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The Organized Life archives
AUGUST 2007
Volume 4, Issue #8
HOW YOUR GOALS CAN HELP YOU GET ORGANIZED
Dear Subscriber,
I'm
sitting on the terrace of a friend’s apartment in beautiful LA, under a blue, blue sky, with a luscious green vista in front of me. It’s a place I don’t get to often enough. I’m here to work on my web site, so stay tuned: big changes are afoot.
The big news in my life is that I’ve just graduated from the Western School of Feng Shui ™. I reviewed my final projects – seven full client consultations plus eight other assignments – with one of my distinguished teachers, and my Certificate in Essential Feng Shui ® is on its way. Hooray! It took almost 10 months to complete, on top of the training itself last fall, so I am relieved and happy to “be official” at last.
As I worked towards getting my certificate, I was reminded once again of the power of a well-defined goal. An important goal can motivate you to get organized like few other things can: to organize your stuff so that you have space to work, and to structure your time so that distractions can’t take over. This month I’d like to talk about how to use the power of your own personal goals to help you get and stay organized.
STEP ONE: BEING REALISTIC
In my case, the good news was that I had a set of assignments to complete. But of course I had to complete them within my already-crowded life. When I returned home from the training at the end of October last year, I thought, no problem – I can knock these out between all my other responsibilities: client work, NAPO board responsibilities, the continuing renovation of my apartment and so on….
Well, February arrived and I discovered that somehow my Feng Shui assignments hadn’t completed themselves! It was time to decide: did I really want the Certificate, or was I content simply to have completed the training, never mind “graduating”? What was my goal?
Of course, my goal was to get the certificate. Feeling certain about this helped me identify things that were distracting me and clarified my priorities. I realized that other things I wanted to achieve depended upon my getting the certificate, too: until I got it, progress would be delayed on several important fronts.
Putting “Complete Certificate” at the top of my list brought me a huge sense of relief. I could set up my desk to make it easy to work exclusively on the 15 projects I needed to complete, and make room for the creation of the bound book I would be sending in. And when distractions crowded in, I could now say “No” to them with ringing clarity.
STEP TWO: A SENSE OF PURPOSE
If your life is feeling like it’s full of distractions, or you have the sense that you’re running in place, it’s time to identify a goal or two to devote yourself to.
If nothing presents itself as obviously as my Feng Shui Certificate did, that doesn’t mean you have no goals; it may only mean that you haven’t named certain things as goals that really are such things: learning about something that interests you deeply, completing a collection or getting an existing one into order, completing your resume, working with your children on their projects, finishing the decoration of a room: the sky’s the limit. The key is to say it, to write it down, to give yourself a sense of purpose about it, and even to set a deadline for yourself.
It’s not so important that you actually make this deadline; I think I told myself I’d be submitting my materials for the certificate for sure by the end of April, May and June before I finally did so in July – but watching the artificial deadlines come and go definitely became a motivating factor by the time the summer rolled around!
STEP THREE: BUILDING MOMENTUM
So, use your goals to clean up some of the distractions in your life, and get organized into the bargain.
- Identify your goal or goals. Two or three is probably the max; anything beyond that will diminish the energy you need to put yourself over the top.
- Give yourself a good sense of the individual sub-projects necessary to achieve your goals completely.
- Observe the activities that fall outside of your projects and goals and begin to say no to the truly extraneous ones.
- Organize your stuff physically to support you as you tackle each project.
- Keep chipping away until you’ve made it.
Congratulate yourself, and use this technique to stay organized – that way you’ll be even readier to tackle your next set of goals.
Until next month, Happy Organizing!
Sincerely,
Ann Bingley Gallops
The Organized Life
DISCOVERY OF THE MONTH
It’s tough to get motivated in a space where it feels like the ch’i energy isn’t moving. Sometimes this isn’t so much a matter of too much stuff as it is that the air itself isn’t actually circulating. A windowless office, an apartment with no cross-ventilation, a room where the windows don’t open – there are plenty of places that weren’t designed with healthy air circulation in mind.
To correct for this, I recommend placing a small fan (Vornado is my personal favorite) on the floor, pointed straight up so that it really moves the air around. You can place it under a table or desk so that it’s out of the way; wherever you put it, get ready for a refreshing new feeling in your space!
ABOUT Ann Bingley Gallops
Ann is a Feng Shui consultant and Decluttering Consultant in New York City, specializing in improving the energy flow and organization of homes and businesses. She is 2007-2008 President of the New York chapter of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO-NY).
GETTING IN TOUCH
Call or write to schedule a Feng Shui or Decluttering consultation for your home or office in the New York City area.
And please drop me a line with comments, questions, or suggestions for future newsletters.
Ann Bingley Gallops
The Organized Life
646-382-3878
ann@theorganizedlife.net
www.theorganizedlife.net
Copyright 2007, Ann Bingley Gallops
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