Confessions From a Personal Trainer: My kitchen scared me
Where every Tuesday: I confess.
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Confession: The other day I walked into my kitchen and was startled and shocked. There was nobody in my kitchen, I was shocked because it was clean.
I used to say “My room is messy but I know where everything is and if I put stuff away, I won’t know where my stuff is.”
I’ve also been known to put stuff away and then not remember where I put it in the “safe and secure” place.
But here’s the real secret, having a messy kitchen, dirty dishes, stuff not put away, junk laying around, mud shoes by the door, dog hair everywhere is really, really stressful to me.
We often neglect talking about environment when we discuss goals and happiness. I would love to live in a bigger house so I could organize my stuff better and more efficiently (I wouldn’t just get more stuff would I?) But the reality is, I simply need to work on the environment that I currently live in.
And now that I spend a lot more time at home working and creating, I need the environment to feel better, calmer, cleaner, and happier.
It’s always in the back of my head, I need to clean, I need to organize, I need to vacuum. But most days I would say “I’m too busy living life to be bothered by cleaning.” “I’ll do that tomorrow.”
But when I became really honest with myself about something that truly stresses me out EVERY DAY, I needed to make a change.
So I made myself a deal. Every day I am going to set a timer for 20 minutes and I am going to clean whatever I can get done in that amount of time. And then I’m simply going to walk away and know I did enough for the day.
Let’s be honest – a 20 minute investment is no big deal – I easily waste 20 minutes on the internet every day.
I want you to think about something in your life that stresses you out every day that you might be avoiding.
- Maybe you are wanting to exercise but feel you have no time. Do you have 20 minutes to walk around the block?
- You say you have no time to prep your meals for the next day – but do you have 20 minutes?
- Then there’s the meditation that I’ve been wanting to try – do you have 20 minutes to sit in silence? (ok, maybe 10 will do for this one)
- Your garden is out of control and the task of cleaning up the whole thing seems daunting – but maybe just 20 minutes?
Disclaimer – I do not have kids (but I do have 2 furry kids who need walking, feeding, loving, taken to the dr, and medicine given). However, I acknowledge that sometimes finding 5 minutes to breathe when you have kids is a challenge.
The bottom line is – take a moment and figure out what you are pushing to the back burner that is stressing you out. Decide to change it. Simply decide. And put 5-20 minutes to it every day. Use the timer (then you have a hard stopping time). I can guarantee that you will make progress if you do this consistently every day.
I leave you with this article about messy desks and creative minds. The researcher is from the University of Minnesota 🙂 Maybe there was a reason I always had a messy room.
lindsey