Resolve to Say NO to Resolutions
At the end of every year, magazine covers seem to become plastered with well-meaning tips, advice and how-to’s for organizing your way into a better year. Headlines like "End Your War Against Clutter,” "10 Tips to Tidy Your Closet," "5 Ways To Turn Your Kitchen from Chaos to Calm" Sound familiar? And is it any wonder why stores like the Container Store do special promotions on their organizing products at the start of every year? Coincidence? I think not.
And I get it. New year, fresh start, yadda yadda yadda. Resolutions are so tempting because they offer a clean break… a fresh start. But what might seem like a fresh start can also be a false start. Because the motivation for change is just the resolution itself. Not the result of the sustained effort. Because it is the sustained effort that takes really hard work.
It's what makes a lot of resolutions a tricky proposition. Setting a goal tied to a resolution that you might not keep (especially if you don’t see quick results) will only discourage you, and sabotage any real chance for lasting change. A better approach is to do some analysis to figure out what you really want, and then set some realistic action items to get you closer to what you want to accomplish.
And of course this can be done at any time of the year. You don't have to wait until the end of December or beginning of January to get more organized. Because truth of the matter is the process of living an organized life never stops. It is a constant circle that doesn’t have a beginning or an end. And that is how it is meant to be. Setting up systems that accommodate a life in perpetual motion.
Which brings me back to all those pesky magazine covers with their quick fix headlines. They seem to promise results in a linear timeline. That if you do THIS .... then your problem will permanently solved. But that is just NOT true! If it was, then those magazines would have been out of business a long time ago. Collect enough Real Simple Magazines (ahem, not that I've been guilty of doing that or anything) and you'll see that the same topics get repackaged with new teasers year after year after year....
So please, don't give yourself one more thing to stress over during the New Year. When you are ready to tackle whatever big organizing project or mess that needs your attention, you will. Until then, don't pressure yourself into dealing with it just because one year is folding over into the next. You don't need to resolve to do something at the end of December that you wouldn't consider doing in July.
