Clutterbug - Real-Life Hacks and Tips to Declutter, Organize and Clean your Home Fast - Rushed to Relaxed - How to Slow Down in the Season of Speed | Clutterbug Podcast # 196

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

Who doesn't want to feel more relaxed?! I'm craving a slower-paced lifestyle, but I also want all the good stuff that comes from working hard and being busy. Can we really have it both ways?! In today's podcast, we chat about simple ways to be more productive, without being busier! Let's work smarter, not harder!   Grab my FREE Vision Board template here: https://clutterbug.me/products/digital-vision-board-templates Grab my FREE Holiday Planning Pack here: https://clutterbug.me/products/holiday-planner-pack   You can find more Clutterbug content here: Website: http://www.clutterbug.me YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@clutterbug TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@clutterbug_me Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clutterbug_me/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Clutterbug.Me/   #clutterbug #podcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever wanted to just feel less rushed, less hectic, slow down, but still get all the awesome stuff done? Like, still have all the results of the things that you want without having to work your butt off to get them? That's what we're going to talk about in today's podcast, how we can actually have both. Hey, Clutterbugs, welcome back to the Clutterbug podcast. I've been trying to just level up my life these past few years, I just want to continually improve. I want to be better than I was yesterday. I want to just, yeah, I want to have it all, friends. But also, I don't want to do all the work. And I don't want to change my personality. And I don't want to, yeah, I don't want to be, I want to be Zen without being woo-woo. Does this make sense? I don't want to have crystals and

and huff essential oils and meditate. That sounds lovely, but the truth is that's just not me. But I want the same results. I want to feel, I look at people who I consider Zen, who I consider living this intentional life, and they seem relaxed all the time. You know, when chaos happens, they're not reacting, it's water off a duck's back.

they seem to just be in control of themselves, of their home, of everything, and I want that. But also I am who I am. I'm impulsive and I'm a little bit lazy and I like to take shortcuts. I want all the good stuff without all the work. So that's what we're talking about today. How we can get their friends. I've done a lot of research. The more I dig in and research into this way of being more zen, being more mindful, having a more slowed down life while also still having all the good stuff that comes along with working hard and rushing, right? That's what we want. We just want to give up and be like, all right, I'm just going to take a break over here and do the nothing because we don't like the results of that, which is we don't have all the things we're

craving in life. We don't have money and we don't have nice things and we don't, you know, have a clean house. We want all those things. We just also want to be relaxed and zen while we get those things and not feel rushed. You know what I'm saying? We don't want to work hard. We just want all the benefits. Okay. So the more I dig into this world, the more I do research, the more I'm really confronted with a lot of what I would call, I guess they're not really buzzwords, but to me, they feel like buzzwords because I don't really understand the meaning. I get the highbrow meaning. I guess of words like intentionality, mindfulness, finding balance, lean in, you know, explore your own feelings. Like these sound awesome, you know, reflect on your day. These, these like, these,

like, they sound great, but like, what does that actually mean? And how does that look in real life? like how do I easily do these things in my relay? Like what's the real breakdown for dummies step by step? Put this stuff into layman's terms for me. Does this make sense? And if you are in this world and you've done these research, then definitely all of these, this way of speaking and these phrases and in these buzzwords probably don't sound like buzzwords to you.

But for a new person coming into this, it can really feel like that all sounds really lovely, but I have no idea what that actually means or how to do these things. So that's, we're going to talk about, we're going to talk about, we're going to talk at my lingo for this podcast, which is more layman's terms. Because the more I research intentionality, basically what intentionality means is, thinking before doing stuff, not being as impulsive. This means not impulsively spending, not impulsively eating, not impulsively doing things that we wish we didn't do.

