Getting Organized in 2020? Find Your Why

I am currently reading “Your Best Year Ever” by Michael Hyatt. The book is about goal setting and it was chosen by my women’s entrepreneur’s group because we wanted a guide to making our 2020 goals more meaningful, all-encompassing of our business and our home, and of course more likely to be achieved!

One of the things that struck me was his chapter on “Find Your Why”. He stresses the importance of finding and understanding your key motivations for setting a goal. The reason? Great goals are difficult to achieve so there will be times when you want to give up. When those times strike, you must return to your “Why.” Truly understanding the reason you want to achieve something can be a powerful motivating force in reaching your goal.

“Getting Organized” is one of the most common New Year’s resolutions. In fact, January is officially Get Organized month! Still, by February, it often gets lost in the shuffle of life and next January seems like a better time to start.

Getting organized doesn’t have to be a fleeting desire if you truly understand your why. Of course that will be a personal one for everyone but perhaps some of these reasons will resonate with you.

1. Getting organized saves time.

This has to be the busiest humans have ever felt and probably there is some new invention over the horizon that is going to allow us to get more done faster and thus feel even busier. That is to say, I don’t see our pace slowing any time soon. However, we spend 2.5 DAYS per year looking for lost items (Pixie 2016 research). We spend more than 15 minutes looking for items like passports, driver’s licenses, credit cards, umbrellas and our house keys. When each item you use has a home, you spend zero minutes searching for what you need!

2. Getting organized saves money.

Clutter and disorganization cost you real money. Have you ever paid a late fee or missed appointment fee? Do you pay for a storage space? Do you ever have to pay more buying something last minute or having to expedite shipping charges? And of course, how much have you spent to replace items that have been lost? As a country we spend $2.7 B a YEAR replacing lost items (Pixie 2016 research) When you create systems for paying bills, keeping your calendar, tracking your To Do list and maintaining your stuff, all of these extra costs disappear.

3. Getting organized relieves stress and guilt.

A 2016 IKEA Life at Home study showed “39% of people claim their messy homes irritate them once a week or more and 27% argue about tidying up once a week or more.” Many people feel guilty about missing appointments, not having control of their lives, letting their family down and more. Being organized allows you to experience your home as a sanctuary from the stress of the outside world.

There may be even more personal reasons for you to get organized. I have had clients who were raised in a hoarding home and didn’t want to expose their children to a cluttered lifestyle. Some clients are preparing for life as they age and to avoid the pain their children would feel going through all of their piled up belongings. Still others are just sick and tired of feeling out of control and that life is spinning to quickly and they feel like they can’t keep up.

Michael Hyatt also recognizes that goals are not achieved alone. You need a support network for a large goal and for small habit goals. That support network might be your family if you decided to become more organized together. You can create an accountability system with a friend. Or you might call in a professional to create the right systems for you and teach you how to create the life you want for yourself.

1. First step, think about your why. What is most important for you? Then write it down.

2. Second step, determine your support network and reach out. Share your why and ask how they can help. Tell them what would be most useful to you.

When things get tough or you have a setback return to your why and use that as your inspiration and motivation to get back on track.

Getting Organized in 2020? Find Your Why

1. Getting organized saves time.

2. Getting organized saves money.

3. Getting organized relieves stress and guilt.

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