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The lesson today is about clutter and how you can clear the clutter in your life to allow space for better energy in your life and to allow the new things you want to come into your life. I talk about the reason for The Live Big Lab and how it can help you to begin to shift your life. Listen in and join us in The Lab to continue learning!
Transcript:
Hey, I’m Betsy Pake. I’m an author and a business and life strategist. But really, I feel like I work with people all over the country just to help them be happier to help them have a little bit more ease in their life. And I started this podcast last year, The Art of Living big, where I interviewed people all over the country that were doing really cool things, amazing things that helped give us a different view on the world and on what could really be possible for our lives. Now that we’re starting season two, I wanted to share with you some of the lessons that I’ve learned along the way, and bring some of those strategies into a format here on the podcast, and into a back end system that I call the live bid lab. You can find out more about the live big lab by texting, live big, just one word 2444999.
Or if you’re sitting in front of your computer,
just head to live big lab COMM And you can find it all there. So here’s how it’s gonna go down, I’m going to share some lessons in season two, every episode will be a different lesson. And if you jump into the lab, you can get more information, a deep dive into more content, and share a little bit more with checklists or downloads, or whatever it might be that would help you to start up level in your life. The whole idea is the idea of of Kaizen, which is the Japanese idea of continuous growth and getting better. And what I realized was that I am having so much fun and such great success, working one on one with individuals all over the country that are doing such cool things, and having really incredible breakthroughs in their life. But not everybody is able to afford one on one coaching, or has the time for one on one coaching. But they still have the need and the desire to grow and change and learn something new. And so I wanted to use this podcast to bring that to you and give you an opportunity to deep dive in this different way of coaching, where I can share more inside the lab. So in this episode, I want to talk to you about clutter, about disorganization, and really about not feeling in control of different areas of your life. I was walking into my house the other day, I parked my car and I walked through the garage. And there’s we had planned on having a garage sale. And so there are things like stacked up in teetering
and piles of crap.
I walked into the house and there was piles of crap in the kitchen. And I just was like I was feeling this tension.
And I came up to my office. And
I realized I had
and I’m not a messy person, typically, people will will walk into my house and say it feels like a hotel, which is sort of how I like it. But I realized I had become overrun with stacks and piles of things that I had not made decisions on. Right. So I hadn’t made a decision on if I needed to do something with this piece of paper. Or if I had books that I needed to read, or I needed to give away or I just had stacks of things that were left uncomplete. And what it was, I realized was that it was so indicative of my inner world, right. So inside my head was very cluttered and disorganized at the time. And so I knew right then that if I could change my outer world, I could start to affect my inner world.
And so
I thought I’m going to put together a plan to start to decrease the clutter and really get organized. And so I started doing that process. And you know, what’s funny is I realized as I was getting ready to do this, and I started to make a list, so I wanted to have everything kind of mapped out. So I would know what I needed to do. And at the time, I went in and checked my email, and I had like, five kazillion emails. And so you know, there was a process of cleaning out technology too. So I want to go over the process of what I did. And then inside the lab, there’s going to be some checklists and downloads and stuff so that you can do this same process at home. So if you can free your work, and your mental environment of clutter, it opens up the space for something new. And I realized that the energy that I was sending out was that I had too much stuff,
right. So that I had that I didn’t care about the stuff I had. And I was trying to manifest some things in my life. I I wanted some more clients. I wanted to travel some, but I wasn’t managing the life that I had. And, you know, it sounds kind of dramatic. I don’t think that it was uncluttered to a point that I couldn’t fix it in just a day or two. But the point is that it was cluttered that I had let it get that way and that it was really showing up in my in my life in other ways and so freeing your work And that mental environment from the clutter can really help to create a space in your life where the new things that you want can come in. And so you may be thinking, like I have clutter in my life, or my office is disorganized, or, you know, maybe my car is like the backseat is a garbage can. But that doesn’t really matter, it doesn’t really affect me. But I’m here to tell you that it does, it actually affects you in so many ways, not only with the energy that you’re sending out into the world, but also in how your brain is perceiving your life and what you want. And so, when we don’t toss things out, when we don’t take care of the clutter, it’s as if we don’t believe in our ability to manifest more of the thing that we really want. So if you really want to bring more clients into your life
