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Living
Boldly® e-Zine Archives
Time to
Spring Clean Your Entire Life!
March 10,
2003
Here in New Jersey where I live, we've had an unusually
LONG, cold and snowy winter. In fact, I don't think I've seen the lawns
completely snow-free since early December! But the temperatures are slowly
rising, the snow is melting, and I know SPRING is on it's way at last! And that
means it's time to SPRING CLEAN your LIFE!
Spring is a time of new
beginnings and fresh starts. It's a time of life renewing itself, of
creativity, of light. But you can't experience that sense of renewal if YOUR
life is still being clogged up by all the old garbage you've been putting up
with for so long!
Starting today, make a commitment to completely
clean out whatever is dragging you down. Whether it's the extra 15 (or 25, 50,
100 or more) pounds you've been lugging around for months or years; whether
it's the cluttered, messy home, car or office you've been tolerating; whether
it's the job you hate; whether it's the poor financial habits that have led you
into debt; or whether it's your inability to set boundaries with people who are
draining you - now is the time to take charge and make plans to get rid of
anything and everything that is dragging you down!
Part of truly
Living Boldly is being willing to tell ourselves the complete truth about what
is really standing in the way of having the kind of lives we want and deserve.
So the first step to Spring Cleaning your Life is to get HONEST, get REAL, and
get a pad and pencil so you can start listing everything that is draining your
energy. Spend at least 20 minutes with no distractions and think about every
nook and cranny of your life, then list the things that have been bugging you,
draining you, aggravating you, or things you've been saying you "should" do
forever - but you haven't done them and they are weighing on your conscience.
Is the car overdue for a tune-up? When was the last time you visited
the dentist or eye doctor or had a mammogram or had your prostate checked out?
Are there piles of papers cluttering your work space? Are you rushing to or
late for every appointment starting with the moment you get up in the morning?
Have you been ignoring certain friends or family members and you really feel
like you need to do a better job of staying in touch? Is there a coworker,
friend, or neighbor who constantly takes advantage of your better nature,
dumping their problems or responsibilities on you? When was the last time you
balanced your checkbook or reviewed your credit report to check your credit?
Once you've got your list of Energy Drainers, now you can look at
them and decide what you need to do to eliminate them. Start with the ones that
you can take care of the quickest with the least amount of effort - you'll have
a sense of real accomplishment when you can check off those small,
easily-handled items right off the bat, AND you automatically will start
freeing up energy that you can use to tackle the bigger items.
For
some items on your list, they may seem too big or overwhelming at first - so
look at how you can break them down into manageable pieces. For instance, I
have a client who has a spare room filled with unpacked boxes from when she
moved in to her home last year, and she has been putting off unpacking them
because it felt like too big a job. After a little coaching, she decided she
could commit to just unpacking one box a week, which allowed her to at least
get started on the project and make progress in smaller increments. Now, it
feels less overwhelming to her and she can now FIND the time to do the
unpacking!
Sometimes, the thought of just STARTING something new
feels overwhelming to us. By starting small and taking care of the things that
are draining you in manageable increments, you can break through one of the
biggest barriers to success: procrastination!
As you work through your
list of Energy Drainers, take time to notice how much BETTER you feel about
yourself and your life. Notice that you are feeling less tired, less stressed,
less guilty. Observe that the tension in your body is lessening. People are
usually amazed at how much more FREE they feel when they clear out the clutter
in their lives in all areas - and how much better they feel physically,
mentally and spiritually as a result. THAT's the big payoff for doing all of
this - you'll have more to give to yourself, and to the important people and
projects in your life!
Happy Spring Cleaning!
Another great
way to break down a big project so it feels easier to manage, is to give
yourself permission to spend SMALL increments of time on something, rather than
feeling you have to commit 3 or 4 hours at a stretch. When we have a project
where we know we need to block out time, it can be all too easy to use the
excuse of "I don't have that much time!" as a means of avoiding taking action.
But - if you say to yourself: "I will just give myself permission to spend
20-30 minutes a day on this" until it's done, this way you WILL find yourself
making progress. And chances are, you may even find that once you've gotten
STARTED, you will keep on working longer and accomplishing more!
Buddy up with a close friend, make up your individual Energy Drainer lists, and
then see which items on the list you can help each other eliminate. Maybe you
are lousy at cleaning your bathroom but your friend doesn't mind doing that
kind of cleaning; and maybe your friend hates organizing her papers and files
but you excel at it. Trade off favors to tackle some of the jobs on your lists
- and you'll have more fun in the process because you're doing it with a
buddy!
If you've got some jobs on your list that just aren't getting
done, considering hiring someone to do it so you can get it over with. Hire a
college kid to paint your living room or to be your part-time office assistant;
get the teenager next door to rake up the post-winter debris in your yard; have
your dry cleaning delivered to your door (many dry cleaners now offer this
service); get a plumber in to fix that annoying drippy faucet.
For permission to reprint this article, please contact me.
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