This television show that was on a few years ago called, Merlin, talked about the Great Purge. I always try to say it with an English accent 'cause I think it's cool in my messed up American Canadian accent. It tends to be a little wonky, so it's always good to toss in some English accent when I can.
A great purge, for me, was all the belongings that I had over the years. They were just collecting and taking up space in the basement, in the garage, or anywhere we could find space. These items weren't serving. They were actually creating a clutter-type situation, which was impacting me from a stress situation and a health situation.
There's been countless studies on how clutter impacts your health and in the next few days I'll start talking about the health challenges that I faced eight years ago and how it traumatically changed my life. Quite frankly, for the better.
The great purge is something that I think everyone needs to do from time to time. Literally go through all of your things and say, "Is this serving me?" And if it's not, then donate it. Or if it's not something that can be reused, then recycle it. Or if it has to go in the trash, so be it. That goes from clothes to belongings and collectibles, trinkets, DVD collections, CD collections, all of these things. If they're not serving you, you're not going to use it, don't want somebody else to benefit by having it, then donate it or toss it out.
There's a rule that I follow called the 20-minute or 20-dollar rule. If you can replace it in under 20 minutes or under $20 and you're not using it currently, donate it. Get rid of it. If you're not using it, it's taking up space. The more space you have in your life, it gives you the flexibility of freedom to be able to do things you wanna do or be working on right now.
Tabula rasa. is Latin for clean slate. Oftentimes, that's what you need to do. You want to get to a clean slate and really start from scratch on something. I think it's something that you will find helpful in this year and in your life.
Your homework is look at an area of your life. Not your entire life. Don't try to do everything at once. But look at an area of your life, whether it's your closet, maybe a room, or your desk at work, and just clear it off. Then put back the things that you really need on a daily basis. It might be a case where it takes a few days for you to start grabbing things to put back on your desk, or in your closet, or your room. After a period of time, you can donate the rest of that stuff because you're not using it. It's just taking up space.
Another area where you need to look at this, and this is something that I've had to do personally this week. A great purge also covers attitude, and thoughts, and beliefs, and indicates, for me, a couple of situations where there were things going on in my life that is creating a kind of an anger take with it. I've cleaned it. I recognized it. Now I'm addressing it. I'm dealing with it.
The homework for you is look in an area in your life. Just one and create a clean state and slowly put things back that are truly serving you. Either donate or get rid of the rest.
Cheers.