Or, okay, let's break it down even further. Intentionality really is about being in control of three things. Our thoughts, our actions, and our environment. just being more in control. But saying to somebody, especially somebody like me, who is impulsive and always has been more impulsive, stop being impulsive and be more intentional. Okay. Of course we want that. If I could just flick a switch and stop being impulsive and be more intentional, I would. But how do we do that? How do we really do that? How do we? How do we get in control of our thoughts and our actions and our environment so we can live this

intentional lifestyle? Well, I'm going to tell you exactly how to do that. And knowing doesn't mean that knowing the steps doesn't mean that we're immediately going to be able to do those, but I think really understanding it is the first step to being able to be in control of these three areas. And I'm loving talking about this right now because one of the most important, impulsive times for a lot of us is the holidays. We spend more than we want to. We eat more than we want to. And we don't always get all the things done that we wish we could. We're not in control during this time. And it shows on our on our scale and how our clothes fit. It shows in our bank account. It shows by the state of our house. And so this is a good time to kind of get a control of this, to get a hold of it before we start the holiday season.

So we're not looking back in 2024 thinking, oh, man, I made a mistake again. I wish I didn't spend so much. I wish I didn't eat so much. I wish I had taken more time to like, you know, plan and organize and declutter. So I'm not starting off the next year behind. behind the eight ball again, further back again. We want to start ahead. So let's just jump in to things we can actually do right now to make that happen. Let's start with spending first, right? How do we get in control of the spending this holiday season? And Black Friday's coming.

Black Friday. It's always so exciting. But impulse control is very like it's tough on Black Friday because there's sales everywhere and marketing's like, act now, this is amazing, you're going to save money and you get kind of caught up in the rush. People are standing in the line, people are like fighting for things on shelves, and that can all kind of throw any intentionality we had out the freaking window because the experts will say, stop and think before you put it in the cart and ask yourself, do I really need this? Take deep breaths before putting something in your cart virtually or in the store. Nobody is going to remember to do that. We are not thinking about that when we're in the store and we're rushing and we see the sales or we're like online and it's like, look at all this cool stuff. We're not going to stop and think to meditate and take deep breaths and ask ourselves our thoughts and our feelings before we like.

that sounds great in theory, but in real life, have you ever done this? Have you ever remembered to do this? No. So like, what? How are we just going to now be this person that is, you know, taking deep breaths in the store before? We're not. We're not going to remember to do that. So it sounds great. But if this isn't you and you aren't in the habit of already doing this, You're not going to like now just become this person overnight who is more intentional. So how do we actually become more intentional? But there's a couple of ways. And the first thing, which I found very fascinating, I did a podcast with Ronald L. Banks

and he talked about making a list of your core values. Like right now, just writing down your core values and putting it somewhere really visual and kind of just walking past and maybe repeating them out loud, your core values. Making sure that this is something you think about all the time. What are my core values? Oh, yeah. Does this reflect my core values? Because once you know your core values, it can help in all aspects of you unintentionally

being more intentional. So you're at the store and you're like, oh, these sales, all these sales. if like for the past week or two or month, you've been reminding yourself that saving money is a core value, having that financial security is a core value. You've built that muscle in your brain. You've done the work before because you've written it down. You're like, you know what? One of my core values, you're only supposed to have three to five core values. So it's not like you have to remember a billion things. But if financial stability and financial security is a core value you've repeated to yourself. It's important to me. It's important to me that I don't

spend too much. It's important to me that I save. And you just repeat this little like mantra, not the day that you're shopping on Black Friday, but days leading up to Black Friday, when you're in that situation, now you have the tool to say, oh, okay, I totally want this really awesome thing. But also, you will kind of, you'll kind of, pump, the brakes a little bit and you're going to think, is this really worth the money? Because you've done the work leading up. We can't just wait and try to think it's important on the day. We have to write down our core values before. And maybe financial isn't a core value, financial stability, security, you know, any of that. Maybe that isn't a core value. So that won't help you. So here's

something else that we can do. And it's very simple. And we should be doing this anyways, but we always forget to remember, but right now we can do this while it's top of mind. Or right now while you're listening to this podcast, you can put this in your calendar for tomorrow or later today. And that is write a list of the people you want to buy for this holiday season and some rough ideas of things you might want to get them. Write a list. and then email yourself this list or put it in your notes on your phone so that when you are out shopping for Black Friday or you're sitting at your computer, you can reference that list. Oh my gosh, look at this. This is on sale. This is so cool. Instead of just buying it with like,

I could get this for my mother or I could get this for my sister or I'll just buy it and figure out who I'm going to give it to later because it's such a hot deal. We can open up your phone. You've done the work ahead of time. You've done some planning. You've been in control so that you are more in control of your actions. You've done, you've been more in control of your thoughts because you've methodically made a kind of rough plan on paper. So now it's like, okay, does this fit with somebody on my list? That's intentionality. That's being more zen. And that's intentional living. That's how we stop impulse control.

