Following on from yesterday’s theme about hiding behind things and feeling stuck, I want to share with you something I listened to on Mel Robbins audio book Take Control of Your Life. She talks about being stuck and how people focus too much on the massive big picture and then never actually take the first step.

If you are in need of growth you feel stuck. When you feel that knot in your chest and you feel your thoughts start to spiral, that’s the physical signal that what’s missing is growth. And the only way to get it is to think… what’s a lego block that I can add right now?

Mel Robbins, Take Control of your life

During my 2020 challenge, I’ve been changing my life brick by brick and not trying to do a whole room in one day. I might focus on one room one day and one room another, but they are all steps that move me forward. Doing it this way has helped me concentrate on the steps rather than the big picture.

Today’s steps

Today, I spent a bit more time in the spare room sorting through piles of stuff and categorising things into the relevant plastic boxes (which was the method I started in this room a couple of months ago, and have been dipping in and out since). Quite a bit of the stuff is now boxed up and most things have been put into the garage that we don’t want anymore.

Whilst I was doing this today, I cooked a roast pork dinner and I also managed to fit in a 15 minute nap (I actually had to set a timer, in case something burnt in the oven). It all went well and everyone ate it in about ten minutes.

Changing anything is a process

At any time during the decluttering process, I could have just cleared whole rooms and dumped it all into the garage. What’s stopped me was that I would have just been moving the problem to another room. Yes, it would have been out of site and out of mind for a little while, but as soon as I walked into the garage I would have known that nothing in those boxes had been sorted and decluttered. As it stands, anything that’s made it as far as the garage is more or less going to be walking out of the door one way or another (and I don’t mind spending time in my cluttered hideaway now and again when I need to get out of the house).

I really don’t know how my house is going to look by the end of my challenge, but what I do know is that I will feel a whole lot better.

Slowing down

It’s important to remember that life sometimes gives us something different to what we visualise. For this reason, it’s important to be flexible. Frustrating as it sometimes is, slowing down and doing things step by step makes us feel more in control.

So, if you are feeling stuck, remember Mel Robbins words… “It’s essential that you only change things by slowing down and making small moves.”

Until tomorrow…

Sandra