6. Tell them how you can fix it- “But I would really appreciate it if you gave me another chance.”
7. Apologize again and why- “I really am sorry I missed our meeting”

Can you see the difference? Do you think I would work with this person again if they had given me that response? Of course I would because they just let me know that they value my time and want to put forth the effort to make things right. Also, having a sincere apology that explains what happens and how to fix things also does wonders when it comes to defusing a volatile situation.