The beginning of a New Year is exciting and invigorating, filled with potential for growth and new insights. In order to move forward, closure may be required of the past. We must literally close our financial records for the Internal Revenue Service. And we might want to investigate organization as closure on the events of last year and as a vehicle to understanding our future paths. We could see this opportunity for organization as a chore or a challenge, an adventure or a learning experience. Feng Shui would advise it is all in the intention.
Clutter has become a very trendy word and de-cluttering a much-heralded process for a better life. If that seems overstated, consider this: hunting for a lost object or a misfiled piece of paper could easily require ten minutes of your time, multiplied times seven days, multiplied times 52 weeks, equaling over 60 hours per year looking for misplaced items. Clutter clouds our vision and frustrates forward momentum.
Let’s use the BaGua as a tool for addressing an
organizational project: |
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Knowledge
Determine how you work well. Do you enjoy taking on the big project all at once, or are you more comfortable working in small increments? Realistically, how does your work style fit into your life style? |
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Career
Make an appointment with yourself to complete your organization project, according to your work style. Organization is a process, an ever-changing journey, requiring your investment of time and commitment. And, it does become easier with practice! |
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Helpful People
You need not reinvent organizational strategies. Find helpful information and adapt it to your needs. Julie Morgenstern, author of Organizing from the Inside Out suggests using SPACE to get organized: S (sort) P (purge) A (assign) C (containerize) E (equalize). She offers a step-by-step process to follow if you want explicit directions for your adventure. The IRS has guidelines as to record retention. Contact the American Bar Association, your Certified Public Accountant, and the Internal Revenue Service if you are interested in further information. |
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Creativity
Create a way to make this project fun, make it play, not another work assignment. Does color excite you or stimulate memory associations? Would filing family information in green containers make a motivational impact on you? Use items that let you have a good time being organized. |
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Partnership
If you live with others, systems will work much more smoothly if
a sense of teamwork prevails. Begin with your own organization and the results will be infectious. |
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Fame
How you manage and organize your life speaks volumes about your thoughts and values. The manner in which you treasure your physical space communicates a story about you. Do you enjoy your own story? Does it reflect your true nature? What kind of statement do you want your surroundings to make about your life? |
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Wealth
Financial planners say that you cannot move effortlessly through your life if you do not know your economic structure and, therefore, what to do about it. Our Western culture mandates economic organization, from employment to taxation to estate planning. Why make it more cumbersome by not having a system? The more clarity you have around the issue of money, the less frightening the topic. |
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Family
Things of the past have a place in our lives, practically and sentimentally. Our past offers continuity to our present and the future. Establishing clarity around issues of the past opens the way. If this sounds like on-going maintenance, it is. Alas, storage is necessary, with the admonition that it be orderly and current. |
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Health
In all things, balance is key. Tending to the vitality of your organizational systems addresses the overall balance in your life. As your life changes so will the de-cluttering process you implement to manage those changes. With ease and light maintenance your systems will adapt. |
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Time is a gift and how we choose to use it is of utmost importance. Feng Shui teaches that everything is energy. Organizing or de-cluttering harnesses energy into systems that serve us well and allow us to live life on purpose. Eastern and Western teachings suggest that energy follows thought. When we create order, clarity emerges and from this clarity, decisions are more easily made. As we examine, evaluate, and make choices about how to organize our lives, we can live mindfully with intention.
1/5/02 |
