Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Are you drowning in your to-dos? | Clutterbug Podcast # 75

Episode Date: September 5, 2019

Life can be just... a lot sometimes. We have so many things we want to accomplish, so many things we feel we need to accomplish that it can often feel like we are drowning.  Do you feel like you are not reaching your full potential? Are you frustrated at your lack of motivation and just don't know where to begin?  In this podcast I share the ONE thing that always gives me a lift raft when I feel like I'm drowning.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey guys, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. Today we're going to talk about feeling like a failure or feeling like we're not measuring up to other people in our life or to the expectations we put on ourselves and how to overcome that. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. I appreciate it. It's been a while since I've uploaded. Life is busy and crazy and I'm making excuses. But I'm back now having lived most of of the summer in hotels working, working outside the home for my first time in probably 15 years working outside of the home away from my family. It was major suckage. But I'm back now and just trying to get back into the routine of things after months of being out of it. And I'm feeling overwhelmed. I'm feeling just bummed about the mundane boringness of adult life. And I feel like I'm not really accomplishing as much as I should or could be. And I know that this is a universal thing. I know that we all feel this way because anytime I reach out to friends and family and sort of

complain, I guess, about my lack of motivation or the lack of just structure in my life right now, I feel out of control in my life. They all totally feel the same way. And they're shocked that I feel that way. And I think because I podcast and because I make videos or I've written books on basically how to get your life together, people assume I have my life together. But what I've really realized is that no one does. We're all just trying to do the best that we can. And I've spent the last probably five years of my life just really trying to push the needle forward. It's been so important to me to have a legacy maybe. I don't even know what you'd call it. Just make a difference, have an impact, do something bigger than myself. And being a mom and a wife is so amazing,

but I wanted more. I didn't know how to get it. I just knew that I wanted more. And I had a really deep desire to help people overcome the same challenges that I've overcome. And the only challenge I've overcome is a cluttered house. So I figured I just maybe start there. I'm still filled with a million other challenges. But coming back to just the feeling of the overwhelm, so here I am back in my home after months away, doing the daily routine of just kids and getting them ready for the day and housework and laundry and trying to work and just balance it all. And I am struggling. I am really struggling. And so I talked to my husband about how overwhelmed I felt, how I felt like I was drowning in my own life and I needed a life preserver. And he said the thing that I always say,

but sometimes you just need to hear it again. And he said to me, you need to have a plan. You need to write down all of the things that you have to do, which in my case, I'm writing a fourth book, a guided journal. It's due in a couple of weeks. I'm so far behind. I'm still not done filming this television series. We still have to finalize all of that. I have so many podcasts that need to be edited and videos that need to be edited and live trainings that need to be done.

I'm working on developing my next course. I have gads of interviews scheduled. And of course, I have my kids and my kids' activities and I have to be really present for them. And so with all of this on my plate, I'm looking at it all and I'm just feeling like, oh, it's too much to do. And so I'm doing nothing, which is something that I do. I call it ostriching.

So when life gets crazy for me, I stick my head in the sand and I pretend like it's all just going to magically work itself out and it never does and it blows up and then I have to, you know, dig myself out of an even bigger hole. And so my husband's words of plan really just, it was exactly what I needed to hear. and I knew it, but I just needed to be told again. So here I am telling you the same thing. When you're feeling overwhelmed in your life, write down a plan. And you have to go a step further than that.

You have to write down all the things that you need to accomplish. And then you have to circle or write beside a one or two the things that are most important. Obviously, we can't get everything done. We just can't. And it's ridiculous to think that we can, but we can plan to not fail to get the most important things done. And when we prioritize the thing that we have to get done, when we really look and say, okay, like this is the most important thing. If the laundry falls away or I don't get those videos edited, that's okay, but I have to finish this book. And it sort of focuses me again to make sure that I'm not letting the really important things slip through the crack.

making my family a priority is so important too. So just having that list, just taking a few minutes to write it down to prioritize it and to schedule my day like Friday I'm going to do this and Saturday I'm going to do this and it's going to suck. It's going to suck as I dig myself out of that hole. But the simple fact of writing it down, prioritizing and scheduling my time has already made me feel instantly better. Like it's like a weight has been lifted off. And I instantly feel more motivated to actually do those things. I'm not like a lost ship at sea, like, oh, just wandering around. I have a lighthouse. I have that beacon, that that plan showing me where I need to go and how I need to get there. And it only takes a few minutes to do,

but it's such an impactful thing to do. It has such a huge impact on your life. So I want you, if you're listening to this podcast and you're like me and you're feeling overwhelmed maybe by your house and how much you have to clean or maybe you want to work on a business or your job or your just your family life is feeling overwhelmed maybe you feel like you're not spending enough time with your aging parents there's all of this weight in our mind and in our body of all the things we want or we feel we need to do and when it's just all sloshing around in our brain it drags the whole ship down write it down make a plan priority and give yourself that beacon, that path, that lighthouse out of the storm.

It really does work. And if you're really struggling with motivation, don't forget about accountability. Join a group on Facebook. Reach out to a friend and ask if you can have a daily or weekly chat and just be accountable to each other for your written plan. Talk to your family, talk to your husband, talk to whoever, and just say this thing. the things I have to accomplish each day, can you just check in with me and make sure I'm doing those things? And if you mess up a day and there's things you don't get done, it's okay. You just

have to get back on that horse tomorrow and go back to that plan. You're going to accomplish so much more just by having it, just by taking the time to write it down, prioritize it, and then schedule it in your calendar, block off time to get those tasks that you've written down done. don't get distracted by the things on your list that are lower in the priority focus on those main important things and you will be amazed at how much you can actually get done and how much you can push that needle forward in your life and really accomplish those big dreams that you have so before i sign off i also just want to remind you to be grateful i want you when you're writing your plan to write on the top of your page a couple of things that you're

are really grateful for. Sometimes just our attitude has such an impact on our life too. So when we focus on the negative about how much we have to do and how overwhelmed we are and how life is so bleh, horrible, it can steal our motivation, it can steal our energy and we can feel like we're in a really negative place. And the simple act of being grateful, the simple act of looking at the positive can snap us out of that. So right down on that, page to a few things that you're grateful for, things that are really positive right now in your life and keep that paper somewhere where you can see it every day as you check those things off on your list. So thank you guys so much for tuning in. This is a short and sweet little podcast

today, but I've been missing you guys. So I definitely wanted to give you an update in my life and just let you know that you're not alone. It's a universal problem for all of us to feel like we're drowning in this crazy, big, crazy world. But throw yourself a life raft and make a plan to get to shore. Thank you guys so much, and I'll see you next time.