We do these tiny little things ahead of time so that we can catch ourselves in the moment because it's the moment where we have the weakness. And if we haven't done the work before, there's no way we're going to catch ourselves in that moment. So it feels like I know this feels really, I guess, what does it feel? It feels like obvious. Like thanks Cass, Captain. obvious here. Of course, writing lists and writing down our core values is important and will help us

be more intentional and will help us not overspend. Yeah, we say that, but then, like, have you actually done it, though? Like, have you written down the people that you want to buy for and how much you want to spend per person and how much, like, have you written down potential gift ideas? Have you done the work yet? And if the answer is no, then yes, it seems really obvious, but if you're not doing it, then it doesn't help. Like having the knowledge and doing the action are two very separate things. The same with writing down your core values. You might think, yeah, I know my core values. I already know my core values, cast. But have you actually written them down? Have you identified like three to five actual core values? Have you done the work?

or do you just assume that you know two very different things. And the action of writing it down is the critical part here. This is literally how we hack intentionality, how we overcome impulses. This is the small step that we have to go. That might seem like not that important. It might seem like it actually isn't that big of a deal, but it really is the trick. to change in our brain, getting in control of our thoughts, getting in control of our actions, and even getting in control of our environment. So writing down core values, writing down the list.

And again, we can take that a step further and we can actually write a budget for this holiday season. Like, when is the last time you've made a budget? Really? For me, it's been a very long time. I'm just, I'm not, I'm not making this podcast telling you that. that I'm amazing at all of these things. I also suck at these things and need to do these things, which is why I'm not awesome at intentional living, because I'm not doing the actions. So I'm going to make a commitment that I'm going to do it, and I hope let's commit to each other, that we both just do these little thing today or tomorrow. We put it in the calendar, and we spend five minutes writing a rough list, five minutes, writing down some core values,

and if we want to really go big, writing down a budget, what we want to spend this holiday season, what that means, what we're, like, each person, how much we're going to spend on each person, maybe how much we're going to spend if we're getting any extra holiday decor, how much are we going to spend on the meal and like the hosting and those type of things, or if we're going to any activities, for going to a play or going out with friends and cutting down a Christmas tree, how much is this going to come? cost us. Do we have the money right now? Where's that money going to come from? Do we have a plan here? Write it down. This is like 99% of the intentionality. This is how those Zen people over there are just

like water of a duck's bag. Because they already like in the back of their brain have a plan. It doesn't have to be a perfect plan. It just has to be a semblance. of a plan. Okay, so stopping the overspending, putting on the brakes a little bit, taking time and actually thinking before we put things in our cart for Black Friday, we can do that right now. We can help ourselves right now. Let's talk about the next thing that I always really suck at and a lot of people struggle with over the holiday season and that is overindulging on food. Yeah, because it's delicious. I'm not even a big turkey and mashed potato. potatoes person, but I mean, I'll eat it, but I don't love it. For me, it's the desserts, the pies and the

cookies and, oh, the trifle. Our family always makes trifle layered with whipped cream and cake and crushed up score bars and oh my gosh. And so many just, just, mm, mm, and I always regret it. And I always gain like at least five pounds over the holiday season. And I say every year, I'm not going to indulge. I'm not even going to have dessert or if I do. I'm going to just have a little sliver because I don't want to completely go without. But then in the moment, I'm having fun and it's family all around and it's warm and it's cozy and everyone's laughing and there's food everywhere. And I'm just like eating here and eating here. How can I not? It's everywhere and I'm impulsive. And I'm not remembering to think about it because it isn't top of mind for me.

