Achieving an uncluttered life; a marathon, not a sprint
Have you done some decluttering but before you knew it you were back to square one?
In 2016, I set myself the goal of running an ultra trail marathon in the Blue Mountains. I was about to turn 40. I was pretty exhausted with life, mum to two and a full-time corporate job. I had been peddling hard for quite some time, battling to climb the corporate ladder whilst juggling my home life, but not feeling like I was getting that far.
I needed a challenge that wasn't work-related, something just for me.
I did a bit of running, knocking out the odd 5k here and there, but never a marathon, let alone an ultra trail marathon. I read something online about the race, and I started wondering, could I do that? Could I develop the mindset of an ultra-marathoner?
Talking to others who had been there and done it, I knew that the biggest challenge would be to make it to the start line. The added training load on your body is significant, and if you don't build up carefully, you will injure yourself.
I researched and built my training plan, including as many hills and steps as I could find.
But there was a problem, I was a mum of two young children, working full time. How on earth was I going to fit in training? I struggled to find time for the longer runs, so I decided I needed to run the 14km's it took me to get to work.
I can tell you that run to work was so unpleasant. It was hilly and along busy main roads. I hated it, but that run was invaluable. It helped me build the strength and determination that would get me through the big event.
I set myself smaller goals to achieve, run a quarter of the course, run half of the course, run 30k on a similar course. Hitting those milestones built my confidence and belief that I could do it.
I joined multiple communities of other runners who were doing the event. I took their advice about the proper nutrition, the right training, the right gear and most importantly, the right mindset. I knew that if one of these components weren't right, I would fail. I had my support network, my husband, who picked up the load when I needed to spend weekend mornings in the Blue Mountains training and then there was the personal trainer, the physio and the chiro dealing with all my new aches and pains.
The most important support came from my two buddies. Two great guys roped in to share the adventure. The run itself was much more challenging than we expected. Heavy rain the week before saw the organisers change the course a few days earlier. It was unfamiliar and more technical. We hit the final stages, the crucifying climb up Nellies Glen, the endless steps. Nellie was a bitch, and we told her so, many times as we dragged our exhausted bodies to the finish. We held our arms aloft and screamed for the finishing photo, the sense of jubilation like nothing else.
I had achieved my goal, but it was more than that. I had proved to myself that with the right approach and mindset, I could achieve big things. I was excited. What else could I do if I applied a similar system?
So what on earth has an ultra-marathon got to do with decluttering?
You may have read about the power of decluttering in changing your life, freeing up your time, reducing your stress and helping you relax. Sadly it isn’t the one-off chucking out session you do once a year that enables you to achieve this. It’s a mindset shift and a new approach to how you live your day to day life; the change to a more minimal life. Now before you say, “Lisa, I don’t want to live a minimal life”, let me just clarify. I am not talking about a life with very little in it, or the plain empty white box of a house that is often depicted in articles about minimalism. No, this is not the minimalism that I am referring to. I want you to think about a life where you are in control of what you choose to bring into it. Where you think consciously about what’s important to you and what is not.
This shift sees you embedding new habits, living more consciously, and saying no to things that don't serve you. Enabling you to focus on the important, quickly and efficiently remove the things that aren't ("the clutter"), achieve your goals, and ultimately curate a life you love.
We've been conditioned to live a life of more, often creating the life that we think we should be living and filling it with stuff that we think we should have. Rather than the life we want to live or the stuff that we actually need. The result? For some, feeling overwhelmed and unfulfilled. More and more people are making the shift to a life with less. Less but better.
It's not easy, but with a structured longer-term approach, you'll be more likely to succeed:
Setting your big goals - being clear about what you are trying to achieve and why? Are you just getting rid of stuff, or are you changing the way you live? Do you desire a more peaceful home, more time to do the things you love, do you want to become a more conscious consumer, have more money or lessen your impact on the planet?
Setting your small goals - What are the smaller goals that will lead you to the big goals? When do you want to achieve them?
Break down your tasks into manageable chunks - if you go out and try and run a marathon on day 1, you are likely to end up injured and give up. If you try and declutter your whole house in a weekend by yourself, you will likely end up overwhelmed and not finish the job. You'll be so put off by the experience that you won't want to do it again. You won't achieve the life change you desire. Setting challenges that are a little bit challenging but not so hard that you just don’t do them, is the key to embedding new habits. If you see decluttering as just a one-off task, before you know it, your clutter will have built back up. It’s also important to dig into why your clutter is building in the first place.
Identifying the beliefs and behaviours that might hold you back? - are there things that you do that go against your goal? Are you a compulsive shopper? Do you buy things when you are fed up or bored? Are you always attracted to shiny new things? Do you struggle to get rid of things or say 'no'? Do you hold onto things just in case? Writing these down at the beginning helps you build awareness of what might be holding you back. Write down your intentions. Who do you want to become? What do you want to achieve and by when? Doing this helps focus your mind and gives you a better chance of actually achieving your goals.
Track your efforts - tracking can help you develop new habits. Seeing the progress keeps you motivated. Log the areas that you've tackled and celebrate your progress, just as you might with exercise.
Join a community or follow businesses that support what you are trying to achieve. If you want to change something in your life (getting fit, losing weight, giving up alcohol, decluttering your life), one of the best things you can do is join a supportive community or follow businesses aligned to your goal. Immerse yourself in their content, connect with other people who will support and cheer you on. Doing this also makes the experience enjoyable, you might even make new friends.
If you want to start living a more minimal life, one that is curated just for you, join our community by signing up at My Curated Life, join the My Curated Life, Facebook Group or follow us on Instagram. We’d love to have you as part of our community.