Take Time To Get Organized
“I’d like to tidy up the entire planet. I would go anywhere if there were something that needs tidying.”
Maire Kondo
Over two years ago, we moved into our new house. Before we made this move, we did a lot of purging. We sold things. We gave away things. And we threw out things. At our last house, I had a large shed that contained a rather large work shop. I had a lot of indoor tools and outdoor tools. My wife would probably tell you that I had a lot of things I would never use. Needless to say, I condensed a lot of my tools as part of our downsizing efforts.
When we arrived at our new home, I set up a crude workshop in the basement for my indoor tools, and I relegated my outdoor tools to the garage where they eventually found their way to shelves and wall hangers. Many of my indoor tools have remained in boxes and bins. It can often be a challenge to find the exact tool I am looking for when the appropriate home project comes along.
Today, I made significant progress in changing this. I picked up some peg board at our local hardware store. I hung it up on the wall of my basement workshop. And I began organizing. Hammers, screwdrivers, levels, pliers, tape measures, and the like all found their way out of their boxes and bins and onto the wall of my workshop.
There is something satisfying in taking time to take stock of things and to put them in order.
In my post yesterday, I talked about taking 17 minutes a day to work towards a goal.
As we look towards our goals, it can be helpful to do some reflection and to get organized. Do you understand where you are now? Do you understand where you want to be when it comes to achieving your goal? Do you have a plan to get you from here to there?
As you contemplate your own goals, I encourage you to take some time for reflection. Ask yourself these questions: What is going well? What isn’t going so well? What do I need to keep doing? What do I need to stop doing? What do I need to do differently? What is something new I should be doing?
Next, spend some time organizing your thoughts. You may not know all the details yet, but I’m pretty sure you could set some SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-based) goals with meaningful action steps that will move you closer to achieving your goal.
Finally, take one step at a time. What is the one thing you should be doing TODAY to move you forward on your path to goal achievement? When we create goals – especially at the beginning of the year, it’s easy to start with a bunch of energy and enthusiasm. We have this unrealistic sense we can do it all RIGHT NOW! While these are great intentions, we would learn from the tortoise who took it slow and steady on his path to the finish line.
Well, my 17 minutes are up. It’s time to step away. Two days in a row though, and I’ll take it!