The Second Step to ‘Doing Less’

If you just sat down to read this blog post but haven’t tuned in for a while – let me bring you up to speed.

I am doing a series of newsletters that outline how I went from burnt out and stressed out to really enjoying life more just by “doing less”.

Doing this (less) has given me the time to write to you about how I did it. Our blog from last week outlines the first step, so if you haven’t yet, check it out here – it’s my favorite step) Spoiler alert – it’s about letting that crap go…which is the Fall Phase.

Ok, so what happens when we start to metaphorically clean out our closet with a plan also to organize the said closet?

Well, after we get rid of what is not serving us, we need to take a look at what is left and start to formulate a plan for what shelves we might need, the number of hangers, the number of cute shoe boxes, and so on and so forth.

Is now the right time to go out and buy tons of new clothes? Nope, not yet. Right now you need to start creating in your mind where the shelves might go and make your list for the Container Store.

Just because we can. doesn’t mean we should.

If we had unlimited budgets, we could run out and buy 5 new pairs of jeans from J Crew and 3 sweaters from Banana Republic and get a stack of t-shirts from the loft and a new jacket from Madewell. But, that would lead to a lot of chaos because the closet doesn’t have the proper infrastructure to support the new wardrobe. This is the most overlooked step and the least sexy – just saying “no” to the mental tricks of wanting to always do more. This is the “winter phase”

Ok – let’s move away from the closet example and apply this to our life.

Again, just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. Years ago, I met a bright and talented woman who came from a well-known family. Her family had their hands in many local Boston businesses and she had a very beautiful home in a Boston suburb. Like me, she also had a small dog at home that gave her endless joy. But, she didn’t want her tiny dog with a cute name to wander her nice large house. So, she had an invisible fence installed INSIDE her home so her dog couldn’t go into her dining room and other parts of the house. But the problem is, the invisible fence inadvertently would shoot its secret rays into her finished basement. So, every time the dog would follow her teenage kids into the media room in the basement, the dog would get zapped.

This led to a lot of stress, and a lot of phone calls from her kids to her cell phone. And she proceeded to call the invisible fence company many times to troubleshoot this problem, with no clear solution in sight.

This is a perfect example of just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. This action step created a lot of stress for her that dragged on for months. What if she had said “no” to that idea when it popped into her head, or when her friends suggested this “solution” to her?

What things or ideas in your life do you need to just say “no” to? Which ideas should stay ideas?

Because we truly can only handle one major thing or plan a year. Maybe two.

This is important – we can only handle one or two major changes in our life a year.

So the list of “nos” needs to be longer than the list of plans.

What does this mean for you?

To Your Best and Highest Self,
Nicole