186 | The Two Gaps Keeping You From Getting Organized

Speaker A: What is actually keeping you from getting organized? If you're at point A right now, maybe you see clutter, unfinished projects, piles of paper, things that don't have homes. And point B is where you want to be. That is your goal. You have things put away, you have clear surfaces, you have systems that work. And you're feeling peaceful and confident in your space. So what's keeping you from getting from point A to point B in today's episode? That's what I'm going to talk to you about. I'm talking about the two gaps I see most often. And remember, getting organized isn't just about learning what to do with your stuff. Yes, there are skills you need to learn in practice, but there's also a transformation that's happening along the way. This journey is getting you to become the woman who makes decisions or the man who makes decisions, who assigns homes, who works through perfectionism instead of letting it stop them, who trusts themselves, who finishes things, who can look at any space and believe. I got this. Uh, I can organize this. And I want you to start building what I call a bank of evidence along the way. So anytime you do things, that's your evidence. If you sort for five minutes. Evidence every surface you clear. Evidence every time you make a decision and then instead of avoiding it, uh, evidence every time you put something away. Evidence. Okay, you are finding evidence every time you learn and fail and try again. Evidence. Evidence that you're closing those gaps from, uh, point A to point B, you're getting closer to point B. And most importantly, evidence that you are becoming an organized person. So that's what we're going to talk about today. I also want to remind you that we are doing our in person one day retreat called Elevate. You can go to simplysquared away.com elevate and learn more and get your ticket. I think we're halfway full, so you still have a few spots left to get your ticket to join us at that event on October 17th. Let's get into this week's episode. Are you ready to work less, feel more organized and productive? Streamline repetitive tasks and implement systems that allow your coaching business to run smoothly even without you? If so, you're in the right place. Welcome to the Organized Coach podcast, your go to source for practical tips and solutions. I'm your host, Tracy Hoth, professional organizer, certified life coach, simplifying expert, and most of all, Dan down to earth fellow coach just like you. No matter if you think you're missing the organizing gene, have ADHD or Just love anything organizing. I'm here to help you become an organized coach with a business that works for you. Pull up a seat and let's get started. I was going to talk this first into chat and have him help. I call it a hymn, have him help me outline my thoughts, but I want to just start talking here. When you think about getting organized, uh, you are at point A and you want to get to point B. Point A might be a messy desk or messy countertop. It might be things out of place. It might be the fact that you feel disorganized. You look around and you see clutter. And you want to get to point B, which is you organized. Click clear surfaces. Everything has a home. You feel at peace. You feel confident that you can organize any space. Okay, so that's point B. And right now you're at point A. The thing that's keeping you from getting to point A from point A to point B is either a skill gap or a mindset gap. Some people even add an asset gap or a combination of all two or three of those things. So I think, okay, well, I give you the skill of getting organized. Anyone can get organized. It doesn't matter what kind of brain type you have. It doesn't matter if you've, uh, ever been taught how to get organized. It doesn't matter anything. If you learn the five steps to get organized, you can get organized. So I teach you those five steps. They spell the word space. You first sort of, Then you purge, you assign homes, you contain, and then you energize. You use that energy in the area of your life that you really want to and you want to maintain that, right? So those are the five steps. Now, within each of those five steps, there might be another skill. So for example, when we sort, we want to sort into categories of things like books, office supplies, short sleeve shirts, socks, those kinds of categories. What is this? What category does it go in versus sorting immediately into buy. I mean, um, don't buy, sell, donate, trash, you know, those kinds of categories because you're already making hard decisions. So that might be a skill that you have to practice learning to sort into categories. And you get better and better at that. This purge step is learning how to think about your life. Think about the destination, the place that you're heading, the things that you will be due, having a clear vision of that, and then making decisions based on what would support that part of your life. That might be a skill. Well, it is a skill on how to do that. How do we purge our Stuff we, we think about where we're going and we ask ourself, is this supporting that life, the one I'm creating? Often in this decision making process, people will say to me, I'm not good at making decisions. Okay, that's a skill. And you might practice getting that skill, getting better and better at that skill. Then the next step is to assign homes. Lots of people have trouble in this step and it's a skill. Maybe they think that they need to know the perfect place to put something, to assign a home to something. Or I think of it kind of like a puzzle. You gotta figure it out. You might test a few pieces to see if they fit in that home, and if they don't, you just move them to a different home and decide on a different home. So that skill of testing and assigning homes without getting stuck in perfectionism is, is a skill. And the more you practice it, the better you get at it. And then containing that's a skill. You might not know of a certain container and maybe that's where the asset comes in. You might not have that asset and you haven't even heard of it or seen it, or you're not sure. And so that's a skill of researching that, of