SHOP THE POST:
How to Spring Clean your Personal Life:
Let’s start here:
I posted about this last fall (read that post here)… and I started to really adopt something new for the first time. NO. Yep… no! Just simply saying no. That sparked a little fire in me and it has continued to grow for months. When we started packing up the old house I felt it burn even hotter. Stop… a little voice just kept saying to me over and over, “You are going the wrong way.” What? We are moving into a house we have dreamed of, Luke is getting a shorter commute, things seem to be falling into place… what are you talking about? That is 100% how I felt. Like literally WTH?
I talked on insta-stories the other night about something I’ve been dealing with really for about two years… and this was directly related, but I didn’t understand what it meant at the time. The wrong way didn’t mean geographically or physically. It was all mental ya’ll. My focus was off. I was pointing my direction toward the wrong things. Think: “When I get to X I will be Y.” “When I have this much Money I will be Happy…” “When I have this many followers I will be set…”
Here’s a major newsflash ya’ll. NONE of that matters. Another thing. That hope of happiness when I reached my final destination was totally empty. Happiness didn’t lie on the other side. More desire for things I don’t “need” did though. I had been praying for MONTHS for God to speak to me. Something, anything… just show up okay?
Then it happened. He started showing up for me (or rather I started paying attention!). HE showed up in this podcast that spoke about the scarcity epidemic in our minds… and how we can’t be fearful of someone doing what we do because they are “taking something” from us. It doesn’t work that way. Sterling is seriously the biggest inspiration and that really helped flip a switch in me for how I was viewing the blogging industry at the time. Really… you need to listen!
Next, he started showing up in people. From conversation with my husband, with my blogger bestie Katie, and so many new contacts I’ve made recently in the blogging industry I started hearing the things I had been longing for for months! From, stop comparing yourself to someone in a totally different stage of life… to opportunities that I would have never imagined getting. He showed me my worth.
Finally, he showed up in my heart. Something shifted… I felt content. By that I do not mean complacent. I mean fully appreciative of my day, my location, my worth, all of it. I felt okay with where I was… not just longing for the more, more, more. I felt like I had taken a detour into my own lane of the rat-race of life. I wasn’t on a hamster wheel anymore chasing the unattainable. I could just breathe.
Then this happened. . .
God opened doors for me and closed others. He gave me peace about relationships I had decided to end and gave me the courage to start new ones. Everything kind of came together. Even with TGG, over on instagram… my ability to really hone in on my personal style and what I wanted. I felt clear headed for the first time in years. I can’t tell you what a game changer this has been for me. Seriously.
So let me tell you a little about the steps it took for me to get to this place. . .
Steps to Take to Spring Clean your Personal Life:
- Itemize your life: Crazy… I know, but take inventory. Inventory of stuff, relationships, thoughts, habits… get it all down on paper.
- Cross out anything that isn’t serving you: This can be relationships with friends, negative self talk, over-eating, lack of exercise, and even who you follow on instagram.
- Create an action plan to remove those items from your life: This can be medidation, cutting off a friendship, signing up for classes at the gym… it’s endless.
- Follow up weekly on progress: Keep yourself accountable. If you don’t do this… the other steps were a wash. Keep on moving and shaking… get through the list. Take a Breather!
- Add in items that will serve you positively (at a slow pace): For me this has been BBG, coffee dates with Katie, online courses, quiet time, reading, and working on my diet!
I know that seems crazy. Maybe a little too easy? Well maybe that short little list looks easy, but it is anything but. Seriously.
How Taking the Time to Spring Clean my Personal Life Has Changed My Day-to-Day:
- I am more intentional with my time. No more endless Netflix binges, negative self talk, or following accounts that leave me feeling empty and worthless on instagram.
- I have better relationships. Even with my husband. Crazy, but those things were really affecting our marriage. Happy wife=Happy Life… amiright?
- I have been able to learn new things that have given me the ability to uplevel TGG. Lightroom, graphics, instagram, all of it. Taking the focus of that what I don’t have gave me MORE!
- I have been able to hone in on my own personal tastes rather than following the crowd: I buy what I want from where I want, our house has come together quicly because of this 100%!
- I know what I WANT to do with my life rather than what I THINK I SHOULD DO. Finally, I know what I’m working toward… and I can’t wait to share more on that with you in the future!
I hope more than anything you can find this helpful! I will be sharing two more parts to this series to help you get your entire life Spring Clean so we can tackle the rest of 2018 with guns blazing! Stay tuned!