This isn't something that I think about on a daily basis. So I'm not in the habit of being intentional, especially around the holidays. Right? We forget to remember. So just like everything else, how do we get in control of our actions, our thoughts, and our environment? How do we stop impulsively eating over the holidays? This is tough. I've done research to see.

I don't know if the research is going to help, but it can't hurt. It can't hurt, friends. The experts would say, just choose to have smaller portions. Be mindful when eating. Make sure that you're remembering to take small portions. Yeah, of course, we all want to do that. We're never going to remember that. And we're going to be like stuffing.

Oh, man. And look at this turkey. And it's like, oh, gravy. Oh, there's corn and there's mashed sweet potatoes and there's squash. I don't know what you like, but I like all of those things. And I'm just like loaded up, France. Oh my gosh. There's six different kinds of desserts. I think I might want a small piece of all of them because it's the holidays. So just like being more intentional and mindful when it comes to spending, it's kind of the same process when it comes to eating. And that is again, core values is being healthy one of your core values is taking care of your health a core value like honestly is it and if it is we're writing that down and then every day we're just referencing our core values okay what would a healthy person do if if health is one of my top three or five priorities in my life what action should I take what small thing and this is like we're practicing We're just practicing remembering its important friends.

This is it. It doesn't mean every day we have to eat salad and run 5K or something. We just have to remind ourselves on a regular basis that this is a priority for us. So that our brain remembers it's a priority for us. And we're like, maybe I'm just going to have one dessert because being healthy is one of my top priorities in life. So core values. Maybe being healthy is not a core value for you.

okay there's other things that we can do too the the other thing we can do just like writing lists and kind of planning we can do the same thing leading up to the holiday season not only can we meal plan so we know like what we're going to do but can we plan healthy alternatives or can we plan ahead how we're not going to overindulge i've been doing this thing lately that has been helpful when we're going to have something delicious for dinner that i always always always for indulgent, usually sushi. Before I'll have like a couple carrots and cut up cucumbers with dip. It's like I, because I'll be full, more full. Or I will be like, okay, I'm going to drink a big glass of water before I eat. So I know I'll be a little bit more full. Like it's small things that we can do,

but go ahead and make a plan. What's a list of things that you can do so that you're not overindulging? life things, not just like, I'm not going to eat dessert. I'm going to magically have willpower this day. This isn't the stuff. We're putting real actionable things that we can do, like fill half of our plate with veggies or eat the veggies first. You know, mm-hmm. Or can we bring, like, can we meal plan? And before we go to grandma's house for a big dinner, can we bring some cut up veggies with us to eat that first? I don't know what it looks like for you, but it doesn't matter. This isn't about like a perfect one Tuesday. Like these are the steps we follow.

It's about actually putting pen to paper and trying to come up with a real plan. It's the work. We do the work before we even get there. We have to because we, it's about changing. and getting in control of our thoughts. And we can't just do this day of. This takes practice, friends. This takes practice. Because at the end of the day, we don't want to have the same regret that we had last year. We don't want to overindulge and feel sick and stuffed and mad at ourselves. But we also don't have to wait until that day in that moment when our willpower is at an all-time low because we're

tempted. We're so tempted. We have to do the work before we get there. It's just some lists focusing on core values. And the other thing that we can do is, listen, it helps though. Journaling. Journaling, I'm not great at this, but I'm going to say to you, we should journal. You and I, we should both journal. Because if every night we take time again to get things out of our thought and on paper, but with like a focused thought, intentional thought, ha, ha, ha, ha, of like, what did I do well today? What am I grateful for today? You know, and what do I want to work on tomorrow? Like, I guess it really comes down to self-awareness, doesn't it? And part of that journaling process is really getting to the why. Why are we overindulging over the holidays? Why are we

spending too much. Why are we so impulsive? We're just like writing out our feelings on a journey to understanding ourselves more. And I know for myself in my own journey with therapists and journaling and just really like asking myself like why? Why is food struggle with food? Why is it so hard for me to stop eating things that I know that I shouldn't having those cookies and grabbing and grabbing the cakes and grabbing the things. I've learned a lot about myself. I've learned that I'm a dopamine addict. I learn that a lot of it comes from ADHD. So when I'm feeling tired or stressed, I like sugar. I crave sugar. My habit is to go to sugar because I get a little boost. I do. I get, I feel better. It's like medicine. It's like, oh, you know, I'm feeling a little, oh, sleepy and run down.

