Clearing the Clutter …
Over the last few years I’ve created a ritual that helps to make room for the new experiences I desire to have in the new year. As I approach the end of the year, I begin to clear the clutter. This is something that I will spend the last few days of 2020 doing in order to prepare for my best year ever. It sounds simple. Clean up the messy areas. Organize. File. Get rid of stuff – lots of stuff.
Almost seems like an insignificant act. But this isn’t like the weekly cleaning of a house. You’re not just dusting, sweeping and vacuuming. This is about setting things in your life in order. This is about addressing that thing you’ve been putting off all year. And what seems like a trivial act becomes a deeply spiritual experience.
Clearing the clutter creates that space for what we desire in the new year. It reveals how much we’ve been holding on to that we no longer need or no longer serves us and that can be a very liberating experience.
Here are three things that you can do to help clear the clutter.
1. Pick just one space that you’d like to clear. It works better if we focus on just one thing at a time. Studies have shown that the most effective form of human motivation is progress. The successful accomplishment of one area will result in motivation to continue in other areas. If you’re not sure as to whether or not you should get rid of something, you can do the following:
a. Ask yourself if that particular item serves you or not.
b. Trust your feelings. How does this item make you feel? What memories does it bring up for you? If you get the warm fuzees, if it gives you joy. Keep it. If not, discard it with gratitude.
2. Write a list of things that you do not want to carry over into the new year. Create a ritual where you get to burn it, flush it, cut it up, or any other way that you can think of to release that from your life and walk into the new year unburdened.
Charlotte and I hold a burn party on New Years Eve. It helps to set a tone for the new year.
3. Practice radical self-compassion and release any sense of failure from the past year. If we look at failure as learning, then we recognize that the outcome is an opportunity to grow and growth can eventually lead to success. This is an opportunity for us not to be so hard on ourselves and practice a little self-love.
Clearing the clutter leads to greater clarity. Clarity leads to empowerment. Empowerment leads to bold action which opens up worlds of possibility.
I hope you will take some time to clear the clutter and make room for an amazing year.
