Today I achieved one of my end of year goals of clearing and organising my office space. The new bookshelf proudly displays the majority of my personal development (self-help) books in one place next to a clear bed, meaning that I finally have somewhere comfortable to sit and read.

Just in front of that is my work desk which is now also tidy and organised (both the surface and underneath the desk). I achieved this by tackling things one by one and only putting back what I needed. One of the issues I had was the work keyboard being in the way when I want to write or do personal admin in the evenings. I’ve resolved this by adding a suspended shelf underneath so that my keyboard is out of the way from my personal laptop.

I think this is going to work well but we’ll see over the next couple of weeks.

Being coached to achieve my goals

I mentioned in my last post, that I started a coaching apprenticeship which I’m thoroughly enjoying. My course colleagues and I need a lot of practise coaching others so one of them offered to coach me. The goal I’ve just achieved (above) was the first one that I wanted to work on and I agreed to complete it by the end of the year. This worked very well as I was being held accountable to finishing it…. and I did!

I now feel happy and calm when I walk into the room which is how I described the end goal a couple of months ago. I have somewhere to work, read, write, coach and relax. When setting goals, I’ve realised how important it is to imagine how you will feel when you’ve achieved it.

What’s the plan for 2023?

If you’ve been following me for a while you will know that I always have various personal projects on the go at the same time and also allow myself to be interrupted. At the start of the year I usually have a long list of things I want to achieve. On top of that I say that I’m going to slow down and do less. I then get overwhelmed when projects come my way that I hadn’t planned in and it all gets a bit stressful. Does this sound familiar?

This year, I’m going to try and have much more clarity on my goals and work with my coach on them in order of priority. Maybe I’ll just do one at a time and completely finish something before I start something else. I’ll then look at starting the next project as a reward.

Today I have been thinking about the next goal to work on with my coach. I could get him to hold me accountable to clear another room or the garage, but all of these kind of tasks/goals are things that I can motivate myself to do. This is stuff I’ve been working on for years.. starting a room… making a list… clearing the room… not maintaining it… and needing to start again another time.

I think that my coach realised from coaching me and really listening to what I had to say, that there is a more deep seated issue at play here. Does chaos follow me around? My office may be tidy now but I did put things elsewhere. I’m really good at moving the problem somewhere else around the house, and creating processes and routines that maybe don’t need to be there. I think I need to work out why I decide to keep things in the first place… old receipts, old paperwork, empty boxes in case I need to return something, useful bits and bobs, clothes that I might wear one day, books that I might read, notes that I will write up one day, and so on. I need to learn to live with less, and create and maintain some sort of order for what I want to keep.

Remembering the benefit of a clear space

I know that I definitely benefit from a clear and calm space where I can think, read, write and just ‘be’. I know that I’ve promised myself that I’ll keep my office clear this year. I know that I’ve just moved some things out into the hallway, in another room, in the loft, by the back door or in the garage. I know that things are likely to creep back in or haunt me next time I start another project in another room. I need to stop that happening so I think that this will shape my next goal… to stop this crazy cycle and stop the chaos following me.

My 2023 goals (draft)

• Weekly maintenance in my office so that I keep it the way it is now.
• Working on stopping the chaos that follows me around.
• Learning more about coaching and passing my coaching apprenticeship course by the end of 2023.
• Decluttering and organising the garage.

I’ll be talking to my coach next week to work out how we can prioritise the above and turn them into meaningful goals.

Until next time…

Sandra