like I did, or
you really want to bring travel into your life, or you really want to bring new clothes into your life, you know, are you making space for those things in the life that you have right now, because what you’re telling the universe is that I cannot manifest any new clothes. And so it doesn’t even matter that my closet is completely overwhelmed, overwhelmed and flooded with stuff that doesn’t fit me, right or that’s out of style. And so what we need to do is take an assessment. And here’s what I did is I took a notebook. And I started back where I started that morning with my car, and I got I stood by my car and looked at the garage. Now my car’s pretty clean. I’m grateful. I guess I’m not in my car a whole lot. So my car was good. But that would be where you would start. What do I need to do? Do I need to clean out the glovebox? Do I need to clean up the back seat? What’s the trunk look like? Are there bags and bags of things that I need when I go into the grocery store? But are they spoon about? Right? So how can I organize and make that feel so much better when I get in the car. And for many of us, we spend a ton of time in the car for commuting. And so if that whole experience is stressful, and dirty, and yucky and negative, then yeah, if we’re spending 30 minutes in the car trying to commute by the time we get to work, we’re going to feel dirty and negative and cluttered and disorganized. So clean up your car. So put that on your list that you’re going to clean the car up. And then the next thing is I walked into my garage,
right? So I
looking at my garage, and I’m going through you know what needs to be cleaned up? Do I need I need to set a time to have a yard sale and get rid of some of this stuff? Or do I just give it away? Or do I call someplace that comes to pick it up? Do I put it on Craigslist, that stuff is free and I put it out on my garage. And I guarantee you within an hour everything you put out on the edge of your garage will be gone if you do that. So walk through your house, go through all the different areas in every single room and see where things are overwhelming to you. Is there a sink or a faucet that has been dripping? That just it just bugs you like it’s not hurting anything but it bugs you? You know is for me, I was like my deck needs to be redone. And there’s a couple of nails coming up. And I just avoid it because it doesn’t really matter. But it drains me of the energy every time I see it. And I want things around me to inspire me and to bring me energy I don’t want every time I see that leaky faucet for it to drain me, right. So I don’t want my energy to be like a leaky faucet where things are just draining out of me. So walk through your whole life, walk through every room of your house. And just take note of what feels like a draining energy. What feels like this is something I need to tackle. Now. It doesn’t mean you have to tackle it that day. It doesn’t even mean that you need to tackle it that month. But what you need to do is become aware of it. Because when we become aware when we write it down on the list, now we are cognizant of it. And now we can start to make a plan we can start to see opportunities where we could start to make changes in that thing. About two years ago, I read the book The life changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. And if you’ve never read that book, it really was life changing. There were some systems that she shared in that book that have changed the way I do things and one thing that I do differently is how my linen closet is set up. This sounds so silly, but I organized my linen closet two years ago when I read this book and my linen closet today is still organized. Now ladies, maybe men too, but I’m just going to go with the ladies on this because many times we’re the ones taking care of the home type things but that does not happen. Right? So that is the kind of thing that constantly is a mass. It’s overflowing you you do you open up the closet and 12 sheets fall on you, right towels are everywhere. So if you are into organization, and that’s something that you want to tackle, that might be a really good resource for you to get started to. So I’m going to go through a list. And this is a list from jack Canfield of 25 things to be completed. And I found this list really helpful because it helped me sort of monitor where I was letting the energy drain.
Okay, so I’m going to go through this list. And this list will be inside the lab too, with some checklists. So former business activities that need completion. So what are things that you need to complete
now I had
papers on my desk, I sold a business about two years ago, and I still had some papers that needed to be filed in relation to that, and I just had never gotten to it. I know that sounds silly, because I really am quite clean. But I had just like a stack of folders, and it was in the folder and the stacks were neat, but they were still not in the spot that they needed to be. And I didn’t need easy access to business that was sold two years ago, right? So I needed to file that stuff. And now here’s one that’s more of an energy thing that I really like is what kind of promises aren’t kept or not acknowledged or not recognized.
