I want to share with you a conversation and the “aha” moment that I have seen happening over and over with clients and workshop participants.
All these people have something in common:
They have recently retired (or are very flexible with their work)
They have time and energy.
They want to travel.
They normally have more than 1 property to take care of.
They have a lot of stuff.
They want to simplify their life.
They come to one of our workshops, take one of our courses, or work with us 1 on 1.
The majority of the times, their life has changed a lot:
- They used to have a family but all their children are living on their own.
- They had a successful career, but now they are at the retirement stage, with more time and are unsure about how to adjust properly.
- They normally still have a lot of stuff that they needed and used before, but doesn’t fit their current situation anymore.
- There is a lot of emotional attachment to these belongings and going through the downsizing process may seem daunting.
It’s very normal to keep doing what we have always done. This is our normality (our comfort zone) and when life changes, we need some time to realize that we need to adjust.
Let me tell you that it’s very easy to forget to look at all the options that we may have. In these cases, having someone outside of your family and social circle looking at your situation objectively, listening to your wants and needs, and guiding you through all the options that you may have is very helpful!
It’s way easier to do this exercise for someone else than it is to do it with ourselves.
A great exercise to dump all your ideas, worries, and to-dos on paper is mind mapping.
You can do this alone, but honestly, having someone doing it for you it’s very powerful! I do this with a lot of our clients and it’s very helpful. I always listen and write down all the main ideas that they are sharing, then I connect them, find the priorities, deadlines, emotions associated… and finally, find the actionable steps that they can schedule in their calendar. Give it a try and see how it goes 🙂
In one of our latest workshops, a person came to me at the end to ask for some advice. She was trying to find the way to manage her time between all the things she needed to do in her 3 properties. I was just listening and asking questions. She used to be very busy entertaining family and friends, and having these properties was very helpful. During the conversation, I sensed that she wasn’t excited about this anymore.
So I asked her “What would you do if you didn’t have these properties to take care of?” She stopped for a few seconds, a little shocked by the question, not having an answer yet, looked at me and said, I don’t know, I never asked myself that question. So I asked her again “Imagine that these two extra properties with their to-dos list are gone”, how would you spend your time and energy? What would excite you?
You should have seen her eyes opening up, and her excitement showing through her facial expression. I would travel the world! I always wanted to travel and see new places, but I never had the time or money to do so. I guess now I do have time and money. I never thought of this option 😊
When you take some time to think about how you want to spend your time and energy, you will find things that excite you. Why wouldn’t you try to pursue them? Having this clarity will allow you to look at your physical belongings and ask yourself a series of questions to decide if you need them in your life.
These are 12 questions to help you let go of difficult items:
Many times, we are not able to see all the options that we have in front of us. Stuff gets on the way and we try really hard to design our lifestyle around our things. I invite you to do the opposite, thing about the lifestyle that you want to have, then question everything you own to make sure that is adding value to your life. This is what minimalism is all about. Learn more about minimalism here.
Let me tell you that doing this for someone else it’s easy. Doing this for myself… that’s another story 😊 That’s why I love getting inspired by others, reading, watching inspiring videos and having coaches/mentors/inspiring people in my life, because they help me get out of my head and see the world with fresh eyes.
Getting out of your daily routine and doing something completely different also works. That’s why I try to go on so many adventures because every time I do something different, I feel inspired and new ideas come to my mind. It doesn’t have to cost money, and it can be done just around the corner of your home. I make a lot of fun videos of these adventures, you can watch them here.
If you don’t take the time to design the lifestyle that you want, someone else will dictate it for you. And most likely you won’t like it as much :).
Have you heard about lifestyle design? It’s a very interesting concept that will help you a LOT figure out what things you want to have in your life. We love this concept and have used it personally since 2012. We even wrote a book about it called “A Recipe For An Extraordinary Life“, it’s handmade by a local bookmaker here in Waterloo. We made a video for you to see how it’s made.
I hope this post helped you get out of your head and see your situation with fresh eyes. There are always many options available to you. If you can’t see them, I invite you to take action in any of the things I shared in this post.
If that’s still not enough, reach out and we will try our best to help you 😊
Do you have any other strategy that I didn’t mention in this post? I would LOVE if you shared it below!
