Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - How to overcome fear and find motivation in your life | Clutterbug Podcast # 72

Episode Date: May 25, 2019

Fear is the root of anxiety. Fear or failure. Fear of wasting time. Fear of wasting money. Fear of making a mistake. These fears can cause us to overthink, overplan and over research...instead of taking action.  In this podcast I talk about how to overcome that fear and find your motivation.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey clutterbugs, today we're talking about fear and how the fear of failure can really cause anxiety, which can lead to a messy home. So thanks so much for joining me. I'm Cass from Clutterbug, and today we're talking about fear. And really we're talking about anxiety. But anxiety is caused. by fear. So we're talking about fear and specifically how the fear of failure stops us from doing things and accomplishing the things we really want to accomplish. They sort of make everything bigger anxiety and fear as a team, make things bigger, overcomplicate things, and stop us from achieving what we really want in our lives. And of course, because this is a clutterbug podcast, we're going to be specifically talking about fear and anxiety. when it comes to our home. So a lot of people struggle with clutter and they struggle with a messy

home. There's definitely different degrees of this, especially depending on your clutterbug style. But the reason when you really can break it down, it almost always comes down to fear. Fear of making a mistake, fear of doing it wrong, fear of wasting money, fear of wasting time, fear of failure like it's just going to get messy again and then you're going to feel bad about yourself all of these reasons that we justify in our head of why we're not doing things or we can't do things or we shouldn't do things basically always come down to fear and i have had many many clients in my lives who want they say that they want to break free of the cycle of clutter constantly tidying and then sort of letting it go for a while and it becomes a giant mess and then having

to like clean everything up really quickly again maybe companies coming over or they just get sick of it and they work really hard and then a week later it's a complete mess again and it's this cycle of crazy clutter and they want to stop this obviously they want to stop the cycle and the number one thing I hear is they don't know how but I think that's sort of a really an excuse use for the fear that they're going to always just fail. So they're afraid to really give it the old college try for fear that they will fail. So what anxiety and fear can really cause is obviously you're feeling stressed out, but it looks a lot like overthinking, over planning, over researching.

So most of the people that I know who are living with chronic clutter have read so many organizing books. They've watched how to get organizing shows. They've actually spent so much time thinking and learning and just stressing about the clutter in their home that they've built this up into this huge mountain in their mind. Before they can even start actually tackling the mountain of clutter, they have this huge mountain in their mind that they have. They have this huge mountain in their mind that they have to deal with. And so this is what I'm going to talk to you about today. How do you overcome that fear? How do you overcome those excuses that you're making in your head? How do you stop overthinking and over planning and actually just take action in your life

specifically with your home so it can get to your goal? So it can become a really organized clutter-free space that stays this way. The truth is you're not going to like the answer because it's not this thing that's going to happen overnight. And I think that's what is causing the fear in the first place. People are like, okay, my house is really messy now. I wanted to get organized. But that's such a huge leap that they don't even know how to get there. They're looking at the end result and they're focusing on where they have to get to

and they're seeing how far away that goal actually is. And then they're like, oh, my gosh, I'd have to do this and get bins and I'd have to, oh, purge all these things and I'd have to, you know, get a closet organizing system and it turns into this, wow, all these things and all these mountains that they're throwing inside their mind that they have to overcome. And the fearing anxiety kicks in. And so nothing happens at all. But the truth is any goal in our lives. Anything we want to accomplish is going to be a huge leap. So we have to stop looking at the end result. We really do. We kind of have to wipe that from our minds and look at one little

step at a time. And I talk about leveling up a lot. I talk about how you need to really just sort of master one small thing. And then you can add another small thing and another small thing. And over time, you've learned so many skills and you've accomplished this huge, amazing task or project or goal, but you've done it in these small steps. And we hear people say all the time, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. And I hate with that, I hate that saying, because while it is so true, it's not really clear on exactly what that looks like. And so when it comes to your home, if it's very messy or if you're really struggling with clutter, you can't just look at the end result.

Like you can't focus on, I want it to be this super clean, immaculate spot and make all these plans to get there and, you know, pin all these boards on Pinterest of what you want the end result to look. like because that's stopping you from actually achieving those things because it's taking up your time and energy and mind space with all of that overthinking, over planning, and over researching that you can do. And it's feeding your fear because it's making this project way more complicated than it needs to be. So what we really have to do when we want to tackle any goal, but especially let's talk about your home is we start in tiny little baby steps. And that's why I say, you know, cleaning clutter-free in 15 minutes a day. Obviously your whole house isn't going to get clean and

organized in 15 minutes a day. 15 minutes a day also doesn't include like dishes, things like that. That's daily maintenance. I'm talking above and beyond just doing like laundry and all the crappy stuff they have to do because we're adults and it's like grown. I hate doing. the laundry, I hate doing the dishes, wiping the counters, cleaning the bathrooms. I'm not talking about that stuff. I'm talking about actually getting organized, actually going through the process of purging, decluttering, giving everything a home, creating labels for those things, and making sure that you're creating homes that work with you and your family style. So visual systems for the things that you use every day, microsystems if you're detailed, macro systems.

if you need fast and easy, but actually doing the organizing part. You can accomplish in 15 minutes a day, but it looks like a tortoise. It's like it's snails pace because today maybe you're just doing your junk drawer. And tomorrow maybe you're just doing your socks. And the next day maybe you're just doing your vitamins. And the next day maybe it's just batteries. It's this very slow step process. but what happens is you're building a block. It's like Legos. You're building piece by piece by

peace. And that is what's going to get you to your goal. And so when you're feeling overwhelmed, when you're feeling anxiety about your home, I want you to realize that that's really coming from fear. It's coming from fear that it's always going to look this way and you're wasting your life and you're a horrible mother because your house is a mess and why can't you get your life together? And all of those thoughts and all of those fears and all of that over-complicating, overthinking, over-planning, over-researching mind stuff is exhausting. You're exhausted just thinking about the things that you need to accomplish. How could you possibly have the energy to actually take action?

