Declutter Your Space = Declutter Your Mind

Decluttering all of the areas of your life seems to be what all the talk is about these days.  People are writing entire books on the subject!  For good reason, too.  As time in our society marches forward and we become more and more self-aware, we are learning that unlike generations past, more is not always better.  Sometimes "more" is heavy.  Or crowded.  Or stifling.  Or just plain ugly.

There is definitely something to be said for lightening our load - in all of the areas of our lives.  When we declutter our lives, we are actually creating space so that what we truly love and desire can come into our worlds.  When we live in a cluttered mess, we close ourselves in.  We build barriers by allowing "things" to be in our way and slow us down.

Just think about how easy it would be to get ready for work, or any event if your closet was cleaned out and organized!  Just think about how easy it would be to find your freshest food if your refrigerator was cleaned out.  And how easy would it be to sit and pay your bills if your desk and miscellaneous papers were organized!?

Each area of your life that you can declutter and get organized will provide a small piece of freedom in your life.  As you gain control over more and more areas, your freedom, space and clarity will become bigger and bigger.

If your life and your mind are so cluttered and over crowded with all of the miscellaneous messiness that has evolved in response to your daily living, you won't have the freedom and clarity of thought to design, build and create your life into the artful masterpiece that you deserve it to become.  Once you've begun to work on this, you'll find that you will breathe easier and feel physically lighter on a daily basis.  Are you ready to feel that way?

Here are some areas of your life that I recommend decluttering:  Closet, kitchen pantry, kitchen junk drawer, your cosmetics, your shoes, your jewelry box, the drawer beside your bed, your book shelves, the trunk of your car, your desk, your music collection, all of the tables in your house!

Please don't allow yourself to become overwhelmed.  As you tackle each area, do everything you can do to make it an enjoyable experience.  Choose one area at a time - maybe one area each weekend! Play music!  Take breaks!  Dance!  Sing!  And above all CELEBRATE as you progress!  I'll be writing more on this subject, but in the meantime, Target, The Container Store, and your local Dollar Store are great resources for containers to hold some of your clutter.  You'll find some great ideas on Pinterest as well!

As you go through each area, ask yourself if each item brings you happiness and joy.  If the answer is no, it must go!  Of course, donate anything that you no longer need, but is still of value.  Remember:  One woman's old poodle skirt is another woman's TUTU!

I wish you freedom, clarity of thought, and lightness as you clean up your life and your surroundings!  Leave me a comment letting me know what you plan to tackle first!!

Love,
Donna

For more information on designing your life, please visit...
www.brilliancefactor.com  where you'll find more resources including how to work with MOI!

Day 2. Donna's disorganized life

....In my last post, I said I would share with you what my life looked like before I decided that I'd had enough of the disorganization.  I was self-employed, which I am no longer.  Sidenote:  I REALLY miss working for myself.  It's not for everyone.  It's 24/7.  Well at least it was for me.  When - not if - WHEN I am able to become self-employed again, I know I will be so much more successful than I was last time.  Why?  The Big "O"!!!  Organization.

I needed to be organized, but I didn't know it yet.  I was just scrambling through each day, trying to stay in touch with my existing clients, manage my product, find new clients, manage my household, get my dog to the million Vet appointments she seemed to need, work out, maintain my nails, keep the fridge stocked with Champagne - thank you Cara Alwill-Leyba for showing me that Champagne is a big priority in my life!  ...keep food in the house, cook meals to keep my husband from starving, pick up the dry cleaning, vacuum up the dog hair...  AAAAAAaaaaaahhhhhh!!!

You got it.  I was all over the place!  And this went on for AGES!!!  I remember back then that there were days when I would go non-stop, 100 miles per hour, grab a burger at a drive-thru, go home, clean the house, make dinner, lay in bed and not remember a thing that I did.  I would actually lay there trying to remember what I'd accomplished on a given day and feel really badly when I realized that while I was moving as fast as I could, I accomplished absolutely nothing.  I'd look at my to do list and see that I didn't cross off a single thing.  This happened to me over and over.  I was busy being busy.  Sound familiar?

