Decluttered Life

I look at my life in the same way I look at my junk drawer. Think about it. We are in it every single day and we collect everything from feelings and friends to opinions and distractions. Every now and then we need to dump the whole junk drawer out onto a counter and take a good look at everything we have held on tight to. There are some things in there that we have not even touched in two years, or more. We haven’t considered whether or not they even belong in the drawer.

I’ve reached that point in life when it’s time to evaluate what I need to keep and what I must remove. I consider the things that are distracting me from accomplishing my deepest felt goals. 

Its time to assess whether or not the people in my life are the wind beneath my wings or weights tied to my feet. Maybe we aren’t truly a good match. They should be thinking the same thing about me—whether or not I am the right friend for them. My mother often told me, “Suzi, not everyone you meet will like you or keep you in their life, and you don’t have to like everyone or keep them in yours. Just imagine how busy would be if you kept everyone you met!” Good thoughts. I know she’s right, but anyone who knows me knows that I collect people. I just find human beings so fascinating. So this is a hard lesson for me.

Distractions — they produce procrastination. I don’t have that many hours left in my life and I don’t want to fritter them away when I know that I still have something valuable to offer the world. So part of my life “junk cleanup” is to remove most distractions. I won’t remove them all because some of them just keep me laughing or are good for stress relief. So I will keep a few.

This assessment of my cluttered life seemed like an overwhelming task until I took the time to dump it all out and take a good look at it. It actually was not that hard.  This encourages me to do this more regularly, perhaps two or three times a year. 

I love life enough that I continue to collect new hobbies, new interests, new things and even new people, and often I do that without thinking of anything but the here and now. It’s fun, they are interesting, but after a while, I realize I’m distracted again and not aligned with the right people or activities in my life.

Decluttering our life makes room for a more thoughtful path ahead. Certainly, life seems more peaceful. 

Good distraction over.

Back to writing my book!