learning how to find a container, a divider, a piece of furniture that fits and creates a home, and a limit for whatever item you're putting in there, whatever category. And then the final step has maintaining it in it, um, to keep that energy and use it in the area that you want, you have to maintain it. And I always say tie it to something you already do. But that takes practice, right? That's a skill of learning to habit stack, of learning to tie it to something, of remembering, of practicing that. So that is a skill as well. So each step has skills and you're practicing and learning and getting better and better at those steps. So that's one gap between where you are now and where you're wanting to go. The other gap is the mindset piece of it. So today I had a conversation with a client about feeling organized. Does she feel organized? She wants to feel more organized. And so we really dove deep into what feeling organized looks like. And in her mind, I think at, uh, first she thought of it as being in a routine. If I have a routine and I'm really good at being in the routine, I will feel organized. Maybe, but maybe not organized as a feeling comes from what you're thinking. So we looked at different thoughts that she has thought at different times in her life. And we Kind of looked at it as being prepared. She kind of felt like being organized meant. Meant you were prepared in her mind, those two tied together. So we looked at, uh, what other areas of her life have she felt prepared? And she's training for a marathon. So in the past, has she ever felt prepared to run the marathon? And she might think, I have trained for this. I am ready for this. And then that makes her feel prepared. If I thought I have trained for this moment, I would feel prepared, right? I would feel organized because I've trained for this. We talked about different other times in her life when she felt prepared. Another feeling that came up when you think about feeling organized or being organized is confidence. So when has she felt confident before? And it was really interesting. If you do this for yourself, ask yourself first, what does being organized feel like? What does organized feel like? What is the one word emotion that you would tie to feeling organized? Being organized. And then when you uncover that, then think about when else in your life. Where else in your life have you felt that emotion? And what were you thinking that made you feel that? So I thought about walking into my house and feeling peaceful. And I can walk into my house, and I instantly feel such peace. And I thought to myself, okay, why do I feel that peace? It's because I think I love this. I love that artwork. I love how it makes me feel when I look at that art. Because I'm thinking, oh, it's by Still Waters. I feel peace when I look at my table and think it's ready to have people around it. It's ready. A, uh, kitchen, when I walk in, it's like it's ready, or it will only take me five minutes to get it ready for people to come in. So can I think it's ready if my organized or if my space or my house isn't organized yet? And I was imagining this coming in and thinking, it's not ready, but what do I need to do? And let's say I pick one surface, and I'm going to clear that surface. Let's say it's my dining room table. I'm going to clear my din room table, and I get everything put away. I assign homes to things that are on it. And if you're doing this, I want you to notice when you're sorting the stuff on your dining room table. What is it? Does it just not have a home? Have you not given it a home? Or is it that you just haven't put it away in its home? And that's a good, helpful thing to think about as you're sorting. So look at the categories that you have that you've sorted into. Maybe it's paper, maybe it's kitchen supplies, maybe it's office supplies, Maybe it's projects you've been working on. Look at that and say, did those things have homes? Is it just that I didn't put it away? What I hear a lot of people say is, oh, I've worked on a project, and it never got put away. So it has a home. It might be a file in the file cabinet. It might be a bin in the craft department. Or, uh, you know, our craft bin is in the basement in a storage room. It might be in there. It just never got put away. But it does have a home. But then there might be other things that just don't have homes. It's really good to do when you're sorting somewhere that is a common area. And then, you know, like, okay, I have to assign a home to this category. Or it's like, I want to get better at putting things away in a timely fashion so that it doesn't build up. So if I cleared my dining room table, I could walk into my house and think, oh, look at that beautiful, clear space. I'm so proud of myself. I organized that space, and you could feel peace. Now that I've organized that space, I can do anything. I can organize the rest of my spaces. I'm so grateful that I took the time and organized that space. I'm so grateful for this clear counter, clear table that I can now have guests around. I love having a space that I can look at that's calm and empty or whatever it is. So you can feel peace. You can think those thoughts even though the rest of your house is messy or you haven't worked on the rest of your house. But if you have one space because you've started, you can see that you even can think peaceful, uh, thoughts before you start. So it might be something like, I have Tracy's podcast, and I can listen to it, and I'm learning the skills of getting organized. And you feel peace knowing that it's possible that you can do it. You might feel peace because, you know, oh, I remember when I started, I don't know, crocheting, and I learned how to do that, and I made a sweater so I can learn anything. I can accomplish anything, and I know that I can accomplish decluttering and organizing my home or my office or my computer. And you can feel peace. So what emotion do you need to work on? Practicing Thinking now so that you can feel the emotion that you think getting organized will bring you. So when you're at point B, you think you're going to feel peace. We got to practice feeling peaceful right now. And I just kind of explained