De-clutter Your Emotional Life

So many of us carry around a lot of “baggage” or “clutter” in our minds, which prevent us from experiencing our life as we want it to be..

By that I mean the stuff we haven’t yet let go of, that we hold on to. Things we say we should do but don’t, the unresolved arguments, or the honest exchange of feelings we wish we had the courage to voice but haven’t; the “coulds” and “shoulds” in our lives which hold us back – we need to let go, but we don’t.

These unresolved “coulds” and “shoulds” we carry around take up a great deal of emotional attention, and with it a huge amount of our energy, which could be focused into something more productive instead!

Are you like this?

If you are, it almost certainly will have had a negative influence on your ability to move your life in the direction you want it to go.

So what to do about it?

Take a look at your life and get rid of this baggage by asking yourself a series of questions and by completing the following exercise.

In effect, what we are doing is making certain tasks “complete”, drawing a line under them and moving on.

Another term for this is “psychological completion” or just “completion”

The following set of questions can be taken at one sitting or over a number of hours/days.

By writing the answers down they become more formal.

As you complete the exercises, you will notice a significant change in your ability to focus on the future, to clarify what you want and how you will go about achieving it.  You will get some “mind space”, and will feel the weight of all that baggage lift from you.

 1.    Putting up with!

Make a list of 10 things that you are putting up with at home

Make a list of 10 things that you are putting up with at work / in your businesss

Make a list of 10 things that you are putting up with in any other area of your life

Make an action plan to get rid of/communicate these things that you have been putting up with

2.    Unfinished matters!

Make a list of things that are unresolved/unfinished in your life

Make an action plan of how to reduce this number!

Do you need to clear the air with anyone? If so, just do it! Life is too short!

Did you ever say that you were going to call someone or keep in touch with someone yet have done nothing about it? If yes, call them or send an email to them today

Let go of as many coulds, woulds, shoulds, maybe, oughts as you can. Write these down.

3.    Your standards!

Write down the standards that you have been saying to yourself that you should have; let go of these and write down a list of the standards that you are going to have in your life from this day forward.

List 5 people who you admire the most. Identify their greatest qualities, behaviour and how they lead their life. What standards so they have? What standards could you raise starting today to be more like them?

Respect that other’s standards will be different from your own. Think of 5 close colleagues or friends – what are their standards and how are they different to yours?

By completing these exercises you will be able to focus more on the here, the now and the future.

You will now be able to let go of some of the things that have been taking up your valuable time, attention and emotional energy.