Let me ask you a question: are you in love with your stuff? Your clients? Your friends, family and followers?
Have you ever even thought about being in love with ALL of those things?
I recently listened to an interview on NPR featuring Japanese Professional Organizer Marie Kondo. Ms. Kondo has created a method called the KonMari Method.
Her focus is a simple question: What brings you joy?
Her methodology speaks directly to an earlier post I wrote about decluttering your stuff.
I love her concept of what brings you joy?
I think this concept applies to EVERYTHING in life.
- Does every “thing” in your home bring you joy?
- Do all your clothes bring you joy?
- How about your clients in your business?
- What about your friends?
- Family?
- What about your social media friends and newsfeed?
I’m so intrigued by the idea of choosing what brings you joy because so many of us DO NOT.
Instead, we “put up with” so much “because “that’s just the way it is”:
- Abusive family members
- Mean friends
- Negative Nancys in our social media feeds
- Clients who waste our time and are rude to our staff, or who don’t pay on time (and/or who complain about our rates)
- Clothes that hang in our closets or sit our dressers because we don’t like them (they fit weird, feel scratchy, pull in strange places, or just don’t make us feel GOOD)
- Shoes we own but don’t wear because they squeak, give us blisters, or make our feet sweat
- Kitchen gadgets we used once and forgot about
- Books we meant to read or even started reading, but quickly hated
- Food we tried and didn’t like
- Husbands, boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, and even employees who just don’t fit right either
- Activities we do, boards we sit on, TV shows we watch, committees we’re part of
- Behavior from anyone (even ourselves) that we tolerate
A client and I talked earlier in the week about a big change she knew she needed to make. The situation was definitely not bringing her joy. “But,” she explained, “sometimes the Devil you know is better than the one you don’t.”
I’m a curmudgeon and played Devil’s Advocate (heh). “What if you just make the decision to make this big change? What kind of space are you creating for something new and joyful to happen?”
This question applies to everything. By releasing anything that doesn’t bring you joy, you immediately open up space for something joyful – even it’s simply the absence of the old, annoying thing for now.
Take a deep breath and let those things go that don’t bring you joy.
Make Some Room,
Angie
P.S. I keep trying to make these notes shorter, and I succeeded with a few of them. I’m a storyteller at heart, though, and that takes some space. Thanks always for reading what I write!