how you would go about doing that. That's a mindset thing. So we have our skill gap and we have our mindset gap. Another area of mindset might be I just don't have time. It might be a thought like that that's keeping you from getting organized now. A lot of times people don't see the thoughts, they don't know the thoughts. They just think. That's a fact that they don't have time. There's no way they can do it because they're busy. Well, maybe, but we can also prove and show how you can do it and fit it into your schedule so you can get to point B. You might also be thinking, like I had said earlier, I'm terrible at making decisions. Maybe, but if you keep thinking that thought, you are not going to get to point B. You won't remember. We won't outperform our identity. So if we identify with these thoughts, there's no way we gonna get better at that and we're gonna get to point B because we keep those thoughts. So we have to transform our thinking to become. To be an organized person that can accomplish getting to point B. We have to think about, how does the person at point B think? So I was coaching an entrepreneur with a business and I was like, okay, how do you making 20 million, how do you think, how do you make the decision about this employee right now? How does that person think? Is that person worried about how people will look at her? Is that person worried about having too hard of expectations? She probably has a lot bigger things to think about than if that person will like her because she has an expectation or a requirement. So then how do you start thinking more like that person so that you can get from point A to point B? How does an organized person at point B who's accomplished decluttering and organizing their home, their business, their office, how do they think? Who are they? What do they believe? Because what they believe is how they're going to get there. They've become that person. So you cannot keep thinking that you're terrible at making decisions and that you have no time. You cannot keep thinking, I don't know what to do, I don't know where to start because that will keep you from getting to point B. That's the whole mindset. Part of it. And everyone in Organized Life, Academy and Coach, uh, Academy, they realize, oh, my goodness, the mindset part of it is so much bigger now. I don't think you can get there without any skill because obviously you have to take action. But the action comes from the feelings and the thoughts that get you to be the person at point B. I hope that makes sense. So I have cross stitched all of our stockings. Actually, the kids stockings are needlepoint and mine and my husband's are, uh, cross stitch. So when my boys got married, I got two more cross stitch. I couldn't find any more needlepoint kits and so I had to get cross stitch, which is. Takes longer because you go back over the opposite way from just needlepoint. You just go one direction. So I had to get cross stitch. And I started the one and I thought, oh, the other one's not going to be home for Christmas. So I'm going to start with the one that'll be home for Christmas. Well, um, three years later, I finally finished the first one. And I was thinking as I was finishing it, so I finished it because my mom was coming in town and she always sews it and completes the, the project. So I wanted to have it done before she came in town, like a month ago. And so I was working on it and I was just thinking about how cross stitch relates to organizing your home or your business. And I thought of this because then when I finished that one, I thought, oh, well, I'm going to just. I'm, um, so in the mood to do this. I'm going to start the next one because starting it seems fun. Like, it's all fun fresh. You haven't made any mistakes. You have new colors, you have a new pattern. Well, I started the next one and it's about half the size, so each square is even tinier. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I can't even hardly see the square if I've went back over again. Like, uh, you go one direction, then you make an X and go the other direction. I couldn't even see if I went the other direction on so many of these because they're so tiny. And I thought to myself, this is like organizing at first. You start and you're making the tiniest little dent. I look at this stocking and I think, oh, my goodness, this is going to take me hours and hours and hours. And I thought to myself, okay, it probably does. It, uh, for sure will take hours and hours and hours. But that's not a problem because in the process of doing it. I can relax. I can have fun. I can become someone who has a completed stocking. I look at my past, I find evidence that I can finish things that I can complete, projects that I look back on. And it doesn't have to just be the other stockings that I created, because at one point I was doing the very first one. But I thought, I can relax and just enjoy this process as long as it's going to take. I can learn. I can have conversations during it. I can watch something, listen to something. I can pray over the person whose stocking it is. I can do so many things and grow in so many ways while I'm working on this stocking. That is such a beautiful thing. It's such a beautiful way to think about the time that I'm going to be spending on this stocking, on this cross stitch project. Same with organizing. Yeah. You can sit there and look at how long it's going to take and dread and go on and on about how much you have to do and how big of a project it is, or you can think, in this process, I am becoming someone new. I am creating a project or a home and a life that I want. Step by step. I'm learning to think differently. I'm learning to make different decisions. I'm, uh, creating spaces that I love. I'm going to be able to do what I'm called to do in these spaces in my home. I'm going to be able to do what I'm called to do with my business because it's organized, because I can hand off things to people, because I can find things quicker and easier. I am becoming someone who is organized, who completes things, who makes decisions, who tests things out. So it's such a beautiful process, and that's how I think about organizing. It is such a beautiful