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Most
personal change efforts fail because they are limited
to one or two levels. Using this process, you will draw
on knowledge from all four realms so you can truly transform
your life. Think of this work as clearing your path
of inner and outer obstacles. Everything has energy,
and freeing up energy occurs on several levels at once.
As you make changes, your well-being increases, and
this frees you up to live your true purpose. You experience
more composure. You connect more deeply with a greater
energy and vitality. Every action that you take matters.
Every time you flex your inner muscles to do something
different, you are building the strength for more. Athletes
lift weights. You do the dishes, throw things away,
file the papers, and put things back. This is your discipline.
Building discipline builds your strength and power.
Each action that you take towards change helps you take
the next action. I will remind you often that this is
a journey of small changes. Over time, small changes
add up to great transformation.
You’ll
become more aware of how your disorganization causes
anxiety and your anxiety causes disorganization. Running
late often leads to panic. Losing the car keys leads
to rage. Missing an important deadline can lead to despair
or self-hatred. The life of a disorganized person can
be a roller coaster ride of feelings. Fear, anxiety,
despair, resentment, are among the many feelings that
are intensified by disorganization. Moreover, emotional
upsets are disorganizing. When you are too mad to sit
down and pay the bills, when you are so resentful that
you can’t focus on your work, when you are too
depressed to remember to stop at the grocery store on
the way home, your life tends to be more chaotic. If
your feelings often knock you off your feet, if you
are so overwhelmed by floods of emotion that you cannot
take care of your daily needs, then it is time to make
steadying yourself a serious practice.
In
the end, much of this is about micro-changes in how
we think about taking action. We see how our deepest
beliefs and feelings affect our everyday actions, which
in turn affect our results. We can see clearly how if
we do what we have always done, we will get what we
have always gotten. We will be in the same situation
over and over again, unless we fundamentally change.
Each time you put your keys back in their place, each
evening that you clear off your desk, each time you
make a promise that you can and do keep, you are growing
toward more satisfaction and well-being.
Every
step of the way, there are exercises so that you can
put this approach into practice. These exercises won’t
take you a lot of time, but when used, they can be very
powerful. Try these out. Try thinking of these exercises
as explorations into a new way of living.
Create
a habit of noting what you are learning. Keep a journal
in a book or on your computer and pick a time every
day to write a few sentences. For example, go directly
to your journal when you open the computer and set a
timer for five minutes and write. Or keep your journal
by your bed and make a habit of reflecting on your day
and noting what it was like for you. One pointer: Do
not take notes on random pieces of paper thinking that
you will copy them down someday. If you like jotting
down occasional notes, make it a practice to carry a
small notebook with you.
Part
of the reward of this approach is that not only will
you begin to uncover your floor and desk, but you will
also start to create a nurturing space in which you
can know and love yourself more fully. The beauty and
power of this path is that you can work both outside
in—clearing clutter can help you feel more serene—and
inside out—as you heal your inner chaos, it may
become easier to clear off your desk. You can uncover
your core purpose and have the space to do something
new, meet a new person, or take a risk. It’s paradoxical
perhaps, but as you clear up your surface messiness,
you become able to enter the genuine, alive messiness
of life more freely.
Buy
the book or download
PDF
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