Life gets complicated. Over time material stuff gathers, new relationships are made, new directions and demands are introduced, and the mind has to keep up with it all. It can be exhausting. The wild thing is that you never actually feel it getting more complicated or exhausting. One day you just realize that your mind is racing and you’re being pulled in several directions at once. When this happens, the best thing to do is declutter your life.
There are three main components to decluttering your life. The first and most obvious area is physical “stuff.” Physical stuff is always accumulating. You may have that table, shelf, or drawer in the kitchen that just collects miscellaneous stuff because it doesn’t have a home. Or a countertop that has mail items or other “stuff” to be done at a later date. Your office might have a stack of papers that aren’t needed anymore, or need to be put away. You may have a closet with things you’ll never wear again, or a pantry with food items that are expired. Whatever the case may be, it’s a good idea to resolve things that need to be resolved, and dispose of things that aren’t needed. It can be painful to dispose of things that may have value, but remember that although these things may have value, they are not necessarily adding value to your life. Digging through clothes, the miscellaneous drawer, stacks of paper to find something is exhausting. It can be physically bothersome as well as mentally frustrating. The mentally frustrating part is what hurts the most; since it’s a negative emotion. Negative emotions are a part of life, but it’s awful when you’re having otherwise positive thoughts and then those positive thoughts get replaced by negativity. Even if it’s just for a short time, that swing from positivity to negativity can materially alter the course of your day. For this reason, it’s important to declutter. Get the items that aren’t adding value out of your life so you can easily focus on the items that do add value.
Decluttering your life is more than just physically cleaning out all the useless material items that have gathered up. You also have to take inventory of your current relationships. This may come as a surprise to come people; but you may need to let some people go out of your life. Just like material “stuff,” there are people in your life that surely have value, but are not necessarily adding value to your life. These can be people who have always historically been your friend, but aren’t necessarily helping you reach your goals or providing you other positive benefits. Perhaps it’s an old friend that is constantly miserable and complaining but never doing anything to fix their situation. Worse, perhaps it’s a fake friend that secretly wants you to fail. For more on these people, see the blog post titled Negative Energy on this page. When people such as this are in your life, they need to be let go. You don’t need the periodic calls or texts from these people that can impede your otherwise good mood. Don’t let them suck away your time with obligations that won’t add value to your life. Whether you have to block their number, delete them from your phonebook, unfollow them on social media, or let them down slowly and gently, you need to get them out of your life and focus on the people that are adding value to you and making your life more positive.
The last area to declutter is your mind. We’ve all got thousands of thoughts running through our heads all day long. Some are important, others are not, some are priorities, others barely worth thinking about. If you’ve got items that need some action, obviously the go-to solution is make a list, prioritize, and start knocking stuff out. However, if you’ve got other thoughts such as worries, doubt, concerns, anxiety, and depression; you need to declutter that nonsense. You’ve got to get rid of negative thoughts and let go of the things you can’t control. Remember that all kinds of things might happen, but you can’t waste energy dwelling on these things until they do happen. If they never materialize and you’ve been dwelling on it, all you’ve done is wasted mental energy. The best ways to purge these unnecessary thoughts from your head is through exercise and meditation. Go for a walk, run, lift weights, or just sit in silence and focus on each individual thought, discarding those which do not matter. Making a habit out of either of the aforementioned tasks is a superpower. Why? Because you have a routine outlet to declutter your mind. When you get rid of all the nonsense in your mind and can commit all your energy toward things that add value to your life, you’ll find yourself much happier and fulfilled.
If you’re feeling bogged down and not making any progress, it may be time to declutter your life. Throw out the material stuff, discard the people dragging you down, and free up some real estate in your brain.