I Screwed Up.

Yesterday I made a mistake. I missed a family event. It was "on my radar" the night before, it was on my calendar, and all my systems were set up correctly to remind me, but I just BLANKED. I am sure this has happened to every one of you reading this. (If not, please say it has so it will make me feel better.)

I woke up later than normal and somehow got it in my head that my afternoon was a blank canvas, and I also resolved not to work or even look at Outlook/email or my phone all day. I wanted to CHECK OUT– go off-the-grid –and I did. Unfortunately that meant that my Outlook and phone reminders were not going to work! This kind of thing happens to me only when I have a ton of things on my mind, and I definitely do… further proving my need to take a rest. Ironically.

I was pretty upset with myself for this mistake, but nobody is perfect, and I am certainly not even close. My favorite Emerson quote is on my cork wall in my closet (see here for how I built that), and it gave me a lot of comfort:

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

What did I learn? Relying on what's in your head does NOT work (as I did when I woke up). As my fantastic assistant says when she needs a refresher on something, "I've slept since then." And if you're going to go off-the-grid, check in quickly one last time before you check out, trusting yourself that you won't get "sucked in." That's all I can think of. But no matter what, these things will happen occasionally to the best of us. It's okay, as long as it's the exception and not the rule! Push the reset button and get a fresh start.

The New Year can be that fresh start for some people. If you are wanting a fresh start and need to get organized, we do have our online program to support you in these efforts. You may have heard me mention this before but are not sure what it's really about or if this program is right for you. I just made a video of myself explaining why I created the program and what it does. You can watch that here on the main Clutter Diet site on the See How It Works page. Let me know what you think about the video! It's only 3 minutes long.

When people find out what I do for a living, they frequently say something like, "Wow, your house/life/office/whatever must be perfect." I am quick to point out that organizing is not about being perfect– it's about being functional and happy and having your physical environment and systems support you in having the life you want. I preach the gospel of Good Enough, because nobody can live up to perfection. May you approach your new year with a fresh start every single day.

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