Archive for Action

Spring Organizing

Posted by Carolyn on
 April 12, 2023

Time for Spring Organizingmany colourful tulips bunched together in a bouquet

The tulips or budding, the birds are singing, the snow has melted and spring has arrived.  Here’s to warm weather and bright colourful flowers and a chance for some spring organizing.

Cleaning vs. Organizing

Many people welcome spring with a fresh and vigorous intention to spring clean their home.  How about some spring organizing instead? Cleaning is for getting rid of dirt. Organizing is about managing space, time and stuff so that you can find what you want, when you want and use it to enjoy your life.

Here are 5 tips to help you get started with a spring organizing project and guarantee success.

1. Pick one small area to tackle on at a time

Also limit the time you commit to a spring organizing project. Unless you have help and a whole weekend, start with an hour or two. Organizing requires decision making and decision fatigue can hijack a project.  Start all to avoid feelings of overwhelm.  If you end up interrupted, you won’t have a big project left unfinished. Try a drawer, closet, cupboard and maybe one or two of those boxes in the corner of your basement.

dishes

2. Focus on reducing volume

Getting rid of things that we don’t need, like, want or use is a good goal for spring organizing. Shedding doesn’t have to mean throwing into the garbage. Shedding it about giving items a life beyond your front door.  Worn towels and other linen can go to an animal shelter. Books can be donated to a Little Free Library. Clothes can be sold or donated to charity. By decreasing volume, you will have less items to manage and more free space in which to live.

3. Give items a home

Everything you own needs a home. A common complaint I hear from clients is that their belongings don’t have a home. As a result, they never put them away. Items used frequently and consistently need a home that is easy for you to both take the item out and put it back in.  We call that storage and retrieval. Items are more likely to end up back in their homes when storage and retrieval are easy. Items that are used seasonally or only occasionally can be stored in less accessible locations.

4. Take away, right away

Take shed items out of your home as quickly as possible. You will see the impact of your hard work and tough decisions. Less items means you can enjoy the clear space. A stack of donations and recycling at the front or back door can be discouraging. It can also tempt you to second guess your decisions. Take those items away, right away.

5. Have fun and reward yourself

Organizing takes emotional and physical energy. Make it fun to make it easier. Play your favourite music. Invite a friend who might like some of the clothes you are shedding. Involve the children and make a game out of sorting old toys.

Spring organizing will also be more successful if you have decided on a reward for yourself when you are finished.  This is a great self-coaching technique for reinforcing the value of your work. It also makes the organizing work seem less onerous which means you are more likely to do it again. Maybe some fresh flowers for a table? Take yourself out to a movie? Arrange to meet a friend for an expensive and fun coffee? An ice cream for you and the kids? You get the picture.

Spring is a time of renewal and fresh starts. It is a great time for spring organizing to make space, out with the old, unused or unneeded. Good luck and remember to have fun.

Action Declutter Organizing Strategies
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The Magic of Action

Posted by Carolyn on
 April 3, 2023

What is the Magic of Taking Action?

Taking action creates magic in the most wonderful and unexpected of ways.  For example, I’ve been working with a new accountability partner.  JJ, a colleague, reached out for assistance with a procrastination business issue, and I realized I had my person. I was having the same issue. While our businesses are unique, the struggles to overcome resistance as a solo entrepreneur are sometimes more than we can tackle alone. We made a pact for 90 days.

Curiously, the minute I asked about working together, and he said yes, the magic started to happen. Suddenly I was creating crystal clear, 90 day goals.  Soon, I had them broken down into three sets of 30 day goals. We both agreed we needed a clear, written vision for what we wanted to accomplish by the end of the 90 days. So I wrote a vision statement. Then I remembered I had started a vision movie a year ago. The movie was dusted off and updated and dropped to my desktop. Before I knew it I was in full-on action mode and the magic was everywhere. Things were getting done.

Action Creates Energy

Action is like its own feeding station. Once you make the first move in the direction of your goals, energy is created and the next move gets easier. And then the next one and the next one.  It’s like swimming; with just one small stroke you start moving through the water. Another stroke and you move faster. Put the two together and suddenly you’re moving through the water like a fish.

Nothing is more stagnating than stagnation itself.  Standing still is inertia and inertia is the hardest state to shake out of.

