If I can keep my vision alive in my mind’s eye, and just do, on a regular basis, even the smallest thing towards fulfilling that vision, progress will be evident in time. 

Maintaining Focus

Maybe it’s the run of cold, wet weather we’ve been having. Maybe it’s the short days. Maybe it’s the influx of mental clutter going on in my life at the moment. Whatever the reasons, I’m feeling disappointed that I’m not at the stage of eliminating clutter from my life that I expected to be by now. My vision back in September 2003 was that in a year’s time I’d have finished de-cluttering my house.

Well, I’m not there yet. Even though I can look around and definitely see the progress of the past 17 months in addressing physical, mental, and emotional clutter in my life, it seems as though a lot of clutter still remains, piled on horizontal surfaces and hidden in drawers and behind closet doors. And furthermore, the improvements I’ve made require maintenance. Not only do I feel that the low-hanging fruit of clutter in my life has been plucked, I’m realizing that a certain level of energy is required to keep that clutter at bay, so I can continue to enjoy the struggle-free environment the de-cluttering brought about in the first place. Sometimes I wonder if I’ll ever get rid of it all!

Rather than beat myself up that I haven’t done it all yet, I’m examining what mental clutter is holding me back from getting rid of the physical clutter and obtaining my vision. Why are my active files stored in cardboard boxes when I have a desk with file drawers? Why is my closet still full of tax paperwork from 12 years ago? I can see that until I face my mental clutter around holding on to things because “one day I might need it”, or postponing the task of shredding boxes of old financial documents because “it’s too tedious”, the physical clutter will hang around that much longer.

I’m also giving myself some room to deal with the emotional clutter that exists in my life at the moment. Sometimes things just happen that command your full attention for periods of time, even when a part of you aches to spend your time doing something—anything--else. It’s always a balance, isn’t it? Even when chaos surrounds me, if I can keep my vision alive in my mind’s eye, and just do, on a regular basis, even the smallest thing towards fulfilling that vision, progress will be evident in time.

So I’ve decided to tackle the physical clutter head-on. Stick with one area until it’s done, doing the not-so-obvious de-cluttering along with the obvious. Take baby steps and reward myself along the way. It’s not enough to just clear off the top of my desk; the drawers also need to be de-cluttered if my desk is truly to provide me an efficient work area. The vision is to empty the drawers of old files and stuff that isn’t being used, and fill them with what I use on a regular basis. I’ll also do another sweep of the desktop, eliminating the stuff that has found its way back over the past year. It’s my intention to report back next month that I accomplished that, and more!

 

Dot Snow - dot.snow@kp.org - 25 February 2005