65: Permission to Pause: Embracing the Beauty of Starting Again
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Welcome to episode 65 of Permission to Be Messy. I'm your host, JoAnn Krall and I'm back. Did you miss me? It's been a while I looked back and saw that my last episode was in September.I've taken breaks before. But this was a really long break and there was a lot of reflection that I had to do of why. Why did I stop? Why couldn't I keep going? What was holding me back? And in those lessons, there was a lot and I won't go into those because this is about organization, but I'm going to talk about how they apply to organization. And one thing I really want to emphasize though, when I was doing all this reflecting, I heard very clearly that we need to normalize the idea that life is cyclical, not linear. And that progress doesn't mean perfection, something that I've talked about often. I'm going to talk about how to start again. If you've, tried to get organized or you tired a planner or you try to certain system. How to start again and give yourself grace.
Something I also want to talk about is, sometimes there's beauty in the pause. so when we're doing say decluttering, breaks are an important part of the process, whether you're taking a break in the day that you're doing organization or decluttering or you're taking a break just overall.
Maybe you spent some time last week doing something. And you got overwhelmed and you just needed to step away for a certain amount of time.
Sometimes we need to just step away in order to recharge or get some clarity. In taking a pause, we avoid burnout, which is something that often happens when people are trying to get organized. And we don't want to be overwhelmed because we're just gonna throw up our hands and give up.
So pausing gives you the space to assess and to reenergize. And when you step back it's a time that you can reflect, you can look back and say, you know what? I'm pausing. I'm frustrated, but you can also look and see how far you've come. So really when you're in the moment of doing a task, whether it's decluttering or any kind of project, often we can feel like we're not making any progress. So when we stop and we walk away from it and then we come back before we start working on it again, we should really admire how much we have actually accomplished.
This is a huge motivator for many people, not for everybody, but if it's a motivator for you, I encourage you to do this.
And in doing this reflection also, you can get clarity on your priorities. Sometimes taking that time away and coming back, you can. if you're working on a space, you can see what really, truly matters to you because you've thought about all the work that you've done and you're like, Ooh, Like I have so much more. but , Do you have more?
So some lessons from stepping away from an organizing project, you can get clarity on your priorities. That time away can help you determine what truly matters in your space. Sometimes what you missed, you come back and you're like, wow. Like I didn't even notice that certain things were gone.
And that gives you that clarity that yeah, you're on the right path. You're doing the right thing.
Often returning gives you that fresh perspective. it can reveal things to you. When we're busy working on something, we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
So sometimes just walking away, taking a breath and no matter how long it is, Can just give us that clarity. If you're dealing with things that have emotional attachment, sometimes taking that time away helps soften that emotional tie. And it might make them easier to let go. What about the fear of starting again? Sometimes we feel ah, that drive the fear, the dread like, oh, I don't want to go back in there. This is when it's important to understand that again, progress doesn't disappear.
Remind yourself that even if you've stopped the work you already did still counts. Every little bit helps. And there's no perfect time. Waiting for the perfect time to start again. And this is something that was keeping me truly stuck getting back to this podcast because I really want to bring you guests.
I've been saying that for over a year. but there's so much involved in it. And I was frankly, very busy at the end of the year with clients and with personal things. And so I didn't really get that moving. Even though I reached out to people, I reached out to a few people to have them on this podcast. But, when the communication stopped, I gave up on the follow-up and I just couldn't push myself forward.
So, as a little side note, I made a list of all those people and I'm making a plan and I will be reaching out to them. But you know what I said, that can't stop me from coming back and talking to you.
So as I always say with getting organized, start small. And do it messy. the whole concept of, letting go of perfectionism permission to be messy. I need to apply that in certain areas of my life. And that's what I'm doing by coming back and talking to you about this. It's a little bit of an energetic reboot.
I actually was a guest on a podcast. last week, which will be coming out soon. I'll be sharing that with you. but that gave me a little reboot as well. It was really nice to talk about getting organized again.
And then always remember that decluttering is a journey. It's not a one-time event. It's okay. If the journey has stops and starts. It's just the way life is.
