Equipping young women professionals with young families to find fulfillment, contentment and joy as mothers and home makers without losing sight of who they are as women.

Volume 07, Issue 16: Get Organized

I am reading from Benjamin P. Hardy’s work that I resonate with because I am a very organized person. Life comes with turbulence and distractions. Unless we organize the different aspects of our lives, we stand in the way of our own success.

It’s imperative to have a guidance system that shows our destination and when and how we are going to get there, and that we check against regularly to determine if we are still on course, or how far off course we have drifted.

Benjamin reiterates that small things, if not corrected, become big things, always. Even seemingly inconsequential aspects of our lives can create ripples and waves of consequences – for better or worse. I concur with him that one of the things that can help you minimize turbulence and other conditions distracting your path is organizing your life.

Life is busy. In this piece, Benjamin points out that it’s hard to keep everything organized and tidy, but once you’re organized, moving forward takes far less energy. Everything in your life is energy. If you’re carrying too much – physical or emotional, your progress will be hampered.

Few people have organized their lives to prioritize almost exclusively important aspects such as learning, health, relationships, and finances. No one cares about your success more than you do. If you are not a meticulous accountant about the important details of your life, then you aren’t responsible enough to have what you say you want.

So, how do you organize your life? Benjamin points out key energy areas to take charge of.

Environmental energy: Is your living space cluttered and messy or simple and neat? Do you keep stuff you no longer use? Does your environment facilitate the emotions you consistently want to experience? Does your environment drain or improve your energy?

Financial energy: Do you have unnecessary debt? Do you know how much you spend each month? Do you know how much you make each month? Are you making as much money as you would like to be? Most people don’t track their expenses. But if they did, they’d be shocked how much money they waste on things they could do without.

Most people find it boring to make time for the administrative details of their finances – to prepare and monitor personal budgets, not realizing that this lackluster behavior is holding them back from the very goals they’re trying to accomplish.

Until you can hone in on your finances, you won’t have a healthier financial life, regardless of your income. Until you take complete responsibility of your finances, you’ll always be a slave to money.

Relational energy: Are your relationships the most meaningful and enjoyable part of your life? Do you spend enough time nurturing the relationships that really matter? Do you maintain toxic relationships that no longer serve you? Are you authentic and honest in your relationships?

Like money, most people’s relationships are not organized in a conscious manner. But with something so critical, we should take better stock of our relationships.

Health energy: Do you eat with the end in mind? Are you conscious of and in control of the foods you put in your body? Does the food you eat improve or worsen the other areas of your life? Do you exercise consistently? Does your body reflect your highest ideals? Is your body as strong and fit as you want it to be? Are you healthier now than you were three months ago?

Health is wealth. If you’re bed ridden, who cares how organized the other areas of your life are? It’s so easy to put our health on the side, such as foregoing sleep, overworking, not exercising, and making poor eating habits. Little things become big things, and eventually everything catches up.

Spiritual energy: Do you have a sense of purpose in life? Have you come to terms with life and death in a way you resonate with? How much power do you have in designing your future? Death, it turns out, is not your greatest fear. Actually, your greatest fear is reaching death and having never truly lived.

When you organize your spiritual life, you become clear on what your life is about. You become clear on what you stand for, and how you want to spend each day. You develop conviction for what really matters to you, and what is a “distraction.”

Time: How much of your time do you feel in complete control of? Is your time being wasted on things you don’t intrinsically enjoy? Are the activities you spend your time doing moving you toward your ideal future? Are you spending most of your time furthering your own agenda or someone else’s? What activities should you remove from your life? How much time do you waste each day? What would your ideal day look like? What activities could you outsource or automate that unnecessarily take up your time?

Until you organize your time, it will disappear and move quickly. Before you know it, you’ll wonder where all the time went. Once you organize your time, it will slow down. You’ll be able to live more presently. You’ll be able to experience time as you want to. You’ll control your time rather than the other way around.

Stop What You’re Doing and Get Organized

In conclusion, Benjamin reiterates that getting organized and conscious of your present circumstances - your environment, finances, relationships, purpose, and time puts you in a position to build toward the future you want.

The fastest way to move forward in life is not doing more. It starts with stopping the behaviors holding you back. If you want to get in shape, you’ll make more progress by stopping your negative behaviors than starting good ones.

Before you focus on making more money, reduce your spending. Detach yourself from needing more and become content with what you have. Until you do this, it doesn’t matter how much money you make. You’ll always spend what you have, or more.

This is a matter of stewardship. Rather than wanting more and more, it’s key to take proper care of what you currently have. Organize yourself. Dial it in. Your life is a garden. What good is planting if you don’t prepare the soil and remove the weeds?

People stay stuck because they never organize. They try adding more, or being more productive, or taking a different approach, but remain in the same position. So, before you “hustle,” get organized.

Lillian Chebosi