Have You Ever Felt Stuck?

Navigating your way through life might seem overly complex with roadblocks on every level. Simplifying your life by releasing clutter and old patterns will help pave the way for more success in your life.

Where should you start when you feel stuck?

The best place for you to start will be to nudge and budge your most persistent blocks. Get rid of the biggest monkeys on your back and you will see very clearly what to do next and the best way to move forward. This real life client story will help explain why.

How did one client clear the clutter that was holding her back?

An interesting email arrived early one morning. It read,

“I’ve tried many things over the years to help my daughter. She is an aspiring actor and has been chronically disorganized for years. I am suspicious that it is causing a number of failures in her life.

I found your website this worrisome and sleepless night at 4:00 a.m. I have been trying to help my daughter and have been sponsoring talk therapy.

I have begun to realize that our daughter sitting on a sofa in a therapist’s office talking about her problems is too far removed from the actual things weighing her down. I think that our adult daughter needs practical hands-on intervention.”

My heart ached reading this story from a very wise mother. I scheduled an appointment as soon as I could and began working with her daughter a few weeks later.

I quickly discovered that there were many things weighing her down and that she was living the quintessential life of the starving artist.

What was weighing her down?

We started clearing, sorting, and organizing her mounds of papers and clothes, including getting her excess possessions out of storage and into her apartment. She had moved from L.A. to San Diego without taking inventory or clearing her life in advance.

Many items had ended up in storage by default as she transitioned into a much smaller apartment. At that point, she was teaching acting and working as a bartender between acting jobs.

The significant challenge was this: her life was too chaotic and she didn’t have enough space to even begin to consider the goals required to realize her dreams. She was constantly on the run ─ running for money and running for small acting parts. Her manuscripts were in disarray. It took hours to find the scripts she needed for her students.

Her finances were jumbled because she had never stopped to learn how to organize a budget. She truly believed that life had simply happened to her and that she had no control over the outcome. Her real dream was to move to New York City and jump-start her career.

How did she get to New York?

After we cleared her excess clothes and created order with her personal paperwork and scripts, we could begin working with her time and money management. It became clear that she would need to shift her employment to a day job to create the space and flexibility to be fresh for last-minute auditions and have the ability to work them if she got the parts.

Once we earmarked a timeline for her move to the Big Apple, we plotted a budget to determine what she would need so that she would have enough money to move and cover rent and expenses to survive two to three months while she looked for new employment.

I am happy to report that she arrived in New York only one month behind schedule and is happily pursuing her quest for an acting career. When she moved, she did not carry many of her past problems in physical form.

Her mother wrote to me later, “Her life is running much smoother and I feel that she is in a much better place to succeed.”

How can you remove your own roadblocks?

At some point in our life, each and every one of us has been stuck and unable to see our way forward to an easier path. It happened to me after we lost our publishing agency after 9-11. This is an example of an extreme situation where there appeared to be no way to move forward.

As you can see, there is always a way forward. You simply need to start removing the roadblocks that appear to be in your way. If you can’t identify what your personal roadblocks are, or the biggest monkey on your back I talked about at the beginning of this article, simply begin getting rid of your clutter. Any clutter that you see in your home needs to go away and be given to a charity where others will find it and embrace it with joy. It really doesn’t matter where you begin. If you need a nudge, read where to start when you want to get decluttered.

Start with one empty bag or box

Grab an empty bag or empty box and start clearing out the old. As you begin releasing items that you no longer need, use or love keep your thoughts centered on creating something new in your life.

Become open and receptive to thoughts that enter your mind as you make progress decluttering your home or home office. You will begin to hear small insights into what you need to do next to create the life that you love and one in which you will thrive!

Why change your attitude about change?

Be willing to change your attitude about change ─ learn to embrace a new perspective. You will soon be open to new possibilities and able to create your life based on your true skills and passions. Remember, a rather small, seemingly insignificant change will often propel you into larger-than-life results. The change can begin in your home or business.

It doesn’t really matter where you begin, every environment where you live, work and breathe affects every other. As Kathi explains in internal conflict creates external clutter, what surrounds you and what is going on inside you are linked.

When you clear your old useless clutter you will begin to see your way forward – it happens every time. Make sure to keep focused on how you want to feel after your life is cleared and your roadblocks are removed and you will see the perfect path lighted and waiting for you to move forward on!

Life is exciting and full of promise when you give it room to grow!