At one point, I was laying in bed thinking about my day, for the 10th or so day in a row and realized that I hadn't even looked at my list for days and days.  I had run errands, some for me, mostly for other people, and didn't do one single thing that would push me towards success in my business.  And worse than that, I didn't even feel good about what I had done and the tasks I had completed.  No sense of accomplishment whatsoever!

That was the night I cried.  I was physically and mentally exhausted and I had nothing to show for it. Now, believe me, I'm not the type to feel sorry for myself, and that's not where I'm going with this.  I was PISSED.   So pissed that all I could do was cry.  Really??  Exhaustion with NOTHING TO SHOW FOR IT???  I'm sorry, but that does not work for me.  

I needed to get a grip.  If I'm going to work my ass off, at least I want to be happy doing it, and see some results from it.  Exhaustion is just not enough for me.  So how did I handle this, you ask?  I had a four day weekend-long pity party for myself.  I earned it.  I cried, prayed, listened to gentle music, listened to Ozzy Osbourne.  Even my pity party was all over the place, but I felt good about this weekend.

For the first time in ages, I felt like I was attempting to take control of my life, my attitude, my tasks and obligations.  There was a light that started shining on me (not really, but I felt like there should be).  I felt GOOD.  I felt like I had taken a minute to get in control.  During the last few hours of my weekend-long pity party I started organizing my brain a little.  Then I started writing some things down.

And I realized there was something absolutely HUGE that I needed to do, and I had to do it RIGHT AWAY.....

The First Brilliant Day

Let's talk about being organized.  Wait, don't leave!  I'm not talking about organizing your sock drawer.  Nor am I talking about cleaning under your kitchen sink.

I'm talking about freeing up disc space in that beautiful mind of yours!  I'm talking about eliminating some of the brain clutter we all have by writing a few things down, which in turn will enable you to focus on what you really want to do.  Whether it's focusing on your children, your husband, your job or even a good book!  Have you ever started watching a movie and ½ hour into it you have no idea what is going on?  I get it.  I have felt that way too!  That beautiful brain disc space is FULL!

Sometimes we keep so many things juggling in our minds that we can't think clearly at all! 

Someone we all know once said, "Don't waste time trying to remember anything you can write down and look up later." That was Albert Einstein.  Pretty smart for a guy, right?

He also said, "You will eliminate 50% of your daily stress by creating a list of what you need to do the night before."  That works for me, how about you?  50% of my stress gone?  Sign me up!

Wouldn't it be nice to know that your mind is free to really enjoy that glass of champagne because everything you need to do is resting in its place and waiting quietly for you when you're ready for it?  Finally nothing nagging at you!  No scary feeling that you might be forgetting something.  How freeing would that be???

Wouldn't learning to compartmentalize your tasks, plans, and your feelings be a wonderful skill for you to master?  How free would you feel if you didn't have to keep juggling all of those balls up in the air any longer?  You will be in a place where you can decide what you're going to focus on, when you are ready to focus on it.  You will have the energy to deal with it, or him, or her, or them.   It makes me excited just to think about letting go of certain things.  Are you getting a little excited yet?

Now I don't mean at all, that your problems, concerns or priorities are going away.  Actually, quite the opposite.  I'm talking about putting you into a place where you are completely powerful and capable of handling all of the tasks, drama, jobs, and responsibilities, that come into your life.  Handling each one of them confidently, smoothly, happily and productively.  With a clear and focused mindset.  And not only that!  Because you will get to this place of empowerment where your "must-dos" are concerned, you will be able to manage your personal "want-to-dos" far more beautifully.  

You'll be able to plan your down time, schedule time for your interests, family, your hobbies, all of it.  Where is the joy in scheduling the fun things?  Well let me tell you, when you are freed up to truly focus on your leisure time, you will relax more, laugh more, love more and make better decisions and better memories.  You won't have your work life or obligation life weighing you down.  It will all be so well managed that you will feel like a new person with all of the worlds' troubles finally OFF your shoulders.  

Does this sound like something you could benefit from?  Let me tell you this:  I KNOW you will benefit from this.  So will the people around you.  

Let me tell you how.  I'll start by telling you where I was with my disorganized life.....