It's Time to De-Clutter!!

Hello! I hope you all are doing well. I am FINALLY done with finals and have made it home for the holiday break (one of the FEW benefits of still being a student). So I have determined that I most definitely need to catch up on the blog after a significant time away.

 

I have been reading this book title, “Becoming the Woman God Wants Me to Be” by Donna Partow. It’s a 90-day process that takes you through Proverbs 31 and extracts important principles to living a Godly life. Even though it seems to be geared more toward women with husbands and children, I have found some principles that I can apply to my daily life… such as this morning. Today’s lesson was about de-cluttering your house, which I totally recommend doing. However, I felt it more applied to me emotionally.

 

She gave 3 reasons why we need to de-clutter physically: (1) Clutter wastes time- you have to spend time looking for what you really want but if you have de-cluttered, you can just go right to the necessary item; (2) Clutter wastes money- you’ll go buy a replacement simply because you misplaced the last thing; and (3) Clutter is dangerous- you can trip on all the piles of stuff lying around.

 

Yep, she was right… clutter wastes time. Have you ever had a real problem, and you went to your friends, your mom, your dad, your brother, your sister, your mentor, your advisor… everybody for advice? And then it got to the point that you couldn’t actually hear the voice that matters most… your inner voice? That’s certainly happened to me. That’s why I need to de-clutter. So that I can hear that still, small voice inside that tells me what my next move should be, who is right for me and wrong for me. Now I’m not saying that people aren’t in your life to encourage you or to advise you. But there comes a time when you let too many voices drown out your own. And then you waste time trying to wade through all the advice when the answer was within you all along.

 

Clutter wastes money… Donna says, “If something you need is lost in a mess, you are likely to go the store and purchase a replacement… that gets rather costly!” Wow, how true is that! I am so quick to throw people and situations away sometimes. Sometimes it’s been for good reason, other times it’s been because I had messed things up so badly that I didn’t even feel like trying to rectify it, so I just gave up and went toward something new. The only thing is that I didn’t solve the old issues and they keep resurfacing in the new thing. For example, I worked this job (I won’t tell you what it was); but at the time, I had many, many things on my plate. I couldn’t fulfill the obligations of that job. So instead of tackling my real issue- poor time management, I just quit. I later found a new job, but the same issues popped up- poor time management. I’m working on it now though. But you can’t go through life hopping from one situation to the next simply because it’s messy and a replacement seems like a better solution. Find that situation and pull it out of the mess it’s in. Once you fix that problem, you are free to move on. But don’t move on until you do.

 

Clutter is surely dangerous. You can trip on all the piles of stuff lying around. Man, oh, man. Case in point for me was when I nearly lost a significant relationship for holding on to remnants of my past. I kept pictures around, hidden in places- for what? And when I was called out on it, I was embarrassed. It was time for me to de-clutter… and I did.  There is no sense in holding on to dead things, situations, or people- all those things can easily trip you up. If they are truly dead, let them go. I am reminded of the song, “Bag Lady” by Erykah Badu. Don’t drag emotional bags around with you. No one wants to deal with those bags and you don’t want to trip over them yourself! As Erykah said, “Let it go, let it go, let it go, let it go!”

 

The New Year is coming very, very soon (scary, isn’t it?). I encourage you to try to de-clutter emotionally before going into 2009. We all know the 80/20 Rule… but Donna talks about another version. Focus on the 20 percent of things that will yield the 80 percent return. Don’t waste your time on the remaining 80 percent that will only give you 20 percent return. For instance, make a list of 10 things you love to do. If you focus on doing 2 of those things well, you’ll be 80 percent satisfied. This is opposed to half-doing all 10 things and only getting 20 percent satisfaction because you feel guilty for your half-hearted job. This rule can be applied across nearly every aspect of your life: family, relationships, friendships, your spiritual life, your career. You can de-clutter by finding out what will yield you the most return and get rid of the rest.

 

As I sit today, I’ve made my de-clutter list. I’m going through my phone… yep, he’s wasting my time… he’s deleted. I’m going through my insecurities. That’s tripping me up… it’s gotta go. I’m thinking of my deficiencies, making a point to fix them, and then letting them go. In my head, I’m thinking of situations over which I had no control, but are still weighing me down. Yep, it’s cost me too much time and energy to focus on it, so I’m letting it go. I don’t know about you, but it is my aim not to bring any more clutter into 2009. I’m not trying to waste any more of my time or my money… and I’m tired of trippin’ over silly stuff! As I’ve decided, 2008 was great, but 2009 is gonna be simply divine!