Action Reveals a Pathway

Have you ever renovated a room in your house or apartment? Then you know the expression “one thing leads to another”. Action is like that. Much like walking in the forest and following a path. One step, then another, then another and like magic the path reveals itself between the trees.

Often we just don’t know what the path looks like.  Procrastination reinforces the unknown like “I just don’t know how to do this” or “I just don’t know how to make this happen or get it done”.

Taking just one small step forward can change all that.

Action is the Solution to Fear

Nothing feeds fear like fear itself. Fear makes us freeze or run away. Neither is helpful to managing clutter or trying to accomplish our goals and dreams.

Action is the antidote to fear, is a quote from Amy Porterfield course creator, podcaster, online content guru, author and speaker. We think our challenge looks like this rock climber. We think we will be hanging from the cliff edge with a few ropes and carabiners.

Often the reality is quite different than our fear-based perspective. Often the reality is more like that walk in the forest where a simple step forward reveals the next section of pathway.

How to Break out of Inertia

Earlier last year I wrote about self coaching your mindset when mindset is the reason for not taking action. Let’s look at three specific activities you can use to propel yourself in the direction of success.

  1. Review the outcome of what it is you are trying to do or accomplish.  Get a really clear view in your mind of what the accomplishment will look like. Athletes who use visualization to support their success all know how strong this tool can be. Our brain doesn’t distinguish between what we actually did and what we think we did.  When an Alpine downhill ski racer visualizes in minute detail streaking down the hill in perfect formation to successfully cross the finish line in 1st place, the brain believes this is what actually happened. Get clear on the outcome – in colour detail.
  2. Identify the smallest step forward – the smallest action – you could take in the direction of your goal you know you are guaranteed to be successful. It doesn’t matter how small the step is.  Remember, just taking the step forward will generate energy, show you the path and help overcome fear.
  3. Celebrate your success when that first step has been accomplished. Reward yourself for facing your fear, tackling the inertia and getting a step done. Then immediately identify the next, small, guarantee-to-be-successful step.  Commit to a date on when that next step will be taken. Repeat.

You got this. Go for it.

Action I AM Evolution Coaching Organizing Challenges
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Mastering Clutterfree Living Step 3: Take Action

Posted by Carolyn on
 May 31, 2022

Step Three: Take Action

Take action is Step Three in mastering clutter free living.  It is also the most important and often the hardest.  Taking action is often where we stumble.

Background: Steps One and Two

Let’s start by reviewing Steps One and Two.  Step One is to Get Clarity.  Without a clear idea of what you want to do or where you want to go, it is hard to figure out how to get there. In fact, it could be impossible. Imagine trying to find a book in a room that you’ve never been in before, with no light.  Yup, darn near impossible.

Step Two, is Create a Strategy.  When you know where you are going or what you want to accomplish, it is much easier to create a strategy that will get you there.  Create a plan including the stepping stones or steps that you will take to get to your accomplishment.

The Challenge

Why is it that so many of us stumble when it comes to taking action? I have seen this time and time again with clients.  And let’s be real: I am my best client in this area.  I too have often struggled and stumbled when it comes to taking action.  What’s the big deal?  Why do we have so much trouble.

Often the answer lies in our Mindset. “Whether you think you can or you think you can’t — you are right”, Henry Ford. This oft-quoted phrase holds the secret to our challenge. If you believe you will not be successful, it may be almost impossible to tackle even the simplest of first steps. Conversely, if you think you will be successful, you may be jumping into action as soon as possible.

Toy red train with 3 blue cars chugging up a hill saying "I know I can, I know I can".

Mindset can make the difference.

If you think your Mindset is holding you back from taking action, here are some self-coaching questions that may be helpful in getting from frustrated to fantastically successful.

  1. What is the conversation in your mind when you think about taking action on your goal or desired achievement?
  2.  What would need to be the different conversation in order to be successful?
  3. How do you need to show up in your life, or in your project, in order to take action?
  4. Who do you need to be in order to take action?
  5. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?
  6. What would be different if you considered this challenge simply an experiment? No wins or losses, just an experiment to see what happens. If you don’t like the outcome, you can always change to another experiment or change a variable.

Setting yourself up with an I will be successful mindset can often fend off the stumbles and ensure that your desired achievement, becomes a reality.

 

Action I AM Evolution Coaching Productivity

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