Almost a Year

I don't make many mistakes. I pride myself on being organized, thoughtful and persistent. In 2008 I made some great moves in my life and some big mistakes. Dena likes to tell me to stop being the "shoulda, woulda, coulda" girl. I try not to but it's hard. I won't go into any of the mistakes except one....

That one mistake I made was when I changed jobs (a brilliant move by the way) I didn't take any time off to regroup mentally and to change my physical situation at home. Let me explain; I have a home office. It's rather large. Dena has a tiny space in the corner and the rest is mine. It was that way because I spent 12 years working out of it. It's full of stuff. Manuals, books, files and the entire life that was Mitel before I switched jobs.

To give myself a break regarding this misstep, I wasn't mentally ready to clean up my old Mitel life or rather to let it go. I also wasn't mentally prepared for the new job and the drastic change that it would mean. Going from working out of the house for 12 years to reporting to an office everyday is a pretty big change. Don't get me wrong, I'm thriving on the change and am happier for it but it is a big change.

So, while in hindsight I wish I had taken a week or two to discard the old Mitel life there is no way at that time I was ready to it. Now, almost a year after leaving Mitel, I am ready. Now the problem is finding the time to clean up the office at home. I suppose that it will have to be done, little by little, similar to how personal realization and insight strikes me. Little by little I figure myself out.

Another thought is "does having a clean office, files, bookcases or whatever make you a happy person?" Does a clean garage bring happiness and emotional well being? Does discarding the old and minimizing bring calm? I think that answer depends on the person. Some people think that yes, this one thing will make it all better for me but it never does. Some people need everything in it's place to feel comfortable and some do not. Frankly, happiness is all a mind set. If we could just quiet our minds and live in the moment all the ancillary "noise" caused by our excess stuff wouldn't matter. Of course, if we could have quieted our mind to begin with we probably wouldn't have excess stuff. Something to think about.