[PODCAST 159]: A Fresh New Hope is Waiting!

My goal today is to give you a boost of encouragement–specifically for those who feel “hopelessly cluttered” and wonder if they’ll ever feel calm and organized.

This is a microburst podcast, so the idea is for you to listen while you tackle one area of your home or office, and then the task will be done, and you’ll feel lifted and ready to move on to other things!

This beautiful post was shared recently in our STEP Mastery Facebook group, and I’m pretty sure we have a lot of community members who can relate: 

Here are a few things I love about this:

(1) We can make improvements in our lives–even when we’re not totally consistent. Think back to your own experiences where you’ve had starts and stops as you’ve worked toward a goal. Maybe you tried some healthy recipes or exercises for a while, maybe you learned a guitar chord here and there, maybe you listened to just a few podcasts or watched a few videos on a specific topic. Life can feel full of distractions, and we can’t be “all in” on everything at once, but we can still make progress, and all that work still “counts.” (One final example is this podcast…. I’ve been running it since 2015, and some years, I’ve published a lot of episodes. Other years, I’ve done only a few. But they add up!)

(2) Progress isn’t an “all or nothing” thing. I love how Sylvia shared that she felt hopelessly decluttered and disorganized in the past, but NOW she’d describe her home as “slightly messy.” That is HUGE! And sure, we might feel tempted to think that if it isn’t magazine-worthy, it’s not a “successful completion of a project,” but I completely disagree. Are you better off today than you were a year ago? How about 10 years ago? There’s a lot of imperfect, incomplete growth going on, and that’s to be celebrated.

(3) Even doing one small thing consistently can give us an emotional boost. Sylvia now maintains and reviews her calendar regularly, for example. Do you know how many people never use a calendar–or don’t trust their calendar because it feels overwhelming to them? I love that she picked one way she could step in the “direction of getting organized,” and now that she has proven to herself that she can master one thing, she can build on that confidence and work on the next thing. (And it’s okay if she’s not consistent at first. And it’s okay if it takes some time to master all of this. The progress is what matters!)

And as a side note, when I asked Sylvia if she’d mind if I shared her story, she replied with this, “I don’t mind at all.  I feel so strongly about your program that I want people who feel hopeless (like I have) to feel the hope and support and to keep pressing on.  Thank you so much for spreading hope…!”

I’ve spent too much time in the past “waiting for that perfect time” to start something new. “Well, I won’t get going on the YouTube channel until I can do it ALL the time.” Or, “I won’t hang anything on the walls of my house until I know what I’m going to hang on EVERY wall.” 

Do you do this? Do you ever think, “I’ll wait and get organized when I have a few months to focus on JUST that and do the program perfectly…” If that’s ever gone through your mind, I’m seriously pleading with you to take one step in a happy direction. And then take the next step when you have the time, desire, or bandwidth. There’s a fresh new hope waiting for all of us, and though it does sometimes feel scary to look at ourselves and see “imperfection,” that is really the only way anything beautiful or worthwhile ever gets started. 🙂

As a next step, are you ready to become a STEPper?

Our signature program, Steps to Everyday Productivity, will help you calm your mind and organize your life with the help of a “Command Central.” Come learn more by clicking this link!

Each month, there’s a new chance to ARISE!

Our monthly membership–with a powerful community, focused topics, interactive classes, and lots of support–is called ARISE, and it’s a fantastic way to focus on what matters most (even in the midst of a busy life)! Come start your free trial here!