Author: Anthony

All year long I go on and on about what excess clutter we have in our lives that we can do without. Well it is just as important that we schedule ourselves a mandatory inventory check to make sure we DO have all the necessities required to have a happy and safe home, car, and person (items you always carry on you). What better time to do this than at the beginning of the year in the winter season (when there is not much else to do). Below I have created a checklist of items we should all have:

 

HOME:

• Fire Extinguisher – Make sure the gauge reads that it is filled. It should be in an easily reachable place in the home, close to where is would most likely be used (Kitchen), but not VERY close to where it would most likely be used.
• Smoke detector/s – Placed in the high traffic areas of the home (the intersections), and the Kitchen. Test them to make sure they still function well. Replace the batteries if needed.
• Carbon Monoxide detector – Same instruction as a smoke detector.
• First Aid Kit
• Cold and Sickness medication (everything from Airborne to Sudafed)
• Canned goods
• Bottled water
• Spare car key

CAR:

• Insurance Card
• Registration
• Conviction Stub
• Jumper Cables
• Jack
• Spare Tire (donut)
• First Aid Kit
• Towel
• Knife
• Duck Tape
• Rope
• Phone Charger

Personal Effects:

• License
• Insurance Card/s
• Credit/Debit Card
• Spare Cash
• Cell Phone

Now, it is possible that one persons list will be slightly different than the list I have made above (It’s all based on ones environment), but the majority of the things on the list should still apply.

Mental/emotional baggage (clutter for the mind) comes in many forms. One giant piece of mental clutter many of us hold on to, is our past. So many of us have people or events in our past that had such a profound effect on us, that we can’t let them go. We can’t move past them. We continue with our lives unable to grow fully mentally because we are tethered to people and moments that hold us back. But what is it that keeps us so tethered to these moments?

 

Regret

We are holding on to moments when we wish we had made a different decision. While it is perfectly healthy to hold on to a little bit of regret, as it a valuable tool to learn from, dwelling on these moments disables us from using the lesson learned in our future decisions. Don’t use regret as a means to punish ourselves, but instead as a lesson for moving on and making better decisions in the future.

Guilt

We wronged someone. Aside from being a motivation for making amends, this is also useless. Much like regret, it’s only worth  having guilt in small doses as it serves to shape our character. Unlike regret however, guilt doesn’t function as tool for future decisions.

 

For both guilt and regret I say this:

The past is the past, and we can’t change it. Punishing ourselves doesn’t help anyone. Feeling bad about the things we did so far back in our history is pointless, as we aren’t even the same people anymore.

I believe that many of us feel as if we owe a big debt to our history, and we can’t shed enough tears or feel enough pain to pay it. That we need to honor the past by continuing to live in it. Unfortunately this is useless, unproductive.

 

I prefer to look at it this way:

There is no debt. And if there IS a debt, the changes to our character (growth) that have resulted from these people and experiences in our past is payment enough. We are not honoring our past by living in it. We are in fact, dis-honoring our past by not moving on from it. We, in essence, do our history a greater service by letting go of it and embracing our future with what we have learned so far.

It’s that time of year again. Time to clear out the mental clutter of our plans, re-establish our priorities, and plan out our goals for the new year accordingly. Doing this will renew/re-establish our focus in life.

This process is best done in the following steps:

 

1) Clear the mind

I don’t care how. But everyone has (or should have) a method of purging their thoughts of all stresses, worries, cares, tasks, and appointments. Some people meditate, some do Yoga, some just rest in silence, and others just listen to some soothing music. Whatever the preferred method, take the time to DO IT.

 

2) List our priorities

Literally …… list them. A thought is just a thought until it’s written down. Once it is written down, then it is a potential reality. It forces us to acknowledge it. It also serves as a constant reminder so we can stay focused. Keep this list somewhere easily accessible. Truthfully this list should be short; 7~10 items tops (and even that is a lot). There are only 24 hours in a day and 1/3 of that is sleeping and maintenance. Look at the last few things on the list and seriously consider if those even belong in the category of “priority.”………. cross them out.

 

3) Consider how we want to grow.

With our priorities in mind, think of all the ways we want to improve and/or grow as people. Ideas I have heard are: “Spend more time with my children”, “Lose 20 lbs”, “Reach more people”, “re-unite with my family”, “Re-kindle the fire in my marriage”, and “Overcome my fears” just to give some examples of what I am talking about here.

 

4) Set goals accordingly

Set them, and write them down. Why write them? See #2. List these goals in either time order or priority order. Keep this list even more accessible than the priority one. One should not have to open a drawer for this list. It needs to be on our desktop, our whiteboard, our cork-board; anywhere we can see it everyday without getting it. These needs to be there to constantly remind us.

Make the goals realistic. What can we reasonably accomplish in one year? This doesn’t mean we cannot have a much greater long term goal, but even the baby steps for getting there are goals in themselves. Are they not? Write down these lesser goal/s. I once had a physics teacher that said: “You can eat an entire elephant! ……..one bite at a time.”

Also, the same as with priorities, this list should be short.

 

5) First Steps

DO IT. Get the gears moving. At the very least, in this first “sit down”, do some research, make some inquiries. Start the process, and keep that momentum going.

 

6) Minimize

Remove from our lives all the clutter, the obligations, the stresses, the possessions, the thoughts that do not serve our priorities, our goals. This may mean filling up a few of the 50 gallon trash bags. This may mean making a few disappointing phone calls to friends and family. This may mean giving up old rituals. No one said de-cluttering was easy.

 

THIS is the best way that I have found to approach a new year.