Accumulated History

You can’t resolve a lifetime of clutter in an instant. Thinking that you can or should be able to remove this clutter quickly introduces and reinforces Chaos in your life. We’ll show you how you can claim the courage and have the clarity to remove the accumulation.

The Context

She came home and was immediately welcomed with the familiar feeling of overwhelm. Her home was no longer the sanctuary of peace, instead feeling more like a museum’s storage room. It was her museum of memories…but seeing all the memories at once would overwhelm her senses. She needed change but didn’t want to discard the importance of the memories.

Let’s set the stage with an all too familiar story. She had moved into her house many years ago with two teenagers, who had long since moved out. As her children transitioned from childhood to adulthood, stepping out on their own, she helped them set up their apartments. Her house was empty, but she still wanted to cherish the time that she had with her kids in the house, so she left mementos of their childhood around the house for a time, even leaving their rooms as they were gone (but she did clean them up, for old times sake). Even remaining was that hole in the wall that her son’s fist had created in a bout of anger, albeit hidden from view with a piece of art.

But that was many years ago, and since then, she had taken in furniture from her parent’s estate and added various art, decoration, and furniture without removing much. As a result, stored items poured out of the closets into many rooms, and parts of the house were “not for visitors.”

Alignment

This is not only a story of a house. Whether we like it or not, in our life, we accumulate memories, clutter, and baggage. This happens with our material things at home, our relationships, our work, and our minds. As you process this article, keep in mind the key areas in your life, and assess where you can apply this:

• Vocationally
• Relationally
• Spiritually
• Physically
• Emotionally

Remember, before you can plan how to get where you want to go, you must first understand your starting point. Two pieces of information are necessary to start planning a route – a destination and, more importantly, a starting point. If you don’t know where you are, you’ll never be able to get to where you want to be.

How Chaos is evident

Years of accumulation in a house is a challenging situation to attend to. Chaos is everywhere. There’s the disappointment/guilt that accompanies the question of “How did I let it come to this?”. The task itself feels gigantic – much too large to see the light at the end of the tunnel. But, then, there’s the voice in your head that questions, even if you are to get it done, what’s keeping it from returning to Chaos? There’s even the guilt of letting things go – they might have specific sentimental value to me or those I care about. And, of course, simply the time – where will I find the time to get all this done? Don’t I have enough on my plate as it is?

These are central questions that initiate Chaos in our lives. At its core, there are two major issues here:

The Plan to address the Chaos

This chaos needs to be attended to. Your focus should be on identifying the “bite-sized” pieces you can chunk out to see progress. Instead of focusing on the “too big to finish” job, breaking it down to smaller pieces will allow you to see, and more importantly feel progress. Once you have broken the effort down into bite sized pieces, give yourself aggressive yet possible goals. I like how the authors of “The One Thing” approach this.

Set a goal for a longer but reasonable time horizon – I want to get my house decluttered in a year.

Once you have this foundation, continually break this down with the question, “To accomplish this, this [quarter, month, week, day], I need to do [this].” As you progress down the time horizon, things become significantly easier to complete. For example,

As you can see, refining your focus causes the reduction of ambiguity and confusion. As you focus on the smaller tasks, you will both be able to see how the change creates immediate value and short-term progress towards the goal. You generate a simple process out of something very complex.

That’s a solid trick to outsmarting Chaos – finding ways to simplify the situation until you are confident that you can see a path that leads to progress, and progress that leads to completion.

Application

This example is focused on the home and is generalized for the most significant benefit for those reading. Even so, there’s a lot here that applies to most situations, including the workplace. Chunking work and developing timelines is a critical part of everyone’s day-to-day work.

The truth is that most people that have been in the workforce for more than a couple of years have accumulated quite a bit from their history of employment. Sometimes, this accumulation has worked its way into the image that you have of yourself. This can be tremendously positive, but can also be chaos lurking just under the surface. Understanding your identity is critically important as you navigate through the chunking exercise. We’ll be exploring accumulated history in the workplace in another article.

If this article hits a nerve, it’s likely that you will benefit from individual consultation and planning, as there are differences. At Outsmart Chaos, we can help with coaching and tools that will help you develop the confidence, courage, and clarity to navigate through your Chaos, whatever it may be. If you’re interested in finding out more, connect with us below.