Staying the Course and Living the Dream by Decluttering Your Life
The key perspective from which I want you to read this post today is long-term! This article is about establishing long-term goals, long-term implementation planning, and creating the best long-term conditions for yourself to ensure you get to where you want to be in the next five, ten, fifteen, or even twenty years!
You see, the issue with most generally undecided people, apart from the fact that they have no clue what they want, is their relentless craving for quick results with minimal effort on their part. Well, it doesn’t work that way! Such people only get disappointed quickly because they profoundly overestimate their abilities to accomplish their goals within six months to a year and give up their dreams just as quickly as a result of their disillusionment, known as reality check to those who choose perseverance and put in the time and work to get to where they want to be. Most people out there never find out how amazingly well they could do in a five, ten, fifteen, or twenty-year period! Having found comfort in the excuse that life is too short, they end up spending a long time wasting it.
If you’re not the type of individual I just described, then this post is for you, as are all the other posts in this blog. To gain control over your life holistically, you should create long-term heath, spiritual, career, wealth, and relationship goals. To then successfully implement your plan, you must determine what stands in the way of your goals’ fulfillment in each life aspect at the present time. In other words, what clutter have you allowed to accumulate in your health, spiritual life, career, finances, and relationships over the years? You need to perform meticulous housekeeping prior to and during the goal-implementation process, because the more knowledge you acquire, the more new elements you’ll integrate and further declutter the areas in need for improvement. Treat your health, spirituality, career, wealth, and relationships as lifelong endeavors in terms of work, self-discipline, accountability, and high integrity.
This holistic approach isn’t something that materializes within six months to a year. It took me a good five years to feel somewhat in control of these life aspects, at which time I started seeing the positive effects of my experience through measurable, tangible manifestations of my plan implementation. Granted, I was a late starter, but I assure you that simply getting started wasn’t enough. You must commit to your personal growth and follow the process you’ve created for yourself through plenty of setbacks, especially during the first five years while building experience seemingly from ground zero. Why does is seem like ground zero? Because, if you really pay attention, you’ll find that conventional wisdom often leads you nowhere. That’s when you truly grasp the significance of being responsible to yourself.
Your Long-Term Health
Health is the most obvious issue to address if you live in a country like the US where chronic diseases have been turned into goldmines by the government and private sector alike. Ailments that can be sustained, prolonged, or, as the healthcare elites like putting it, “managed” for as long as you live, will lead to nothing but poor self-esteem, poor self-confidence, and catastrophic financial implications on your end, in addition to untimely physical and mental deterioration. Again, your health optimization is a lifelong endeavor.
Health Housecleaning
Remove all food items that you already know cause disease. Animal products (yes, the animals themselves and their derivatives), processed foods, and conventionally grown produce are good starters. Quit utilizing disease-causing food-preparation modalities (for example, cooking produce at high temperatures or in a microwave or in thermally processed oils).
Get rid of unhealthy life-style habits such as prolonged sitting/driving periods. Clear your schedule of activities that prevent you from spending at least two hours daily at the gym, four days a week minimum.
Remove toxins from your body daily, as you are exposed to millions of these on a daily basis. Stay away from and don’t utilize products that are known to cause harm to human health.
Learning
There are many more harmful food items than your doctor has ever mentioned to you. Understand where your food is coming from and avoid items that don’t come from whole, organic, mineral-rich soil at all costs! If you’re willing and able to grow your own organic garden, you’ll be way ahead in the game. Supply your fridge and pantry with whole, organic plant-based food. Keep just enough to make sure your food is always fresh!
Learn to perform very well compound exercises that allow for plenty of repetitions to build muscle mass harmoniously throughout your body. Learn to do high-resistance cardio with laser focus on your breathing and circulation. Increase the demand on your body and mind as you progress. Long-term planning and implementation, ladies and gentlemen!