I go to sugar every time. But knowing. this about myself and repeatedly writing this down when I'm journaling at the end of the night. Like I had six cookies today. I was feeling very tired. I'm seeing that correlation now between that. This is making me stop and think before I grab the cookies because I've done the work. It really is, friends. It really is. I'm like, oh, there's like an ADHD factor. There's a sleep deprivation factor. there's like, yeah, okay, so how can I overcome this? What's a, what's a snack that I can have ready and prepared that when I'm feeling that way I can train my brain to go to? Is it cut up strawberries, maybe a little bit of sweetener on top, have that ready. So when I'm feeling that tiredness,

now instead of cookie, my brain's like, oh, I already prepared myself for something when I'm feeling tired like this. I've got something. So I don't have to completely like, go for a walk or do deep breathing. Now, I need food. I'm going to eat because that's what I do. But I've now planned ahead better choices. And I'm prepared. And I'm not always going to be perfect. And I'm not. Sometimes I grab the candy and I grab the chocolate and I grab the things. But sometimes I also don't. And if I just keep working on it, eventually it will get to the point where I rarely do the bad things because I'm already seeing this progression. None of this is going to happen overnight. We are not going to wake up tomorrow and be this like, like Zen person that no longer indulges in these impulsive behaviors. It will take work, but it's not hard work. And it's not like more crazy work. It's literally like grabbing a notebook and doing five minutes. And if you forget to remember these things right now, I'm telling you, while it's topical in your mind, grab your phone, pause this podcast, and make yourself a nightly reminder to journal for two minutes before bed and put it in your calendar and have it go every day and get

a notebook and put it beside your bed. This is all part of it. It's part of the environment aspect. Getting in control of our environment means setting up systems that make us more intentional, that help us be more mindful, that stop this impulsive behavior. behavior that help us stop taking negative actions and take more positive actions. The three things being in control of our actions, our thoughts, and our environments, they all go hand in hand. And we do them all at the same time in these tiny little itty-bitty ways. We're going to talk more about some of those ways like actual real-life steps we can take

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It smells good. It cleans well. It actually costs less, which is nice. Like there's no reason to go back to that old-fashioned detergent right now. You can try this. Subscribe to EarthBreeze and save 40%. Go to earthbreeze.com slash clutterbug to get started. That's earthbreeze.com slash clutterbug for 40% off. So let's talk about how to live our life on purpose. Like really, that's what it is. Everything we're doing, we're thinking about before we're doing it. We're not just going through the motions. We're not just impulsively doing things because everyone else does or we feel like it in the moment. We're making good decisions based on a real plan that we've made for ourselves

in our life. Like think about that. How amazing would that be? We all want that. We really do. but it's very hard to know what that looks like. So we've talked about a lot of things that we can do to get in control of our actions, our thoughts, and our environment. And they all three go hand in hand. They kind of tangled together those three things. But let's talk about real life steps, like real life actions and things that we can do right now so we can have a more meaningful purpose driven life. we can be more zen, friends. I doesn't want that, but still have all the good stuff. We don't have to live in a van and down by the river. We can have all the good stuff that we want out of life and not

feel rushed and feel more relaxed. But we got to do the steps. We got to take the action. And we can start right now. I talked about core values, which is basically goals, really goals, goal setting. So important. And not just in your head, writing it down on paper and take it a step further. Honestly, take it a step further. Write down like, what are my core values? What are, what are big goals that are tied to those core values? And let's take it up a notch with a vision board. And don't you dare roll your eyes at me. Listen, I am not a woo-woo universe manifesting kind of person, but I made a vision board years ago and it changed my freaking life. I can't explain why, except here's what I truly think. Do I think it's magic? No. I think that's