And that is the worst thing that you're doing when you're stressing and when you're looking at the big picture and just your mind is racing about all the things you have to do. It's stealing your energy. It's stealing your motivation and it's stopping you from actually ever getting there. It's strange because it's so ironic, isn't it? That thinking and planning the things we want to accomplish in life actually take away from our ability to actually accomplish those things. No, I'm not suggesting you never plan. Obviously, planning is important, but realize that the more important than planning is taking action. And realize that over planning, overthinking and over researching is really causing you to be

stagnant in your life. And it's causing you to not achieve the goals that you and the dreams that you really want to. So I want to challenge you to take action. I want to. I want to challenge you to take action. want you when you start looking at your home and getting really stressed out and feeling like, oh, I can't find my keys again. Oh, it's so frustrating. I want you on your way home from work to pick up a 3M hook and hang it on your wall and that's where your keys go. And then put your keys there. It's a small thing. If you're stressed because you can never find matching socks and you're like, oh, it's so frustrating and your kids are wearing like mismatched socks. I want you to gather up all those mismatched socks and you and your family while you're sitting watching television, I want you to

pair them together. It's a small thing that you can do that's taking action. All of those things we're looking at the when we look at the big picture and the end, it really stops us from taking action because it can cause fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of the amount of work that's involved, fear of not knowing exactly how to accomplish things. But I promise you. you that your small steps taking action is the key to overcoming that anxiety, that fear, but also actually getting there. So taking action 15 minutes a day. That's what I want you to do when it comes to organization. And the great thing is, I mean, I'm not going to lie, it took me probably an entire year, a year. I wish I could say that it was faster than that, but that's the truth,

to totally get my entire home organized. And that involved, you know, a 21 item toss. That involved a lot of garbage bag therapy. That involved rearranging my junk drawer, you know, four or five times. Every day doing a small thing towards my bigger goal. And sometimes, you know, I skipped a day, but I tried to always bring myself back on track. And the great thing about organizing is it gives you that immediate satisfaction. So if you do today, you like go through and throw any of your pens and your whole house, like search your whole house for pens, test them all. If they don't work, throw them in the garbage. It's a weird, small, seemingly pointless thing that you can do. But every time you go to grab a pen, you're no longer having to test and scribble and see if it works

and then, you know, toss it back in the drawer to play that game again the next time. It's one small thing that you've accomplished that you were like, yeah, I threw out my penza didn't work, feel good about yourself, celebrate that, have an accomplishment today and tomorrow do the same thing with something else. It's a great way to not only get your home, obviously organize, save yourself time, but build your confidence to really realize that you can accomplish amazing things in just 15 minutes a day. And once my home was organized, then I started doing other things with that 15 because I had already leveled up. I started doing other things with that 15 minutes a day. I no longer had to dedicate that time to organizing my house. I could dedicate it to starting a blog, having a

YouTube channel, having a podcast, writing a book, doing all this other crazy stuff that I've been doing. and it's all just that 15 minutes a day picking away at these bigger goals. Never do I spend hours and hours and hours of my time trying to accomplish something. One, because I'm lazy, really lazy. Two, because I have ADHD. And three, I'm busy and I have a busy life and three kids and just lots of stuff going on. So that is how I can still, you know, move the needle forward, accomplish things without it seeming like this horrible undertaking, without it causing that fear

and anxiety that having those big goals and focusing on the end result can actually cause. So it's a quick little podcast today to hopefully motivate you to let go of some of that fear or anxiety or if nothing else lessen it by every time you look at your house and you get stressed because you're thinking about the end result of all the work you have to do, I want you to change that mindset and just take action on one small thing. You're stressed out about your kitchen. You're like, oh my gosh, I've got to repaint, or I got to strip that ugly wallpaper, or my dishwasher doesn't work, or whatever is going on in your mind that's causing you

to just get your mind racing, stop and donate all the Christmas mugs. you're not using in your cabinet, right? Grab a box, fill it up with glasses you're not using, take that box to your car, move on with your day. Tomorrow, do the same thing. Anytime you're having those negative thoughts or you're wanting something in your home to be different, I want you to take action for 15 minutes and do one small task. Give it a try. Give it a try for just a week.

For seven days. I love these little seven day challenges. you will be amazed at what you can accomplish. Thank you guys so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you guys next time. Rosen lasagna, medium power, 15 minutes. Sounds like Ojo time. Let's play.

Feel the fun with Play-Ojo, the online casino with all the latest slot and live casino games. What you win is yours to keep. With no wagering requirements, instant payouts, and no minimum withdraws. Hey, I just won. Woo-hoo. Feel the fun.

Play. Honey, forget about the lasagna. Let's celebrate! 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concern about your gambling or that of someone close to you. Call 1866-531-260 or visit connexonterio.ca.