Written by Ilene
Close your eyes. Imagine you are standing in the middle of your closet with shelves that are overflowing. Clothes are piled up high – some you love and wear all the time, others that really aren’t your faves anymore, and still more that you forgot were even in your closet.
Now as you are standing there, an earthquake hits, you fall to the ground and the clothes tumble out of shelves and pile up on top of you. As you dig yourself out of the pile of good, bad and ugly, you are surrounded by beautiful empty shelves.
At this precise moment you realize, there is no way all this crap is going to clutter those shelves again. You decide to “Marie Kondo” the closet and only put the items that spark joy back onto the shelves. The closet overhaul was magical. You are now able to breathe easy as you look around, not only can you see everything…but everything belongs and has a place. It is a closet that blankets you with happiness.
Now let’s take that same image and replace the clothes with things in your life. Work projects, people, commitments, responsibilities…all things that fill your days and moments, just as the clothes filled your closet. As the earth rattles, you drop to the ground and are buried by the heaviness of all that has fallen on top of you.
In this moment, you have the option to stand up, shake yourself off and shove everything back into the busting-at-the-seams space OR you can stand up, shake yourself off and say enough.
Enough to random stuff in your life that overshadows what feels important and meaningful. Enough to going through the motions, checking the boxes throughout the day and reaching nighttime utterly exhausted. Enough to saying yes out of obligation when your heart and soul is saying no.
If all those things came tumbling to the ground and you have an opportunity to only keep those that bring joy, what would stay and what would go?
If you are ready to live with greater intention and more zest, it might be time to “Marie Kondo” the heck out of your life. Of course we can’t eliminate all things that don’t bring joy. Taxes, paying bills, going to the dentist… yep, these things need to stay. BUT I’m guessing they don’t take up the majority of real estate in your mind or imaginary closet.
Chances are, there are some items big and small that can be donated (or shall we say delegated) to someone else or perhaps it’s trash that no one needs and it’s time to be disposed of.
When you have that aha moment that you don’t have to do everything and there might be a more enjoyable path, it can be immensely freeing. I call it living with meaning and intention.
While walking with a client the other day (I love walking because it allows fresh unharnessed thinking to flow), we had an opportunity to explore this idea. She came to me with the hopes of simplifying her life, bumping up her social life, and investing more time in her business. After getting divorced and launching her children, she is ready to turn the spotlight on herself and her desires. Plain and simple, she wants to invest in herself.
After taking a strengths assessment, discussing her values and getting clearer on what she wants her life to look and feel like, we were ready to roll up our sleeves for the closet refresh. We started by taking inventory of her life – pulling everything off the shelves and dumping it on the floor.
Once all the clutter was out in the open, she was able to see more clearly what needed to go and what she wanted to keep.
The result? Extraordinary clarity around the desire to invest in mentoring and imparting knowledge to her rising employees – the future of her company.
She also realized the commitments that caused stress and took her steps away from her own business. After deciding she needed to let go of a responsibility serving another organization, she had a transparent and direct conversation around the need to end the working relationship. When I asked how she felt after that tough discussion, she replied “Well, I walked out my front door and said hello to my neighbor. She asked me why I had such a twinkle in my eye.”
If you are ready to live with a twinkle in your eye (or make the twinkle shine brighter), it might be time to clean out your closets and your life!
While it may seem daunting at first, a life with greater meaning and intention may be closer than you think. Check out the 5 steps below to begin clearing out the clutter and making room for more joy.
- Take the VIA assessment to make sure you know, and are leveraging, your strengths
- Identify 2 core values on this list from Brené Brown that you want to guide your life
- Write down all the clutter that you have swirling around your brain – the things you “have” to do, commitments, responsibilities, your to-do list, activities you absolutely love
- Reflect on your top 5 VIA results and your 2 core values – what is one thing you can say goodbye to that does not align with these and/or no longer brings joy (or perhaps never did)?
- Again, consider your VIA and values – what is one thing that you want to amplify – something that makes you smile just thinking about it? It’s time to invest your energy here and watch it grow.
Congratulations. After completing steps 1-5, you are one step closer to living a life aligned with who you want to be. Warning: Be prepared for people to stop you to ask what’s behind your twinkle!
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For a wonderful (and inspiring) read on how work and purpose changes throughout our lifetime, I highly recommend From Strength to Strength by Arthur Brooks
If you are not familiar with Marie Kondo, you can find her best-selling book about organizing the home here “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing”
Written by Ilene
