I'm talking about CLUTTER!
I had a revelation about this the other day.
There is a connection between clutter and poverty (or a poverty mindset).
I've had a basket full of papers for a while - notes, ideas, business cards, clippings...it's a nice basket, the papers are stacked neatly in the basket, but it is something that I am tolerating - it nags at me. (That's a partial picture of the pile after I pulled it out of the basket.)
I've unstacked the pile several times, and I've tried to organize these papers on more than one occasion...on many occasions, actually. Still, I seemed to get nowhere with the pile.
Finally, the other day, I got fed up...I thought about what was there - after all, I'd pulled these papers out enough to have the contents practically memorized. (Hey, I'm being honest.)
Then I asked myself...WHY am I holding on to these papers?
Truth is...I hadn't had need of any of these papers for a year or longer. Yet, I was afraid to get rid of them.
The dialogue in my head sounded something like this:
What if I needed these papers?
What if there was some opportunity in there that I'd miss out on?
What if I wanted to write something next week and it turns out that I needed something I'd thrown out with the pile? What would I do?
I felt guilty about collecting the business cards and having done nothing with them...after all, I went to the conferences, met these great people...yet, here the cards sat. (All they did now was make me feel guilty.)
There were magazines I'd gotten on airlines, and I now couldn't remember what I found so fascinating at the time.
The real issue here for me with the papers was, "There may not be enough"...and really, underneath that, is a concern that "I may not be enough".
I was shocked to see a "poverty mindset" - and a pretty pervasive one - behind the clutter.
In other words, the clutter was just a symptom of this mindset that was telling me, "There's not enough". And if you look at it carefully, in order to paralyze action, all this thought process had to do was merely suggest that there "may not be enough".
Where's the clutter in your life?
Clothes...paper...people...relationships, objects, seminars (learning's great but can belie a poverty mindset that you don't know enough), mimentos, shoes, bags, gift wrapping - be honest....do you save it to reuse?
Clutter is anything in your life that you are tolerating, that nags at you, that's holding you back.
It's not the objects or items that are the problem. It's the thoughts that may be causing you to hold onto them...take a good look.
A poverty mindset is anything that tells you "there's not enough", "the world is not abundant".
AND...by the way, I threw out the ENTIRE pile (except the info about adopting Tylos, the cat), and I haven't needed one single thing from that pile.
Besides, if I did...it's not like I couldn't find the information somewhere else.
AND...by the by, it felt GREAT to throw out all that clutter and be FREE!
(I'd argue that there's a direct connection between this action of releasing these papers - and the accompanying povery thoughts - and the turnaround I've seen in my finances.)
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