Having recreated a new inspiring vision for my life
along with a picture of the situation as it is now,
what I noticed, with some assistance from members
of my family, is the amount of stuff that surrounds
me both literally and metaphorically, and stops me
being clear about what next steps to take.
First of all, there is the physical stuff, the things that
I haven’t been able to get rid of because they
“may
come in handy one day”. Let me give you an
example
of one or two. There are the skis, boots and poles in
my mother’s attic that might be useful if I decide to
get into skiing again. The frightening aspect is that
these were last used when I lived in Canada.
Doesn’t sound too bad until you realise that I moved
back to the UK in 1986!
Exactly the same thing applies to my ice skates that
inhabit the cupboard in the spare room of my own
house.
The whole principal behind keeping all these things
(of which I have only scratched the surface) stems
from a scarcity mentality that I have to own up to.
What I mean by this is the philosophy that all
resources are scarce and need to be hoarded
because if you ever need them, then you will never
find anything else that is suitable.
Abundance mentality or philosophy is the opposite of
this and assumes that if you really need something
then you will be able to find what you need when
you need it. This is not the same as being wasteful
of resources. It simply removes the need to hang on
to stuff “just in case”.
Anyway, the likelihood that I will ever actually use
either my skates or skis again is almost nil. For a
start, technology has moved on and they are
probably completely inappropriate for today.
The same “maybe it will come in handy one day”
philosophy also applies to email messages, old
course notes, articles and books.
To identify something that could potentially be
clutter, the first thing you need to ask yourself is:
“When exactly did this item / email / document /
thought last serve me?”
“When can I absolutely, categorically guarantee
that I will use it again?”
One useful qualifier for the latter question is to
consider whether this item occurs in, or contributes
to, your vision or goal.
What about the thoughts or ideas that clutter your
head and don’t support your vision, but you can’t get
rid of because they seem true? Thoughts or limiting
beliefs such as “I’m hopeless at ..."? The
process I find most helpful here is to evaluate
whether the belief is completely true, false
or you just don’t know.
When I say true here, I mean can you prove this to
be the case without a doubt? For example, if
you say you are useless at time management and
you can think of any time that you have
managed your time effectively, then the statement is
not categorically true. What happened in the
instance when you did manage your time effectively?
How can you build on that experience?
False applies to the stuff that deep down inside you
know is rubbish, like "nobody likes me".
Anything else is a don't know. The question is does it
serve your vision? If it doesn't then consider it
clutter.
Now that you have sorted out what will help you
achieve your vision it’s time to be brutal and get rid
of the clutter that is blocking you from getting there.
Let me know how you get on and we’ll compare
notes.
.
