We spend decades being organised: managing our households, families, and lives. Starting in our twenties, we have acquired : property, people, experiences, marriage, children and other relationships.
We reach an age when we step back and think about where we are, and where we want to be. There are so many competing realities: kids growing up and moving out, parents aging and possibly moving in, changes in jobs, retiring, downsizing.
We should remember the advice of John Keating (Robin Williams) in Dead Poets Society and seize the moment. Free ourselves from the clutter we have accumulated, or we may get stuck in the mire.
How can we go about doing this?
- Acknowledge that change is happening.
- Think about how you would like to manage the change so that you can define how things will be in the future.
- Identify the clutter in your life. Clutter is anything that is obsolete, drains your energy or that you feel is time-consuming.
•Objects: It could be paperwork in boxes that you haven’t opened for years, jewelry you no longer wear, the old business cards on your desk, or the stacks of magazines and books that you will never look at again.
•Obligations: Obsolete roles and responsibilities like boards, committees and clubs. Shedding these can be hard because they involve other people.
•Habits: If you are a perfectionist, a procrastinator or a workaholic, you are doing yourself a disservice. These habits waste time and energy and create stress. We don’t need to be defined by what we do. Instead, we should focus more on who we are. It’s enough to be engaging, interesting and involved.
•People: People can be just as draining as piles of newspapers and magazines. If there’s someone in your life who drags you down, maybe it’s time to reconsider the relationship. It’s not easy to completely remove those people from your life, perhaps you can think about redefining the relationship. You want to be kind, but you must also be honest with yourself about which relationships nourish you, and which deplete you.
- Let go of what you identified as holding you back. Change can be hard work – if you reduce the things that hold you back, you can travel further and faster with the same effort.
- Keeping moving this is not a once off event. Having started the journey keep the focus and direction clear and commit to staying on the journey.
Good luck