crap. What I think happened was it was somewhere really visual. Every time I entered and left my house, I looked at it, whether intentionally or not subconsciously, it was there, reminding me of what was important, reminding me of what I was working towards. So then, my brain was like this crap's important to her and I was subconsciously taking actions, you know, towards those important things. A vision board is powerful. Please make one. But here's the thing. It has to, you have to put it somewhere that will remind you. And what I don't like about a lot of vision boards is people will get magazines and they will cut it all these like vacations out and big mansions and big cars and they'll have like 50 million things and it's all

on a poster board and it looks like just a big cluttered mess. And is that really going to be helpful? I don't think so. I think the trick to making a real vision board that is powerful, that is magical, but not real magic, but like, you know, subconscious you working towards things kind of magic is is being intentional about your freaking vision board like what are your actual realistic goals that that are tied to your core values is it eating healthy is it working out is it saving money maybe it is going on vacation is it spending more time with family and don't clutter it up you know ronel when i was talking with Ronald, he said three to five core values is the most important. Like, keep it simple.

Because otherwise you're going to not remember them. It'll be too many for you to really focus on. And I think the vision board is the same thing. You wanted to be big goals, but easy to remember that you can always have them in the back of your mind and take action. So my vision board, now I went a little bold and a little overboard. But it was like eight things and almost all of them have come true. I need, it's time for me to make a new vision board and put it somewhere. But it also doesn't have to look ugly friends. You don't have to have some magazine thing. Go on the internet and type in pictures of what it is. Maybe it is travel or you want to go to Egypt or you want to run or you want to start eating better and print them in black and white and just put a couple of. And just put a

couple black and white, like if you don't want it to be like, ah, attacking my eyes. And if you love the idea of that, but the trick to make this work is put it somewhere you're going to see it every day. Have it somewhere. And I actually on my website, if you go to clutterbug.com, I have a vision board template that you can use with Canva and it's free. And what you can do with that is you can use it as your phone background or your computer background so that you can drag and drop photos that you download that go with your vision, but it doesn't have to be on your wall. It can be something you see every day on your phone or on your computer that's reminding you of your goals. So vision board. I just had to say it. I know, please listen, but have you tried it?

Don't knock it till you try it. I'm telling you there's real magic in here. Okay, something else that you can do is write the lists, but write a real powerful, list and that comes from not having it be overwhelming. So write a list of the people you want to buy for Christmas, write a list of things you want to eat over the holidays, write a list, you know, do this work and go ahead and put it all in one binder if you want. You can have like a holiday planning binder. Spoiler alert. I have a free printable of that on my website too because I'm a nerd burger, but you can go to clutterbug.com and you can find the holiday planner for free. but print them off, put it in a binder, do that. That's important. Get it out of your head, get it on paper. That is so critical to being intentional. But then, how can we take it a step further and really do the daily work to change our brain to create these habits to like stop being such an impulsive person, to be a more intentional person? It comes with daily action. And so this is something I started doing years ago.

and I'm not saying I'm perfect at this. I'm certainly not and I have a long way to go. But I started leaving a notepad beside the coffee maker and every day, like it's out and I hate it and I want to hide it and tuck it away. But I know if I see it, every day I'll write a to do list. Every day. I'm writing just three to five things that I want to do that day. It's life changing. Getting it out of your head, getting it on on paper. and making it happen, being more intentional about our goals so that we're taking action. So we're more intentional. We're more in control of our actions. It starts with making lists. It does. But not a list of 10,000 things, because that's overwhelming. Narrowing it down, prioritizing it to three to five things.

Super amaze balls. Okay. It is. Okay. Thoughts. Getting in control of our thoughts. A lot of this does come. One of the easiest ways to get in control of our thoughts is journaling. Every night before bed, we just brain dump. We're not just to-dos because that's action, right? When we're brain dumping thoughts, we're getting to the why. We're getting into like the self-awareness aspect. We're getting into like, have I been focusing on positive things today?

We have to train our brain to be positive. And that is crazy to me, but it's true. I, my brain naturally, I'm in the habit of having negative thoughts. Oh, I have so much to do. I'll never get this done. Poor me. Why is she so mean to me? Why did this happen?

