How to Clear Physical and Emotional Clutter | Jack Canfield

When it seems like the world is spiraling into chaos all around you. And it definitely does. These days it's easy to feel powerless, like you have no control over your life or what happens to you. So today I'd like to teach you a powerful success principle and strategy that will help you regain a sense of empowerment and give you more control over your life no matter what is happening in the world around you. It's called clean up your messes and incomplete. And it's all about clearing out both the physical clutter and the emotional baggage from your life so you can gain more harmony and peace of mind in your life and open the door to new possibilities and opportunities. Now, this might sound kind of simple, especially when we're all dealing with such big issues, but I guarantee it can have powerful results in your life. You know, Last year I was supposed to go to an island in the Bahamas with my wife and three other couples to spend a week in a house we had rented on the beach. The day before we were supposed to leave, I couldn't find my passport. To make a long story short, I could not go on that trip. Now my wife went without me and I stayed home by myself. And I decided to use the unexpected time to clean up a lot of messes and incompletes in my life. I went through almost 12 file drawers in my home office and threw out about five huge garbage bags of things that had been taking up space for almost 20 years. I must have filled another four bags with letters and thank you cards I had received and hung onto over the years, and another three with old manuscripts, scripts people had sent for me to write the forward to their books with. And then I must have moved more than 20 bankers boxes full of books out of my office into my garage and they've been stacked up in huge piles on the floor around the edge of my office. To say the least. It was very exhilarating. Then I did the same thing with my clothes closets and my dresser drawers and bathroom cabinets. And I also spent some time having crucial conversations with people that I've been putting off for way too long. Now. The result of all that is I was able to get real clarity about my priorities in my life, especially my writing life. And I've got a lot more room on my conference table to spread out my projects and I don't feel as overwhelmed every time when I enter my office. My good friend Jim Bunch says, your environment should inspire you rather than expire you now. My office had definitely become much more expiring in the past, and it's much more inspiring, pleasant, and a productive place to work in now. So let's take a look at why taking the time to clean up your messes and incompletes is so important. All of that unresolved emotional baggage you have with other people robs you of energy and is an ongoing distraction that prevents you from showing up fully as your best self. And the same goes with the physical clutter in your home and office or the household chores you know you need to do but you keep putting off. They become constant irritants that prick you with guilt and self condemnation every time you think of them. Well, today I'd like to show you how to liberate yourself from these energy leaks and distractions once and for all. Because when you focus on doing something rather than just talking about it or hoping it will somehow change, you're going to feel so much more in control of your life. And with every item you tick off on your to do list, you give yourself a jolt of feel good endorphins and remind yourself that you are someone who brings things through to completion. So here's how to do it. Simply go through all the different areas of your life and identify the tasks you've been ignoring that you know will make your life so much better. Look at every room in your house or apartment and identify everything you'd like to change or to fix. And then do the same for the outside of your house as well, including your yard, your garden, any landscaping if you have a patio or deck, your storage sheds and so on. And then walk through your office or your business space and then turn your attention to your business tasks. Bookkeeping, taxes, filing, data entry, etc. And then the tasks that you want to complete in your personal life that you've been putting off. Have you been putting off your personal finances, your taxes, or your relationships or conversations that need to be addressed, Old wounds that need healing, people you need to forgive, acknowledgments and appreciations you need to give or that you need to ask for from other people. So you simply write down all of your incompletes in every area of your life and then write down a date next to each one where you'll commit to completing each one. By and please, I want you to be realistic. You're going to feel much better if you set an achievable date and accomplish the task by that date than if you're overly ambitious and you have all these things and all these dates coming too fast and then you fail to hit the mark. Now once you've made your list. I challenge you to check off one item on your list every single day this week. Now those don't have to be big to do items. It's okay to start small. Remember, small steps can have big results. Just make sure you see each task through to completion because there is magic in completion. Completion boosts your self esteem. It reminds you that you are someone who takes action and achieves goals. It gives you a sense of momentum that you can carry forward to the next task. And it opens up space in your life for new things to enter. And as always, in times of crisis, it's important to remember that it's not what happens to you, it's how you respond to it that determines your experiences and your outcomes. So cleaning up your messes and your incompletes is just one success strategy that will help you produce a better outcome. So this is just one of the strategies I share in much greater depth in my newest book, the Success Principles Workbook. And on page 171 there's a comprehensive list of potential incompletes and messes that, once they're completed and cleaned up, will release an amazing amount of energy in your life. I'm just going to read you some quick examples here. There's a whole page of them. It says, what incompletions do you have regarding former business activities? Promises not kept or acknowledged or renegotiated, unpaid debts or financial commitments? Closets overflowing with clothing never worn, A disorganized garage or basement, haphazard or disorganized tax records, junk drawers full of unusable items, broken tools, an attic filled with unused items, a trunk or backseat in your car full of trash, overdue car maintenance, filing left undone, etc. So there's a whole page here if you were to go through that, as I suggest you do, when you get to this chapter in the book, this strategy section, what I want you to do is go through all of those. It might take you several months to get through them all, but I promise you what will happen is when you complete this, it's going to absolutely change your life. Now I also share a number of other powerful strategies in the workbook that give you the tools, the checklist, the worksheets that help you make these new behaviors into habits, as well as lots of other resources that make it easy for you to put these powerful success principles to work in your life. Now you can find the workbook at the successprinciplesworkbook.com or wherever you buy your books online. So if you're looking for a helpful blueprint for adopting new success principles that will help you thrive no matter what's going on in your life. I encourage you to get a copy today. And before you leave, if you're feeling inspired, please leave a comment below letting me know about one of the messes and incompletes that you intend to clean up during this time. And remember, when you make a public statement of intention, research shows that you increase your chance of actually following through on your intention. Now, if you found this video helpful, please make sure you like it, share it with a friend who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one, and for additional tools and activities on how to remain confident and in control no matter what is happening in your life. Make sure to visit the successprinciples workbook.com and thanks again for watching.