So
is there something that you told a friend you would do? And then you didn’t do it? And can you reach out to that friend and say, I didn’t do this, but it’s not because I didn’t care. It’s because this happened, or this happened, like, create closure for those things. Our brain doesn’t want a bunch of open ended things. So create closure. So where can you reach out to somebody on a personal relationship or a business relationship, where maybe you need to have closure to that thing? Are there any unpaid debts or financial commitments, so money that’s owed to people or money that’s maybe owed to you make a list of those things. And you know, if you have debt, and that’s something that you want to tackle, but you haven’t tackled it yet, it is an energy drain, and you can stop the energy drain, not just by paying off the debt, but by having a solid plan to pay off the debt. So put that on your list as something that you’re going to create a solid plan and all have some other resources inside the lab for that. So what about your closets? Right? Are they overflowing with clothing that you never wear? A few months ago, I went through my closet and cleaned out. I had suits from my former life when I worked in corporate America. And the suits were still in good condition. And so I had saved them. But the reality is right now I don’t wear suits. And they were like six years old, or seven years old, like they were not in style, like they just looked dated. And so even if I had an opportunity, is that really what I would choose to wear? Probably not. And so when I was able to give those to somebody else that could use them in there’s loads of really great resources out there. I mean, there are, I think it’s called dress for success, where you give the suits to women that need them that maybe are coming from battered situations or homeless, where they can have suits to go for job interviews, you know, is there some sort of donation that you can give them to, as the church have something, so be creative, because something that’s sitting in your closet, that’s doing nothing for you could really impact someone else’s life way more than it’s impacting your life. So you could actually pass this on and have it be something that really adds value to somebody else. So clean out your closet, organize it, make a plan for what you really have in there, a disorganized garage that’s crowded with stuff like I had where you wanted to, you know, have a yard sale. So make your list figure out when you can get to that and clean that stuff out. So any kind of old tax records or like business records like I had hanging around, you know, do you have accounts, checking accounts or old business accounts that need to be closed or balanced? Or just get a handle on where things are? Do you need to set a budget Do you need to have a plan for that stuff? Because having that mapped out and feeling in control of that helps to create some closure around in your brain around what is happening with those accounts. Do you have a bunch of junk drawers so that is one area where the life changing Magic of Tidying Up really helped me
I use
Mac or Apple product boxes like my my Apple watch any Apple phones, all that stuff they have they come in the best boxes and I made my junk drawers so organized by using those like sturdy little boxes. So can you can you clean out your junk drawers, I guarantee there is lint and stuff in there that you really really don’t need. And every time you open that junk tour and you see the clutter, it adds to the clutter in your mind. So clean that out? Do you have like missing tools or broken tools or haphazard? I have a drill that I found in my garage, that doesn’t even work. So like, Can I get rid of that stuff, right? So cleaning that stuff out of my life can make a huge difference. So if you have an attic or a garage, I’m sorry, an attic or a basement, I have a basement full of like, I went down there to clean it out. And it’s those easter eggs that are just like the empty eggs, you know that you put the tree in, which is awesome. But I’m not using those anymore. My daughter’s in high school when I do Easter for her I do something different and those little empty eggs, I mean, there must be 100 of them. So can I give those to a school? Or is there a daycare that could use them as a project. So be creative, because you don’t have to just throw things out. If that causes you pain, you don’t have to throw it out. But if you can, MIT put that on a list and make sure that you’ve got a plan for it can really help. Do you have car maintenance that needs to
be taken care of?