So let's talk about, restarting with grace and intention. Set the set realistic goals for yourself, after we take a break. It's important to start small, manageable area to ease back into it. And actually, I think we should approach it always like this, but if you're somebody that likes to. dig right in there. Give yourself a realistic goal so that you don't get overwhelmed. Always focus on your, why revisit the reasons why you're letting go with stuff. most of us want to be less stressed. we want to have more space.
We want to move through our day more freely. We want to be more productive in our businesses or at work. And, we just want easier daily routines, but sometimes. Even though we know that sometimes it's important to remind ourselves that and you could journal it or you could just, in your mind, just picture it, picture your space, put your, how you want your day to look. And then of course always celebrate those small wins. every drawer that you organize, or if you clear a bunch of files off your computer desktop, look back at it, look at it and focus and say, you know what?
I made progress and I'm doing it and it looks great. And it's fun to admire. This was something that came up on the podcast. That I was on last week. I said, isn't it. A great feeling when you organized a space and it can be something as small as one little drawer. But you want to go back and look at it and admire the work that you did. that's giving yourself a little pat on the back. Okay.
The messy, the human side of organizing the whole reason I do this podcast again, not about perfection. It's not about creating a picture, perfect home or office.
It's about creating a functional space that makes you happy. Makes you feel good when you walk into it. Or, if it's your office, you want to feel great at the beginning of the day, when you walk in, you want to sit down and go. All right. I know exactly where to start. I know exactly what I need to do, and I know what needs to be done.
And this next thing, I have to remind myself this, not so much with organizing because that's, natural for me. But doing this podcast was while it's very natural for me to be. talking to you and giving you tips and ideas each week. The actual process of doing all the other stuff was holding me back and also wanting to, change up how I'm bringing you this information by bringing in other people to talk to, because, to be honest,organizing. while trends will come and go. The basic concept of it is the same. So it's really nice to get other people's perspectives on things. I think that really helps.
And just remember, there is no shame. No shame in stopping and starting.The fact that you stopped. It means you've started to make progress just because you stopped. It doesn't mean it's over. Just pick right back up when you can
And before I, give you a couple of action items, I want to let you know that I created a learn with me page on my website. Now I call it, learn with me and not learn from me. Because I really, you know what I do in my work. Isn't telling you what to do.
It's helping you figure out what is best for you. And so this learn with me page has everything that I offer right now from FREE to VIP. So there's some free resources. There's the middle tier of my courses. And then there's the coaching and accountability. And I added a new offer with. VIP days.
So you can check that out as well. but okay. That's really quick. And I'll put the link to that in the show notes.which, I always forget to say the show notes can be found at my website. joannkrall.com. And if you go to the podcast link, you will see all of the episodes and you can grab the show notes there.
So some things, that you can do today, if you're at a point where you need to start again in this can apply to anything, but. choose one area however small and start. So if it's, again, one small drawer, maybe it's a bag that you carry, to work or to, and from work, or, maybe you haven't unpacked from a trip, or maybe you just need to go organize one cabinet in your kitchen, or maybe you're going to go into your computer and you're going to, look through a bunch of files and see what you can let go. Just pick one area.
Another thing you can do if you don't want to physically get started is reflect on what has been working for you and what hasn't. This is a key step. In the organizing process evaluating, where you think things are breaking down. And this is again, like I said, I did this with the podcast.
Why did I stop? What were the reasons, what was holding me back. Reflection is really helpful because it gives you a jumping off point.
And then finally embrace the messy middle.
Progress often looks chaotic before it becomes calm. Uh, well, that just came out of me. I don't know where that came from, but.while I don't want you to be making big messes when you're working through your organizing stuff. And that's why I have my seven step process, which you can see in the learn with me page. But.
The fact that you're doing stuff
things are going to still feel chaotic until you get to the point where you've got things under control, and that doesn't mean a perfectly organized spaced, perfectly systemized business. It just means. Good enough. Good enough for now, we can always refine. So embrace that and don't panic that things are still feeling disorganized.
Keep moving forward. So that's what I have for you today. I'm so happy to be back. I'm not sure yet what my schedule is going to be like with this. I would like to continue to talk to you weekly. That's my goal. Maybe you can keep me accountable, send me an email, be like, Hey.
You haven't done a podcast. My contact information is always in the show notes and as always, I'm wishing you much progress, peace, purpose, and the permission to be messy. Thanks for listening.
