Do you know what is often the hardest part of getting organized? Getting started!
At first getting organized sounds like a great idea. You are inspired after seeing images of perfectly organized rooms in magazines and on TV. You look at new containers and storage products in the stores with anticipation. Then you look at your room that needs decluttering and a feeling of dread and exhaustion overtakes you before you even pick up the first object. You think, “There’s no way I could go through every single thing in this space! It would take forever!” Inertia sets in and you walk away from your cluttered room for the umpteenth time without taking a single step toward your organizing goal.
It doesn’t have to be that way. Oftentimes, we let our feelings at the START of our organizing project determine whether we will begin that project or not. These feelings are usually of dread. We completely ignore the feelings we will have at the END of our project, which are typically feelings of joy, pride, satisfaction and relief.
Here’s a secret: If you can simply put aside those feelings of dread at the beginning of your project and just start working on your room, those feelings will disappear within 10 minutes and motivation and momentum will start to kick in. I have seen it happen over and over with my organizing clients: People with cold feet just before we begin the organizing process will start to see that the project is much more manageable than they thought it would be after a few minutes. They always get into it, because they can now see there is most definitely a light at the end of the tunnel.
So my advice to you is to ignore that little voice in your head that tells you getting organized will take too long or be too hard. Recognize that those feelings of dread are not accurate when they try to predict what the project will truly be like. Just dig in and watch as your feelings of determination and excitement grow with every foot of floor space you clear.
You can do this! Don’t be fooled and tripped up by feelings that tell you you can’t.
Image courtesy of Perfecto Insecto at Flickr.
