(This post-it note is part of a series on how to lead a simple life even more simply –  with pictures for those easily distracted by words.)

Today, I will burn the midnight oil.

Ever have a BIG IDEA get really, really excited — and then go to bed?

It’s not even 8 and you’re pulling the sheets over your head.

What is that?  I’ll tell you:

FEAR.

(Or bad luck, depending on if you’re a narcoleptic.)

The issue is never that we don’t have good ideas but what we do with them.   We have moleskin’s, journals, voice recorders,  google docs — everything to capture the idea but then, suddenly, we freeze.

It feels bigger than us.

So what do we do?  We go to the kitchen and grab Oreos, or flip on the tube, phone a friend, or do something really banal like suddenly decide to clean the dishwasher.  Inside.

Next time you get an idea, grab a pen and let it flow: onto a napkin, table cloth, grocery store receipt, toilet paper wherever you may be.  (Good ideas love showers.)  Then picture yourself doing it.  Feel the aliveness.  Revel in its scope and sheer magnitude.

Yes, you really are that BIG.

Now: ACT.   Stay up late.  Cancel dinner reservations (unless it’s a first date; that’s just mean and bad karma.)  Call out sick if you must.

You need to let it out.  We need you to let it out.

Sleeping in gets a bad rap but going to bed early is easily just as big a sin.

Think about that the next time you’re lying in bed awake and you can’t fall asleep.  

…

And now the winners of the Little Debbie Cupcakes contest!   They are: Cheryl F at The Lucky Ladybug Giveaways, D of For A Different Kind of Girl, and John Simons.  Congrats!  Each of you will receive a Little Debbie Cupcake Party Pack.  Party!

What was the magical number?  95.  And since no one guessed correctly, I went with the always fun random number generator.

So what happened to all 95 of the cupcakes?  Well, we gave them away to the Pasadena Homeless shelter on Xmas Day.  They were very, very HAPPY.  But come to think of it, we didn’t bring milk!  All that chocolaty goodness and no milk!

Anyway, I’m headed upstairs for some Rocky Road ice cream. 

HAPPY 2010!