It had been a productive morning and I was ready for a nice cuppa.
I flopped down on the sofa and looked around the room and then I saw it….. A room filled with souvenirs from long ago holidays, stuffed with cushions, candles and vases from years ago and squeezed in around it family photos and various kids trophies and awards.
This room no longer worked.
I had shoved, jammed, piled and stuffed more and more in. Years of shifting and sorting to make homes for more trinkets, treasures and nicky nacks.
I now saw how mismatched, cluttered and overwhelmed the room had become.
As I squirmed on the couch I knew it was time for a change. A big change, not another re-sort or shuffle, it was time to strip it out and decide what was still valuable and what I still wanted.
I packed up every vase and photo frame. I rolled up the rug and carefully carried away the lamps. I emptied the bookshelf and dragged the sofa to the next room.
I scrubbed the walls, cleaned the fingermarks from light switches and washed the windows.
The room looked larger and as I enjoyed the spaciousness I carefully considered my options.
I had a clean, blank room and it was full of possibility.
Later that day …………
I sat down to plan my week and so began my usual shuffle.
I filled in the appointments, activities and commitments.
Instead of feeling fabulous and excited in anticipation I already felt exhausted and overwhelmed at the thought of getting through it all.
My life had become like that over stuffed room……….Jammed full with opportunities, interspersed with obligations and overstuffed with commitments.
I had mastered the art of squeezing, scheduling and wringing more and more from each week, as I juggled the struggle to fit it all in.
I was making it happen regardless of how it all felt.
Life was so full now it had become an exhaustive chore just to manage.
Are you struggling with your own juggle????
Do find opportunities too enticing to say no?
Do you blindly follow a sense of responsibility and commitment?
Are you led by the knowing if you squeeze it all in you will avoid disappointing anyone?
So how do we say no and where do we begin?
How do we even know where to start the redesign?
We STOP and mentally strip it all away and we empty our schedule completely.
You tell yourself you do not have to go anywhere, do anything or be anyone.
You then quickly dust away all the lingering have to’s and should’s as you clean your life out.
You challenge your doubtful thoughts and say to yourself……This is my life and I get to choose what goes in it.
Now free from the strangle you stand back and look at your ‘virtual” empty life and see an expansive space full of possibility and opportunity.
Then ask yourself
What do I want for me?
What do I want for my children?
What do I want to be learning?
What do I want to achieve?
What is important to me?
How do I want to feel?
These answers become the blueprint for the redesign your life.
Use them
Before agreeing
Before re-enrolling
Before signing up
Before continuing on
Before taking action
Before putting it all back in
Decide if saying yes or saying no will take you closer to gaining what it is you really want?
This is your one great life, and now is the time to lead it fabulously.
I am curious, have you ever felt like emptying out your life? Did you do it?
This is so inspiring. When I was a child, I would play in the woods. I would pretend and imagine, I felt free. Now, when I’m overwhelmed, I still go into the woods. I listen to the wind in the trees, smell the air, and pretend. It’s still freeing. So many times we say we “should” do something, but when we think of it as a choice it makes it so much more personal. You are making the choice for you instead of doing something out of guilt because “you should”. Love this.