Lose Weight... De-Clutter

Lose Weight... De-Clutter

BY STEVE GAMLIN

No, this message is NOT designed to lecture you about going to the gym, to stop enjoying between-snack snacks (yes, I know what I did there) or cast guilt upon you for counting that conjoined triple-slice of bacon as one...my question about bloated weight has more to do with your office.

How much dead weight has YOUR OFFICE been dragging along over the years?

And how much of that weight is going to help you celebrate the new year?

Seriously, I found old notebooks 'full of ideas' in my recording studio office this week from meetings and conferences I attended in 2008.

Know what that means?

In a couple more years, those useless reams of paper will be taunting me as teenagers...which will cause me even MORE pain!

Yesterday, as I was waiting for a new video to finish rendering, I decided I’d had enough…and transformed myself into a human bulldozer, clearing TWO levels of the bookshelf on the wall behind my desk.
 

As good as my intentions were at the time I began gathering those now-dusty relics, I finally realized the odds of me actually using them was somewhere in the range of me being bitten by a shark, while a coconut falls on my head, as I ride a unicycle through a minefield. 

In translation: odds not very likely. 

My businesses are in a different place now...and I am a different person.

I have engaged what needed to be engaged, and the rest needs to go.

Part of me felt guilty, though, as echoes of "Dang, I paid a lot of money for that" rang in my head.

Have I invested in things I never used?

Of course.

Have you?

Probably.

Does that mean we have to be slaves to these piles the rest of our lives, allowing storm clouds of guilt to keep us from ever eradicating these fossils from our existence?

Having seen many episodes of the TV show "Hoarders", I do realize that many of these people do have deep-seated mental and psychological issues which cause their "can't let go of anything" behavior.

What's MY excuse?

Laziness, I guess.

The downside, though, hits me every time I try to rearrange my recording studio for a video shoot, radio show, webinar or live broadcast...and there is crap in my way.

So, right there…these piles are holding up progress and robbing me of some creative fire.

Finally realizing that so much of it is not serving me, this week I made the decision to bulldoze some of these piles into oblivion.

And it felt great.

To help understand the source of my good feelings, I reached out to my dear friend Lesley ‘Jazz’ Barnette of JazzPersonalManagement.com. Jazz has been a great resource for me over the years.

Here’s how she explained the impact and effects of dragging around too much clutter, as well as the benefits of purging and organizing. By the way, these tips apply to home as well as work…and probably even your car (mine is typically a mess).

When we have too much clutter, it actually drains our energy. You’ll find that once you start to dig through the piles, boxes, and bags, you’ll very quickly start to feel better.  Why? Because, metaphorically speaking, you have shifted the energy. When you shift some energy, you actually feel ‘lighter’, which gives you momentum to continue the process.

It’s not easy deciding what to do with all of your stuff. Here’s a simple strategy that may help. With every item you pick up, ask yourself these two questions: 

 (1) Do I love this? and... 

(2) Do I need this?

If this answer is “no” to both questions, give yourself permission to let it go. As I like to say, “Give it a new life elsewhere”. If there is still life left to it, give it away, as there is sure to be someone who will love and use the item. You’ll find that, although it’s not easy to start this process, it actually gets easier as you go along, and you will make decisions more and more quickly and with confidence.

Okay, so you’ve successfully let go of lots of stuff and are now enjoying a more clutter-free space. How do you keep it that way? You can give yourself a few ground rules to follow: 

1. For every new item you bring home, one item has to leave.
2. If you do bring home something new, find an appropriate place to display it, use it, or store it.
3. When you have started a new project and have papers relating to it, create a file folder for it and store it in a logical place.

Since engaging this mindset, and taking these actions, I have gathered enough paper to cause the recycling truck to tip over when it tries to lift my bin.

I have quite a stack of books to donate to those who might wish to engage the positive messages they contain.

I've got more 'breathing room' in my office and recording studio, knowing that I have dropped the poundage of all these things which I been dragging behind me year after year.

Look, it’s not always easy to shed weight. 

It takes work and dedication…and more work.

One great side-benefit: as my office has lost weight, my mind has as well.

By vacating shelf-space, my creative juices have begun flowing more, as if my brain has gone from a slow trudge to a jog (remember to stretch first, people).

Does YOUR WORK SPACE need to lose weight before the end of the year?

How can YOU make your office space leaner and meaner, ready to blast your way into the new year?

Go ahead, start plowing through the cobwebbed corners of your work space.

Celebrate that lost weight!

You might just find a happier, healthier, more energized pile of possibility in the space left behind.

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