How to Move Forward

You've had a big life change or you want to propel yourself forward; but how? The space around you significantly influences the person you are and the person you will become. So, if you want to move onward and upward, start by looking around you.

Start by going through your decor and decide what no longer reflects the person you want to be. Take it all down and gather it in a pile. Look around for pictures, knick-knacks, books, etc. You can keep everything you don't want to let go of, but you don't have to display it. As for the things you're willing to part with, donate them to a local Goodwill or Salvation Army. Get a box to put your sentimental items in, label it, and store it in a safe place.

Next you'll do this with your clothes, and any wearable items. As you go through your things, ask yourself, “if I walked into a store today, would I still buy this?” We all have things just because we've always had them but that doesn't serve us. Let the item go to a new home to find a new purpose. Keep in mind your goal and start to envision the person you want to be and what kind of wearable items reflect that.

Lastly, take stock of your furniture items. Is there anything you want to replace? Consider taking this time to rearrange your furniture for better flow of your new energy. You can visit Facebook marketplace and post items for sale and find some new pieces that embody the environment you're creating.

The last step requires your utmost focus and attention; you'll now begin to replace your items. As you do this, to slowly and carefully through your home and make a list of specific things you want. Before you go to any store, you must know what you're searching for to avoid coming home with random items that don't belong in your new space. An item must be truly special to be brought into your space. Try to hone in on colors, style, and overall appearance of your new items. Once you've taken time to consider these things you can start filling your space again! Enjoy!

Make Space Intentional

All your things are in the room you want them in but now where do they go? The best way to get organized and stay organized is to make your space intentional. Start to think about what you will be doing in the room you are in and how things need to function for your benefit. For example, if you are putting your home office together to suit your needs, make sure your furniture pieces can store everything you need. Before you start putting things in drawers think about what you interact with most frequently and store those items in the easiest to reach places. If you notice that you leave the same thing out on our desk, like a pen, get a fun pen holder or cup to put it in so you can keep it on your desk where you prefer.

If you notice an area is cluttered, consider removing all related items and getting a new shelf or furniture piece specifically for those items. For example, if the area around your printer is cluttered or you find your printer is buried, find a small two drawer shelf that is the right size to put your printer on top. You can designate the top drawer to loose papers you aren't ready to toss and the bottom drawer to the copy paper and ink. In doing this, you've made your printing process more simple and made the space for it intentional.

Let Go

The phrase “let go” strikes fear in the heart of many individuals but when reason and process is addressed, it becomes less scary, and eventually, very easy. Now that you have asked yourself who you want to be, the process of letting go is stitched in to the process of cultivating yourself to your ideal self.

Start wherever you want. Find something in your environment that reflects an old version of yourself, someone you don’t currently align with, something that does not hold a positive memory, and put it in a bag. Be active in your environment and actively choose the things you want to keep. We don’t need something passively hanging around for a random reason. We want things that we have chosen and said yes, I want this in my life. Many people have an article of clothing that they haven’t worn-it’s not ugly, it might fit if you put it on, but now you may look at it and realize you haven’t worn it because it doesn’t reflect you. It’s not who you are or who you want to be. Let it go.

As your bag of things from your environment begins to fill, look in it and reflect on any theme you see. What kind of person belongs with these items? Take the bag to a donation center. Come home, and notice is your closet brighter? darker? do you have space on a shelf or in a drawer? Take a moment to appreciate this. Appreciate the change or the space and then you may begin to consider what you would like in that space. Consider what you would like to display, what you would like to see regularly. If you found something that made you light up when you saw it, go back to it and set it on a shelf where you have space or hang it in the front of your closet. Display the things that most reflect who you are, who you are becoming, things that make you happy. Let the items you have chosen cheer you on. Letting go has gifted you this feeling and it is worth so much more than the items you were hanging on to.

Cultivate a Lifestyle

“Does my lifestyle reflect the person I want to be?” Is a question most people do not ask themselves. Most people don’t even ask themselves who they want to be. Living day to day without questioning whether we are aligned with our true selves can be a slippery slope; one day you wake up and realize you are massively unhappy. But this didn’t happen “one day”, this happened one day after another, small pieces at a time, over many years. If you take just one step in the wrong direction each day, at the end of the month you may not notice much, but after a few months or a year, you look around and notice you have walked yourself into a realm you didn’t necessarily ask to be in-it feels like you just fell in, over your head, and now you say “how did I get here?”

So, who do you want to be? Ask yourself what your ideal self looks like. What do you dress like? What do you do with your spare time? What do people say about you? Now, look around you. What in your environment does not reflect that ideal self? Look through your texts-are you engaging with people the way your ideal self would be? Look in the mirror and ask if you have presented yourself as your ideal self would be presented. Do this with every aspect of your life: friends, family, finances, hobbies, education, career, etc. This may be a lot to take in all at once but it doesn’t change all at once; it changes one step at a time, one day at a time. Take initiative on one thing today.

Once you start removing the things around you that don’t reflect the person that you want to be, you can start adding in the things that do reflect who you aspire to become. This will take many adjustments. You may initially envision yourself decked out in flowy Earth tones and becoming more calm and accepting, only to find that this is not your nature and when you wear Earth tones you don’t stand out enough. Simply readjust-finding yourself is a journey, allow yourself to see it through. You are worth discovering the treasure at the end. In a few months, stop and look around you-you’ve created your lifestyle.

Why Organize?

When most people hear about organizing, they aren’t quite sure what it is. It seems unfamiliar to invest extra time into the space around you when time is so limited as it is. Ask yourself: How much time do I spend looking for ___? How often do I get frustrated with clutter? Does my space reflect my interests/goals/values? Enter organizing-it looks different for everyone because everyone has different needs based on the questions above.

Organizing is simply intended to make your life more efficient so you can spend your time on the things that matter. Little frustrations add up throughout the day to cultivate your mood, your demeanor. To have something like counterspace influence the way you interact with the world around you is simply not acceptable. Oftentimes, we exist in our space and expect it only to shelter us leaving a missed opportunity to have our environment help shape our goals and strengthen our identity.

It may seem like a tall order but our brain picks up on cues from the things we frequently see. If you have a shirt that is tied to a bad memory and you see that shirt three times a day you are strengthening your bad memory. Make peace with the memory, honor the shirt for what it is and let it go; Let the memory go and allow yourself the space to move on. If you have a goal to do something social once per week, print a photo of yourself and friends or find a picture you like of people being social. Every time you see that picture in your living room, it will prompt you to seek out something social, text a friend, or make plans. Without you having to make a major change, you have just influenced your life trajectory by simply placing a photo out that reflects the person you want to become. You are in control of your life-it doesn’t have to just happen around you, dragging you in whatever direction it goes in. You can steer the direction of your life.