Learn detox methods that fit your schedule and make sure you understand the science behind each method. Perform your chosen detoxification every day without compromises. Choose the best quality product at the lowest price possible. Yes, you can, and it is realistic. Your body will thank you, and so will your bank account!
Declutter Further
Stay updated! Items that seemed healthy last year may have changed producers and become less healthy. Replace these with healthier alternatives. Never be complacent with your nutrition! Remain vigilant during each fitness routine. Do not indulge talkative people at the gym — that’s not what the gym is for! Sort through all the YouTube noise you’ve been soaking in and adjust your practice to your body’s signals or demands. Always be in charge. Clear more time for your health as you learn more and see consistent results.
Your Long-Term Spiritual Needs
Mental and emotional well-being are crucial factors in the successful implementation of any goal, in addition to optimal physical health. Your spiritual practices can be geared towards success in everything you undertake by making sure two basic components are kept in check at all times: a clear mind and an inspired mindset. Both help in keeping fatigue levels low and enthusiasm levels high.
Mental and Emotional Housecleaning
Identify mental habits and emotional responses that contribute negatively to your personal growth and remove these from your thought process through purposeful meditation.
Recognize thoughts that prevent you from trusting your ability to succeed; let go of these and make yourself aware of the space you’ve freed in your mental and emotional self that you can now fill with thoughts and feelings that promote deep and lasting inspiration.
Learning
Learn various types of meditation, such as passive and dynamic meditation. Become good at each, and implement these modalities into your daily life to achieve consistent mental clarity and an inspired, curious, inquisitive mindset day in and day out.
Learn what people, events, books, music, or ideas inspire you to become a better version of yourself day in and day out. Improve your memory and ability to solve problems by employing memory-boosting and problem-solving methods that involve both sides of your brain, not just the left side.
Declutter Further
The more meditation techniques and modalities you explore, the more self-limiting beliefs you will expose and let go of, thus leaving less and less mental and emotional clutter, until the day comes when you find yourself in complete control of your spiritual well-being.
Your Long-Term Career Choices
You really don’t have to be like most people you know who have no idea why they do what they do for a living! The “do what you love” mantra is nice, but most confident people will tell you that, to become confident, they had to make themselves do things they didn’t necessarily always love doing. We’re not talking about unethical or illegal actions in any endeavor but, rather, action steps that invoke fear of failure, require going the extra mile to get the work done, or tasks that allow for little leisure time that these people would’ve loved having more of as much as anyone else would. No career is comprised solely of love-it-all elements, which is what a growing number of individuals of all ages find extremely challenging to wrap their minds around. These same people also tend to be the ones routinely failing to understand that the job or self-employed business alone are unlikely to make you wealthy and they wind up disappointed and bitter later in their lives. A career has two basic objectives: 1.) To be useful to those around you through your skills and knowledge, and 2.) To learn marketable skills and become excellent at what you do in order to stay relevant, needed, appreciated, and actively sought after. That’s as simple as it gets. If, in the meantime, you happen to enjoy what you do on top of being appreciative of the learning and skill-building opportunities that come with your chosen career, you will never cease to find excellent growth potential anywhere you turn!
Work Ethic/Work Habits Housecleaning
This is an important housecleaning component. You need to get rid of the following habits if you haven’t yet:
Dreading your job, showing up late
Chronically calling in sick or leaving work earlier than you’re supposed to leave
Leaving for later the tasks that should be completed today (AKA procrastinating)
Cutting corners at the expense of quality
Sharing personal problems with your colleagues and/or listening to theirs
Gossiping, playing favorites
Distracting yourself on social media
Thinking daily short-term survival instead of keeping a clear perspective of how you’re contributing to your clients’ life quality and what skills you’re learning that closely relate to your long-term personal-growth plans
This list of to-be-eliminated poor work habits barely scratches the surface of workplace misery.
Learning
Skills, skills, and more skills! The more skills you acquire, the more valued you will become. Learn communication, camaraderie, and better ways to perform high-quality work.
