As I’m writing this blog post, I’m sitting in my mostly packed up home office. Just a few special books remain on the book shelf “just in case.” Obviously my computer is still set-up and I have my mentee files ready-at-hand, but even the odds and ends from my desk drawers are packed safely away. But mostly I’m surrounded by boxes.
Moves are transforming experiences and if you’ve moved recently you probably know what I’m talking about. On one hand, it’s just a place. On the other hand, everything attached to your physical space either needs to come with you or not. Last year, when I hired a personal organizer to help me organize my home office, I knew I had too much stuff and that I wasn’t good at making decisions of what to get rid of. Well, as I sit here now, we’ve made countless trips with multiple boxes to Goodwill, given away many things on Freecycle, and my wedding dress is posted on Craigslist. We’ve gotten rid of a lot of stuff. Some of it brought on by the upcoming move, some of it done before we ever started looking at houses.
But we still have all kinds of stuff. Some special, some not. Some stuff that I can’t seem to remember how or why it made it into my physical space. Other stuff with emotional attachments that cause me to still hang on to it, even though I’ll never use it. Other stuff full of possibilities of what I might just do with it in the future, like the plastic container full of broken dishes and coffee mugs that will some day be part of a mosaic and the bin full of random or holed socks that will someday be felted into a blanket or bag. And then there is a good collection of truly useful stuff we use week in and week out.
Stuff. Stuff. Stuff.
It seems that life is like this too, yes? As we move on through each day, we accumulate physical things but also emotions, capabilities, experiences, hesitations, doubts, fears, and sometimes even confidence. In many ways, it’s not so much what we get rid of that matters as much as what we keep.
Even as I sit here mostly packed and very much decluttered, I know there is a file box on a shelf behind me that has nicely categorized print outs of articles I haven’t referred to in years. These print outs hold the idea that maybe I’ll become a better BA by reading them or that I’ll start a contract where it makes sense to apply a new practice. Those printouts mean hope and getting rid of them means spending an hour sorting through the clutter and eliminating certain possibilities. So I hang on until the box is too full and I am forced to make a decision to either find a new box or prune the files from the existing one.
And that’s what I think most of us wait for – to be forced to make a decision. Good or bad, right or wrong, when we have to make a decision, it’s much easier to do so. Because we are moving, I can decide to sell my wedding dress. When the box is full, I’ll get rid of some files. But as long as there is no impetus to act, it’s much easier to wait. And if I wait another year or two, the dress will probably be out of style and never be worn again, meaning my options are limited to reusing the material or adding it to our vastly growing landfills or finding a place for it in my new, smaller closet.
We put off the decision so long until the decision is made for us, or until our options are so limited that the decision may not be fun but it sure is easy. I do it. I know you do it too.
When it comes to household stuff, the risk is small. But when it comes to our careers, the risk can be much more significant.
We have skills that we know are growing quickly out of date, yet we still do work that requires them everyday. We put off the decision to try something new and potentially more valuable because it’s more difficult to try something new and risk failing. And we have hesitations, about our career and mostly our jobs. We might hope our jobs stay as they are so we are not forced to make a decision or do something big like update our resumes and start networking and start searching for a new job.
Our careers are full of stuff – emotions, self-beliefs, skills, experiences. Some stuff is good. Some stuff is holding us back. In order to move, you have to get rid of some stuff, or at least sort through it. It’s hard work but it’s also transforming work.
Today I’d just like you to consider what career-related stuff have you accumulated that’s outlived its usefulness? What circumstances would cause you to get rid of all the now-useless career-related stuff to make room for the new stuff that is valuable in the here and now? From unread books to skills with diminishing returns to possibly even a job that’s not moving your career forward…what are you holding on to and why? Because it may just be that now is the time to make your move before the decision is made for you.
Let us know what you discover…is there something you’ve been holding on to and is now the time to let go?
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By Laura Brandenburg. Laura Brandenburg is passionate about business analysis. She's found her niche helping aspiring business analysts find transferable skills and position themselves in the BA job market. To stay up-to-date on the latest from Bridging the Gap be sure to sign-up for our free email course and weekly eNewsletter. View more blog posts by Laura Brandenburg |
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Great thoughts Laura! I am a packrat, but I have been learning that manageing the mess, even when it is moving one pile from this spot to the next, is taking time and energy that I’d rather spend on something new. I like your application to mental thought processes also. By the way, if anyone has wedding dresses to get rid of, try http://www.bridesagainstbreastcancer.org/ – for benefiting patients with breast cancer and also some new brides.
@Kathy and Laura–I moved last year, and I am slowly but surely de-cluttering my house, and again my desk at the office. I think this is a great article that we need to be reminded of and I am also VERY happy to see the link about donating the wedding dress, too!
@Laura – I hope your move goes well. Your post was right on. I accumulate physical stuff for a sense of security….. and I laugh because it doen’t provide any security at all! It wouldn’t stop me losing my job, and its not helping me do my work. In fact it hinders me because it distracts me. I could look up any of those articles in my reading pile on the internet if I really needed to (and I somehow I don’t!) I am going to take a leaf out of your book and start purging some of this paper off my desk and tossing my testing handbook from 1998. I read somewhere that there is a universal principle that applies to all things in life: you can’t let new things into your life until you’ve let go of the old to make space for the new. Trash can, here it comes!
@Laura – Great experience that you shared in this article ! Yes, as with Physical space, it is very hard to let go of old experience in life and gather new once as the old experiences provides a sence of security ! Yes, we shold ‘let go’ the old and useless to ‘let in’ the new and the useful.
Thanks for sharing this insight which is very much in context.
Thanks,
Subhasis Banerjee.
Wonderful comments everyone. I’m so glad to hear my story has inspired some others to declutter as well.
As luck would have it, I went to put a few extra folders into that beloved box before moving and found it too full to hold them. So one of my tasks this week is to sort through the box. @Caroline, you are so right that I can find almost all of this online, and probably updated too! Aren’t our electronic bookmarks another form of clutter — clutter we can’t see too well?
And very, very true that you can’t be ready to embrace the new until you get rid of the old. No matter the scale of change there is a certain grieving process and until you let yourself let go that clutter will always hold you back.
I find I do this with non-physical items too – though it’s much more difficult to notice and let go of…so dealing with the physical space provides the tangible progress that keeps me going.
@Kathy, I will definitely check the link about the wedding dress. Part of my motivation in selling it was to be sure that a donation would not just be a side route to a landfill. But it looks like it might be put to good use there, which is what is most important to me!
Laura – Excellent article that really hit home in many ways! I have been in the process of going through and decluttering old work and personal items. I have gone through the indecision, if it would be of use again. Your article has both inspired me to get rid of the old so I will have room for the new that comes my way. Also to use better judgment in first place to avoid having to dedicate the time and effort involved in process. Thanks!
Tina
Tina, Yes, I also find that every time I declutter, I become better (at least in the short-term) about accumulating stuff that I don’t need as to avoid the effort of decluttering it later. Good for you to be cultivating that judgment!
I just finished going through that box. Between the box and one other set of files, it took me more than 3 hours! I bet I got rid of at least 70% of the paper I had in there…and still feel I could have purged just a bit more. Some of the highlights were articles about SEO from 5 years ago, presentations from vendors 4 or more years ago, and a whole folder of articles on breadcrumb trails! I have a stack of scrap paper that should last even a compulsive writer like me at least a few years.
It feels sooo good though to know the files I have might actually be referred to in the next year or so and to get rid of all that mental clutter! How is everyone else doing on their decluttering?