Negative, negative, negative. Looking at all the bad stuff. Training our brain to be grateful. Training our brain to be optimistic. Training our brain to see positive things in our life is actually quite easy. It's like a notebook. And then every day we have a reminder that goes off in our phone before bed to write these positive things.

Our brain has to look, look back and think of positive things and write it down. Think of things we're grateful for and write it down. Think of like awesome things we're going to do tomorrow or how we're going to like be more mindful tomorrow or why we're so impulsive. Write all these things down. Get to know yourself on paper. powerful. It's literally rewiring your brain every time you do this. And if you are consistent, you will become a happier, more positive, more optimistic, more grateful person who actually

stops and thinks before you does do things. True story, friends. True freaking story friends. Piece of paper. Is the whole point of this podcast a piece of paper? No, because we're getting to the last thing, which is environment. And I know, I talk about this at nauseam. I'm sick of hearing about it, which is crazy because I'm super passionate about it. But I just got to say, when our environment is chaotic, how could we possibly be mindful? How could we stop and think when everywhere we look, it's work and to-does and mess and clutter and stuff is attacking our eyes? And everything is everywhere and everything's a mess and then we feel frantic, we feel rushed. We certainly don't feel relaxed and intentional. We have to get our environment under control. And that starts with

decluttering and setting up systems. So like our keys go in the same spot, everything has a home. And this does not happen overnight. And that's okay because the process, the journey is rewiring our brain. Nothing in our life. We're going to just wake up and be a different person tomorrow or everything's going to change the next day because that type of change isn't lasting. It doesn't stick. To make it stick, it has to be a little bit every day to create habits. Habits that we're not even thinking about. So decluttering, that's a big one. Getting a bag, getting a box, just walking around your house and looking for things that can go intentionally making your environment easier and less chaotic it looks like planning meal planning writing down that shopping list that we talked about

for people that you're going to buy for creating a holiday binder setting up a place beside your bed so you can journal putting the pen there putting the that's organizing that's getting in control of your environment, putting a pat of paper by your coffee maker or wherever you normally sit in the morning, intentionally getting organized, that that's it. It doesn't mean that your closet has to be rainbow color coordinated tomorrow. That's nice, but that isn't important today. What's important today is that we're taking the steps to make tomorrow easier. Whatever that looks like. And it's little baby steps,

but it's going to add up to awesome freakingness friends. So right now, before I go, before I let you go, you and I are going to take action together. We're going to write a shopping list for Christmas. We're doing that. We are doing that. I don't care. Grab a piece of paper.

Grab a post it. Who are you buying for this year? Write them down. How much you can spend on each person? Rough. You could go up or down. It's okay. It's rough. And what are some ideas for each person? You don't have to stick to them. But let's just have it. Let's do that. We can do that, friends. If you want to work on overindulging in food, let's write down some lists right now. After we're done the shopping list, we're going to write down a few things of like how we can help ourselves not indulge over. indulge this holiday season. Does that mean you're going to bring some veggies? You're going to bring a big bottle of water. You're going to get yourself a Christmas water bottle. Treat yourself and carry that around

with you. And it's like I'm intentionally going to drink this whole thing before I eat between now and the holiday season before every dinner. I'm going to make sure that I drink a big glass of water. So I'm not, I don't know. I don't know what it looks like for you. But it's okay to just, spitball some ideas. It's the planning that helps us be more intentional. Seriously, friends, the journaling, the self-reflection. And by the time the holiday season starts, you will be a more mindful person. Even if it's just a little bit more mindful, awesome sauce. We're going to work at it. Maybe we'll be those yogis up on a mountain, you know, cross-legged doing the hominyamini-a-hom. Maybe eventually we will get there, but it's okay if we're not.

We don't have to get there tomorrow. But we can do these little things together to have a less rushed, more relaxed, to be more in control this holiday season, to be less impulsive, to have less regret, to get more done without feeling like we're working harder. Okay. Hope you're feeling inspired friends. Love spending time with you. You, talking to you motivates me. I'm going to go write my list right now. And I hope you are too. And I'll see you next time.