DECISION POINT: Change Requires Courage and Willingness To Re-Create

Posted: 13 years ago | By: Christine Somers | In: Life Management | Read Time: 5 minutes, 25 seconds

It’s the culture mantra of our generation, and every New Year we do it again! We resolve to get our lives organized, lose those 20 pounds, and pray that all birthday greetings get sent out on time! With the hope of starting afresh we put pencil to paper and begin creating our ‘goals’ lists once again. We gather the necessary goods to ensure that it all happens, and promise ourselves that we’re going to get it right this time! And, some do. But for most of us mid-lifers, motivation quickly wanes. Why is that?

 As a 16-year veteran professional organizer, now in my 60’s, I recently had a revelation after working with a client who had just celebrated her 60th birthday - the same day she had admitted her father into a long-term nursing care facility. Ginger called me because she was overwhelmed by the stacks of lingering paper involving her dad’s illness, plus many of his personal family belongings that came from her childhood home. Clutter and general neglect had accumulated in her 7-room house during the years as the care-giver to her dad. She held a full time job and was a single mom of two, both in college. She was overwhelmed and emotionally drained, and described a deep sense of “loss of self.” Ginger isn’t alone. 75% of my client base is boomers, and of that percentage approximately 78% are chronically disorganized (www.nsgcd.org). According to recent statistics, there is an estimated 79 million baby boomers in the US alone…many dealing with very similar issues.

We are considered the “sandwich” generation, a far more complex era compared to the generations before or after us. Although circumstances vary, I realized that Boomers suffer from an inordinate demand on four essentials of life: time, energy, environment, and joy. It’s of little wonder why antidepressants are among the top medications prescribed today! Since society revolves around the 24-hr.day (and we all get equal portion) the greatest assault is on our time. It occurred to me also, that although tired, we are also strong, so let’s change it up! Let this year’s resolution be to make a big-picture shift in the way we do things and become more pro-active about changing our condition so we can create more meaningful and harmonious lives. Since time is a major issue, it would make sense that we start here. We must be more vigilant (mindful and deliberate) about how we choose to spend it, where and with whom, than ever before. Doing so will also require a significant ‘change’ in the way we think about our things and to let go of unsupportive items, beliefs and habits, including any irreconcilable toxic relationships. We need to develop new empowering resources, consolidate activities and efforts, and simplify our environments. Doing so will immediately minimize time-wasting activities, eliminate unnecessary spending (dollars), and will streamline life so we can ‘be’ for those who are important to us – especially to our own ourselves. Enough of this tough sandwich! Bring on the dessert, please!

Change requires courage, effort, acceptance and a willingness to re-create. Some will require more radical intervention, but the rewards far outweigh the effort. Humor me if you will: to further illustrate my thoughts (and add some fun) I’ve developed a little metaphor. Below is my little list of four (petit-fours-like) recipe recommendations for how to transform your life from the squeeze of the sandwich generation into a lighter, sweeter and more gratifying era as a Petit Four pastry might represent. Life is short – eat dessert first, right? January is National Get Organized Month (www.napo.net). Are you up for the 2011 challenge? Then put on your apron and thinking- cap, and let’s begin!

Petit-Four For Life

Ingredients: (Caution: over-indulgence may become addictive and beneficial to your health.)

Time – a major ingredient. Time is also “money” – guard it with great care. Harness and control it deliberately and skillfully. Use a planner system www.plannerpads.com, (not just a calendar) to capture and manage the most important/necessary activities in your life. Be mindful of time wasters vs. valuable activities. Be sure to schedule enough time for your own self-care…you will need it to help build and replenish the next ingredient.

Energy – an essential ingredient for making things actually happen. It is self-generated and self- sustaining, not by will-power, rather by commitment, honor and choice. The type of energy generated (weak or strong) will depend on what we choose to keep and eliminate in the organizing process. Life is a continuum and in order to move ahead we sometimes need to let go of whatever things (items, activities, and people) that hold us back or create ‘drag.’ Once those shackles are identified and released, energy increases, motivation improves and a new sense of freedom will soar!

Environment – the climate where you choose to live. It is your physical domain, your habitat. Aim to minimize and simplify by eliminating unnecessary clutter, implement organizational systems that support the first two ingredients above. If you need help, offer to exchange organizing help-time with a friend – it’s a great way to create synergy and motivation, or hire a professional organizer if you get stuck! Creating an environment that is orderly, supportive and esthetically pleasing increases your time by eliminating the clutter that requires unnecessary management and drains our energy. Intrinsic motivation flourishes in peaceful environments, where innovation and creativity allow for newer happier opportunities - which is where the next ingredient comes in!

Joy – the sweet results of a combined convection mix of all ingredients above. It delivers a sense of well being and victory. It is contentment. It has qualities similar to yeast because when this ingredient is re-introduced back into the batch, the recipe automatically increases synergistically, creating more time, more energy (motivation) and thus an improved environment, and so on. Choices, decisions, time management and routine maintenance become easier…life is simpler, richer and sweeter.

Directions: Combine all ingredients sequentially as listed above and bake with continued frequency. This is a process type recipe so be sure to re-mix expanded results back into the batch to enhance its savory and fulfilling flavors, and to ensure long term sustainability. Results will remain stable as long as applied to daily life daily. Benefits of these little but powerful ‘Petit-Fours’ can only be experienced and appreciated when sampled liberally every day.

Calories: explosive. Expandable results: endless. Bon Appetite!