Begin With the End in Mind
Beginning with the end in mind is key to really accomplishing tasks. Getting things done is not just dependent on a particular planner or method of keeping track of goals and items on a list. However, it is dependent on knowing where you eventually want to end up.
Right now, I’m visualizing a clean office where my kids (and I) will have less to throw away when and if a major change should occur. (And we all know change does strike, sometimes unexpectedly!) While cleaning, I found an old cassette tape eraser in the back of a shelf that I used to use constantly! (Yes, I’m that old!) I realized at that point it had been far too many years since I had tackled really cleaning my office thoroughly.
Visualizing Change
My office currently doesn't look any cleaner by any stretch of the imagination. But I’m working on it. By visualizing my clean an organized office, it is helping me stay on task to go through small areas--even those not initially seen. I know that by cleaning out shelves inside closets will clear up space to organize the cluttered surface areas. I'm feeling better about it already!
The creative process, or at least my creative process, brings a flurry of papers, notes and thoughts. Those notes and thoughts end up in small stacks and may look like clutter to another person. But in my eyes, they are valuable tidbits and morsels that will be used at a future date. They eventually get organized and filed, either in a digital file or physical file. However, when life’s demands require leaving some of those stacks alone for awhile, my minature bites of genius (clutter) tends to accumulate!
Stuff vs. Junk
We just finished emptying out my mother-in-law’s home filled with memories and a volume of stuff. I stay stuff kindly, because at the end of cleaning, Got Junk filled two very large dumpsters in addition to the six smaller dumpsters we had already filled. Stuff fills up our life. In fact, I’m now going to call it junk.
Junk fills up our life with the unnecessary. Time-wasters, cassette tape erasers taking up valuable space, toxic relationships, the list is endless. When you focus on beginning with the end in mind, the junk can get in the way and hinder you at most every turn. It’s worth taking the time to visualize and define what you want your space and life to look like.
I’m positive our kids will laugh when they find what I maintained and stored for many years, petrified with non-use. Will they find, as we found, a stack of empty crossword puzzles torn out of newspapers to spark a mind withering from Dementia, previously tested at genius level? (for my father-in-law who used to read a huge stack of industry magazines weekly)
What about the bottles of wine never enjoyed, the book never written, the song never composed? Certain items will bring comfort and joy, but others should be purged to make room for the fresh and new in order to accomplish what you define as your purpose and mission.
Personal Message
I’m speaking to myself here. This is not an easy task. I just put a date on the Hero Mountain Weekend coming up for Women at Halftime. There is some junk I need to clear out of my schedule to really accomplish my end goal to help other women create momentum during that weekend. One of those goals is to finish the book that will accompany the weekend!
In the same way, if you look around and take an honest look at your life, your office may not have clutter or little stacks of paper like mine does. But your mind may be cluttered with the unnecessary and your relationships may contain those who are hindering you from moving forward. Take the time to define where you are going and start taking those little steps to get there. I’m rooting for you!
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