Always be in the know: where is your company or industry headed? Be ready to fearlessly adapt in any way that would not compromise your integrity, ethics, or morals.
Declutter Further
Periodically clear time and space of any tasks or jobs that no longer contribute to your growth. That way, you’ll have room for more knowledge and skills to put under your belt and make yourself even more marketable and hard to replace.
Your Long-Term Financial Growth
It doesn’t matter how much money you make but it matters how much money you keep and invest. Period. You can be a passive investor by entrusting your money to someone to grow it for a fee, or you can choose to be an active, sophisticated investor by learning and implementing cash-flowing strategies that ensure greater control over your finances in the long term.
Financial Housecleaning
Reevaluate your spending habits carefully. Do so monthly until you build excellent discipline. Stop spending money on items you don’t need or events that contribute nothing to your long-term goals, be those in the health, spiritual, career, wealth, or relationship aspects of your life.
Sell items you no longer need. Make some money, clear some space.
Get rid of credit card debt. You need an excellent credit score to be able to purchase the best tangible assets. Credit score is buying power.
Get rid of any other debt with interest that erodes your finances each month.
Learning
Learn about the various asset classes and select a class to invest in primarily and one to invest in secondarily, according to your long-term financial plan. It is best to have at least a five-year plan, better yet — a fifteen-year plan. Learn the true meaning of diversification. It means investing across asset classes, not just in stocks, bonds, or mutual funds: these are all part of the same asset class known as paper assets.
Learn the risks pertinent to each asset class and then apply proper risk management strategies.
Declutter Further
Remove investments that don’t perform well. Redirect the freed capital to cash-flowing assets. This is a long-term process, so learning, patience, and resilience are of the essence.
Your Long-Term Relationships
The people with whom you choose to surround yourself will influence your health, career, financial, and spiritual decisions. Poor influences lead to poor decision-making.
Relationship(s) Housecleaning
Abandon all feelings of guilt, fear of judgment, disapproval, or ridicule for refusing to follow rules that are detrimental to your personal growth and well-being, no matter who in your closest circle is trying to impose such rules on you. Understand you are no less important than any of your relatives, partners, friends, or colleagues. Therefore, you deserve happiness and satisfaction with your life just as much as they do!
Remove toxic people from your life. If they won’t leave, you should find ways to detach yourself and change your environment. Never let them see you’re afraid. Yes, you can do this!
Recognize if you are using some of your relations as excuse not to change your life. Work on yourself by deliberately letting go of this mindset.
Learning
If you have doubts about your communication skills, do not hesitate to educate yourself through books, classes, or seminars. Books are the least expensive option, but you need to read them and then apply what makes sense into your real-life experience. The same is true for classes and seminars. No matter how you learn best, application through action is key.
Always strive to understand what they need. Learn to listen! If you structure your plans around the other person’s needs by creating a win-win situation, you’ll be amazed at your relationship success. This mindset takes time to establish and train. Be patient with yourself — it’ll help you treat others with patience and understanding, too.
Learn to be unafraid of being alone. Learn independence. You’ll be less likely to be used by those who sense socially desperate people and take advantage of them every way they can.
Declutter Further
When it comes to relationships, clearing time and space can be a constant process. Just as importantly, you need to be mindful and respectful of others’ time and space. Minimize time spent on entertaining relationships and maximize time spent on thought-provoking relationships. Learning should always be a priority if you wish to be a high-performance individual. As you age, you’ll likely become more selective with your company. But the real trick is to do it as early as possible or at least, as soon as you realize how important it is to your overall success to only spend time with those who won’t waste it.
As you can see, these are all perpetual cycles of removing clutter and filling the newly cleared space with high-quality elements as necessary, depending on what stage of each goal-implementation sequence you find yourself at, at any given time. It is a never-ending, dynamic, exciting process! The longer you persevere, however, the clearer it gets until you realize that, while it isn’t easy, it really is simple!