process. You are becoming someone different. And in that process, you gotta see the mindset blocks that are keeping you from becoming that person. You have to see, what skill do I need to practice? How uncomfortable am I willing to be to practice this skill? To be bad at it, to keep going, to try something in one place, assigning a home to it and it not working, and me needing to find a different home and move it to a different spot without being frustrated and mad and thinking you wasted all that time. That's how I think about business too. I wasted all that time trying that, maybe. But I also learned a lot. I learned that I don't want to do it that way. And now I can find the next way and how willing am I to be uncomfortable to learn to grow? And same thing about organizing. How willing are you to to uncover the emotional mindset blocks that are keeping you from getting to point B? How willing are you to practice the skill skills to get you to point B? And one thing I love about organizing is those skills, those steps that you're going to be practicing and the skills within the steps that you're going to be practicing are so useful for other areas of your life. Same with growing a business. Those skills that I have practiced and tried and tested are so useful in other areas of my life. So the time is not wasted, the skill you're learning is not wasted. And the mindset that is beyond, uh, valuable because how we do one thing is how we do many things. So if you are not comfortable assigning homes to things because of your perfectionism, noticing that in organizing is going to be so helpful in all the other areas of your life. What else are you avoiding because of perfectionism and learning how to overcome that? And what emotional mindset things are there is going to be so helpful as you apply it to a different area of your life and uncover it and the awareness of it. Okay, so I had no outline for this, but I wanted to bring up the story of when I was cross stitching and how I thought about organizing. And I'm sure there's many things I thought at that time that I forgot that I didn't include as we talk about it now. But getting from point A to point B, where are you? Are you at point A and you haven't started? You've tried a few times, you haven't fully committed? I'm going to get to point B. And what does the person at point B think? How do they think? How is it different than what you're thinking right now? What skills do they have that you don't have right now? Practice being that person. Practice actually like standing up and stepping into that person and practice thinking like them. Think about what skills they need to learn. And then invest in yourself. Invest the time, invest the money, invest the support. Invest whatever you need to get to point B. It's so exciting, this, the whole transformation. That's why I'm thinking of organizing a lot more like a healing journey. You are healing some of the blocks and mindset that you have. You're healing some of the doubt about your ability. You're healing some of the stuff and the emotions that are attached to the stuff. All of it is such a beautiful journey. Just like sitting and doing Cross stitch, that whole journey, all the things I can learn and do and think about and practice and pray for while I'm doing the craft of cross stitch is the same as when it comes to organizing. That whole journey of getting to be the person that you want to be, that is at point B is just a beautiful thing. So when you right now think about your life, what is it? Is it a skill gap? Is it a mindset gap that's keeping you from getting to point balance? Maybe you don't have support. Nobody's ever looked at your mind with you to see what exactly is the gap? What is the mindset that I'm believing that's blocking me from getting to point B? Where am I feeling unwilling to be uncomfortable in the skill? And maybe it's unwilling to be uncomfortable in letting someone see my mind. Okay, I hope this a little bit different than normal, uh, conversation in this podcast is helpful. And then one more thing. As you go along and you're getting to point B, I want you to build a, uh, bank of evidence that shows you how you're closer to point B. You keep building that bank. It's kind of like the gap in the gain book. If you haven't read that, I highly recommend. But you're building the gains. You're constantly seeing the gains. And that makes me think of we started watching Undercover Billionaire, and one of the things that I've noticed now we're on episode or season two. I think there's just two seasons, but we're on season two. And there they highlight three people. We're in season one. They just highlighted one. But one of the things I see in all of them is they focus on their gains. Like they do something that seems insignificant, and they're like, okay, I'm counting this as a win. And they keep saying that over and over and over. And so build your evidence. Every single thing you do is in evidence. You sort for five minutes. Evidence. You clear a surface. Evidence, you uncover some mindset block you're believing that isn't even something that you that will get you to point B. Evidence. You think differently during this situation than you did in the past. Evidence. All of it is evidence you tested something and it didn't work in that location. Evidence. You just keep building that evidence. These are wins. Wins toward you becoming the person that feels organized and creates an organized environment around you. Okay, love you all. We'll see you next week. Wait. If you're finding this podcast useful, you must check out the Organized Coach Academy. It's my course where I walk you through every step to get your business organized, to get yourself organized, to save money and time to prepare to hire someone to do all of the things that you want to do in your business with ease. Check that out@simplysquaredaway.com OCA Also, I'm sure you've heard this a million times, but I would love it. It's my way of knowing that you're enjoying the podcast. If you leave a written review, I have lots of freebies for you. They're linked in the show notes. You can find them in my bio on Instagram at Tracy Host and until next week, have a beautiful day.