Is there
like your desk or your office? Is it stacked with stuff? Can you clean off your desk, I every night I clean my desk off. So when I come in in the morning, it feels fresh and new and organized. And like I can have a control over what’s happening. So pictures, you know, so many times we have pictures or tons of photos on our phone that we’ve never uploaded into a, you know, to be backed up, or we’ve never even printed out the good ones. There are some cool places that you can get pictures printed out and actually put those in an album or put them around your house. So if you go to Target, there’s a Kodak app. And you can send those pictures right to the kiosk when you stand in front of it from your phone and print those out. And then just delete them off your phone, or upload them to the cloud if you link with Dropbox, and I’ll put links inside the lab. So you know, there’s also something called groove book where you can upload pictures every month. And it’s it’s something crazy cheap, it’s like three bucks a month, and they’ll send you 50 pictures. So start doing something with those memories so that you can move them off your phone or move them away from someplace that makes you feel cluttered. Do you have piles of clothes that maybe need buttons or need to be mended or need to be hemmed. So take care of that stuff, make a plan to take care of that stuff, any kind of household maintenance, as you’re walking through your house, you know, do you have those, the faucet that needs to be taken care of, or the the nail sticking out of your deck, you know, whatever that is. So um, you know, I really think that when we can start to make a plan for this stuff, make a list. So you have an inventory. First of all, that’s your first thing making an inventory, and then create a plan. Now it doesn’t mean that you have to do it all this day or this week or, but create a plan so so that you when you look at it, you know, this month, I’m going to work on these two things. Or I’m going to take this whole weekend and have a crazy organizational weekend where I clean this stuff out, right. So have some time where you actually just set up a plan because once you set up the plan, then you can create some closure. Now I’ll have a list of all of the 25 things as well as yet, like I said, some checklists and some ways links and ways to plan this. But if you can have that plan, then you can start to release some of that. So I’m going to name a couple other things that are more mental things. So that’s sort of your physical reality. But what about like people you need to forgive? What about things that you wanted to say that weren’t said? What about the time you want to spend with people but you’ve been putting off? Did you want to go to the movies with a friend or your kid or meet a friend for coffee? Were you thinking about somebody and you keep thinking about them? But there’s no closure to it? Because you never reach out? Can you reach out? Can you call them, send them an email, can you even text them so that you have some closure to that in your brain, it’s not some other open ended item. The other. The other idea is I use an app called Asana. And Asana is great because I use it as a brain dump every single thing that I think or that I want to do or that I have an idea about I dump into this program, and it’s free. And then I set up different projects. And that way I can track projects when it’s time for those things to go on the calendar. So now I’ve I’ve dumped like a brain dump, creating some closure to that in my life. And then I can set them up on a schedule. So those things actually come true. So there are lots of ways to do this and create more closure in your life. When you have more closure. Then you’re going to start feeling lighter, you’re going to start seeing more opportunity for the new things that you want to come into your life. So Schedule these tasks hold a weekend to dump and clear or schedule one task a month or, you know, map it out. So you know what the plan is. And, you know, just do that home walkthrough, find out what’s going on under your skin. You know, maybe you hire a professional organizer, you know, the National Association of Professional organizers can come and help you actually declutter and help you organize stuff. If you have
all those little tasks, I was saying around your house, you know, you have the you have the sink been leaking, or you have, but you’re just not you don’t have the finances to fix that. Or maybe you don’t have the knowledge to fix it. Well, first of all, YouTube is a wealth of knowledge, I have learned how to do just about everything on YouTube, I joke that I don’t even know I went to college, I could have just gone to YouTube, I’ve learned so many things. But maybe you have a friend that is really handy. And so they can come over and do things for you. And you can do something for them, you know, you can babysit or you can help them with a sewing project or, you know, whatever it is like, just think about how you can trade off. Because the chances are that if when you set the intention that you want this too, to find closure, and you want this to happen in your life, and you want to have this mapped out resources and things and ideas will start to come to you so that you can make that happen for yourself. Marie Kondo has a quote in her book that says, when we really delve into the reasons why we can’t let something go, there are only two, an attachment to the past, or a fear for the future. Now, here’s one thing I know is that you totally deserve to live a big life. And part of having a big life is not having an attachment to the past that’s unnecessary, and not living in fear of the future. And so clearing your life from unnecessary clutter can help you clear your mind so that new things can begin to come to you. And you can really start to live that big life. Now. Remember, this week, you can jump into the lab that’s at live big lab calm, and you’ll get all the downloads and more of a deep dive into this topic, as well as become part of the lab community. So thanks so much for listening. And you guys go out and have a great week. I’ll see you next week. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now, don’t forget you can find the lab by going to live big lab.com or you can text the word live big just one word 2444999. Have a super week. And as always, here’s the little message from my husband.
That’s it.