Farm boys love all seasons to the max. This one took spring as the most serious of the big four. It was planting time and how well you planted greatly affected the outcome of summer, fall, and winter. The machine spaced and laced the seeds precisely; calibrated for the best yield. I could never become objective enough hand planting to end up with a perfect harvest. Even after years of the same crowded yield I still planted things too close—even if had a four acre garden, those seeds looked so tiny, so lonesome, I would put them too close and always end up with clumps of carrots, bushes of beets, and masses instead of rows of radishes.

My error of overcrowding seed, unanticipation of growth was forgiven at seasons end—but not so with pine trees! When they were little, 3-4 footers, they looked perfect spaced 5 or 6 feet apart; now at 40 feet high they are a tangle of togetherness that ruins their intended beauty. I see them smothered as I get in and out of the car every morning and evening. I’m reminded of the necessity in all our relationships how we need be reminded that people grow. People need what appears to be too much room as infants. Even employees need space to put down roots. Growing up to be “crowded” later isn’t a good future.

When you do your planting of seeds or souls, don’t spoil either by too thick or too close, you’ll watch a wonderful lesson grow before your eyes.

Don’t save the best for later. Plant for maturity.

Read my book, Barnyard to Boardroom.

Contact us today to find out how Varsity can be the last contractor you’ll ever need.

Many of us have reached the point where things just aren’t as good as they used to be. No matter how well your life or mine is going right now, something is missing, something is not the same. This feeling is not limited to the rich or poor, sick or healthy, young or old or middle-aged. We all feel our ability to savor things slipping, sometimes slightly, often speedily. So we search the past, asking ourselves, what do the children have, that we once had, and now want back so badly?

Why do we all seem to be evolving into calloused beings who are “chloroform on the hoof? How do we move from the idealism, trust, joy, and energy of childhood to the almost fatalistic stage of just plain old existence?

Sure, both things and people get older, but living lays out an inventory that should feed and sustain us into a higher plane of living and excitement as we age, not make us into worn-out couch potatoes resting at home and riding the retirement bus for our last thirty years.

We all want to get the goosebumps back again! That’s the bottom line of what I keep hearing from everyone—family, friends, my thousands of employees, members of my audiences and my church, even the media personalities I meet. Welcome to my blog titled, “Got Goosebumps?”

I finally realized that real change has little to do with what we accumulate and accomplish, it’s almost wholly our habits, our behavior that gives the goosebumps. People, places, and products are only the tools. So if you are waiting for a mighty change in your life to occur, by moving, owning, divorcing, quitting, etc., you will be waiting a long time. About ninety percent of change is changing you, not “it.”

Read my book How to Write & Sell Your First Book.

Get a catalog of all my books and cleaning products.

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“You are entitled to a life of love, fulfillment, and accomplishment, but these rewards are almost impossible to obtain when you spend your life thrashing and wallowing in a muddle of housework. Time—the time to love, to be, to grow—is the most precious commodity on earth. No one’s time should be wasted cleaning needlessly or inefficiently.”

—From Is There Life After Housework?, 1981

Housework is, for a fact, never ending and little appreciated. There are no superwoman homemakers. Most women are barely managing, meeting daily crises and demands, just like you are, wondering too what’s wrong with them. It’s amazing that no real training is provided for the most complicated, life-affecting job on earth: homemaking.

The first principle of effective housework is not to have to do it! Being able to do it well is great, but it’s greater not to have to do it at all. Your real goal is to eliminate all of it you can.

“It’s disgusting! He makes me want to clean!”

—An Illinois homemaker wrote after hearing Don Aslett, America’s #1 Cleaning Expert and author of  Is There Life After Housework?

For your copy of Is there Life After Housework?, by Don Aslett go to www.aslett.com

To prevent housework read No Time To Clean www.aslett.com

Man alive, I hate that word blog. It sounds like blob and why would I put time and effort into a blob. Gadfreys. I read a few blogs on the web and thought, “Why would I want to look at that lady’s meatloaf? Or read about her kid’s braces or any of the other minutiae that make up our lives? I’m not interested in that!”

I guess the miracle of the internet blogs is that you CAN find something you ARE interested in and read what someone else is doing about it. And of all the people out there, I certainly know what it feels like to put pen to paper and write about “what you know.” I’ve written 40 books that have sold more than 3 million copies worldwide.

Let me share with you the most important advice I ever received about books. It was from Carol Cartaino, then the editor-in-chief of Writer’s Digest Books, the company who does more books on writing than anyone. Carol, in my opinion, is one of the best in the business and this bit of advice shows it.

“Don, notice that when people have a conversation, they learn from about the age of four on up that if they don’t let others in on the conversation, let them have their say, they will lose interest in the conversation (and you, too).

Surely we all like to tell our story, our experiences, our opinions. ‘Ours’ is our favorite subject. This is only human. But if the other guy can’t get some of his own experiences, opinion, and stories into the exchange, he’ll lose interest. We all learn this in life (or should have), and practice it for a successful interaction with friends and associates.

But deep in our heart still lurks that desire to tell and show our own stuff—we are all this way, even though we may be disciplined on the surface to control ourselves and share the stage. Many people, when they go to write their book, think ‘Aha, now at last it’s all me!’ And yes, you can write your story, your experience, your opinions and lay all this on those readers out there. But writing for someone is not all that different from talking to them. If there is nothing in it for the reader, if he cannot take part in what you write, as he does in conversation, he will withdraw and lay down the book. You have to write like you converse and let the reader have his turn. Don’t just tell him, include him.”

—Excerpt How to Write & Sell Your First Book.

From that: I WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! Please send me your comments.

Maybe I really want to be Andy Rooney from 60 minutes who complains about his pet peeves and makes people laugh and reaches millions. But since I’m not Andy Rooney, I’ll just be me here sharing what’s on my mind with you. It’s bound to be opinionated (I’ve even been called OVER opinionated, though I don’t see how that’s possible).

I hope you enjoy it and join me often. WELCOME!

Good cleaning,

Don Aslett