My heart is filled with gratitude as I reflect on several significant milestones that happen this month. I will be entering my sixth decade of this beautiful thing we call life. Yes. I’m turning 60 next week! November also marks my 10th blogging anniversary or bloggiversary.

Ten years ago, I had just turned 50 and published my first book, The Other Side of Organized – Finding Balance Between Chaos and Perfection. My book coach suggested that I start blogging as a way of engaging a broader audience. I had no idea how much I would love writing regularly, or how many thousands of amazing readers, inspirational conversations, opportunities, and supporters would appear and enrich my life. With close to 500 posts written so far, I feel like I’m just getting started.

Blogging and having conversations with you has been one of my greatest joys over these last ten years. You have played an essential role in creating this beautiful community. Thank you for your generous contributions to commenting, questioning, sharing, promoting, and reading the various posts on organizing, mindfulness, clutter, letting go, change, and so much more. It takes a village. I am deeply grateful to you.

There are so many people to thank and acknowledge. Many of you have been longtime, staunch supporters, sharers, inspirers, and contributors to this community and my blogging world. My deepest gratitude to Janet Barclay, Seana Turner, Diane Quintana, Ellen Delap, Felice Cohen, Sabrina Quairoli, Andrea Sharb, Sue West, Nacho Eguiarte, Hazel Thorton, Sara Skillen, Stacey Agin Murray, Deb Lee, Janet Schiesl, Nancy Haworth, Andi Willis, Julie Bestry, Yota Schneider, Cam Gott, Val Sgro, Anne Blumer, Sheila Delson, Geralin Thomas, Janine Adams, John Hunt, Leiann Thompson, and Steve, Allison, and Cassie Samuels. I wish I could list everyone, but we’d be here all night.

Being in a reflective mood, I thought it would be fun to look back on some of the favorite and most popular posts. There is always a value in thinking about the past. It’s a way of honoring what was and preparing for what will come. It’s in this spirit that I share these discoveries with you. 

1. First Blog Post

Waiting for Something – November 12, 2009

We are all waiting for something. What if instead of thinking about our wait time as an inconvenience or annoyance, we considered it a gift?

2. Most Popular, Consistently Visited Post

10 Motivation Challenges & Fixes – July 3, 2012

What gets in the way of motivation? Sharing ten common obstacles and strategies to help you get unstuck.

3. Most Comments for Non-Feature Post

5 Tips for More “Happy” in Holiday – December 8, 2011

The holiday season can make even the most positive among us feel stressed and frazzled. Sharing five tips to infuse more “happy” into your holidays.

4. Most Popular “Ask the Expert” Post

Ask the Expert: Julie Morgenstern – June 26, 2012

In this popular “Ask the Expert” series, which began in 2012, I interview leading experts in organizing, productivity, and other related industries. To date, I’ve spoken with 34 experts. I’ve loved talking with and learning from each person. Some of my favorite conversations were with minimalist guru, Joshua Becker, time management pioneer, David Allen, organizational expert, Peter Walsh, chronic disorganization pioneer, Judith Kolberg, creativity expert, Todd Henry, happiness and organizing author, Gretchen Rubin, and of course, Julie Morgenstern productivity and organizing expert.

5. Most Popular Collaborative Post

Stuck? 7 “Now What” Tips – March 5, 2013

For the collaborative post series, I pose one specific question to selected colleagues on a particular topic. From the most popular post in this series, I asked seven colleagues to respond to this question:  When you are stuck, how do you figure out the next step?

6. Most Popular “What’s Interesting?” Post

What Are Today’s Interesting Finds? – v22 – February 18, 2019

In this feature, I share unique and inspiring discoveries, which inform, educate, and relate to organizing and life balance. Since 2014, when I first introduced “What’s Interesting?” I’ve written 25 of these features.

7. My Favorite Post With Nature Video

What Wonderful Change is Emerging Beneath Your Surface? – February 11, 2019

In addition to writing, I love taking photos and videos, especially of people and nature. These images are often shared my blog. Sometimes I create videos to enhance what I’m writing about. In this post on change, I include a video of the mesmerizing movement of frozen sheets of ice cracking and shifting on the surface of the Hudson River.

8. My Favorite Post from the Last Few Years

How to Say Goodbye and Let Go With Love – April 22, 2018

Letting go can be painful. When it’s time to let go, we often feel a loss. As I prepared to say my final goodbyes to our family home of 57 years, I identified ten gentle ways that helped me let go. I hope they will help you too when it’s your time.

9. My Favorite Post That Includes Smead’s Keeping You Organized Video

How to Prepare Yourself for Better Possibilities – October 21, 2019

One of the many exciting outcomes from blogging is being invited as a guest blogger or vlogger. Smead has been exceptionally generous (thank you, John Hunt and Leiann Thompson) about featuring my blog posts on their weekly Facebook Live shows and also interviewing me many times for the Keeping You Organized series. I often incorporate the videos into my blog posts. This recent interview on preparing for organizing success is also one of my favorites.

10. My Favorite Old Post

Gratitude 101: What's On Your List? – November 17, 2011

There is so much to be thankful for. Incorporating gratitude regularly into your day can boost your mood and improve your perspective about life.  What are you grateful for?

So here we are. Ten years and many blog posts later. It’s been an incredible journey so far. I am grateful that you’ve been on the path with me and look forward to continuing our travel together in the years to come.  I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you have a favorite post from one I shared here? Or, maybe you have another favorite that I didn’t list? Your participation makes this a vibrant community. Once again, I invite you to join the conversation! 

The latest installment (v25) of the “What’s Interesting?” feature is here with my recent discoveries that inform, educate, and relate to organizing and life balance. I’ve included unique and inspiring possibilities-related finds, which reflect this month’s blog theme. You are such a wonderfully engaged group. I am grateful for your presence, positive energy, and contributions to this community.

I look forward to your participation and additions to the collection I’ve sourced. What do you find interesting?

What’s Interesting? . . .

1. Interesting Read – Learning Possibilities

Most of us aren’t great at accepting criticism. It’s common to become defensive. In Thanks for the Feedback – The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well* even when it is off base, unfair, poorly delivered, and frankly, you’re not in the mood, coauthors Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen explain why receiving feedback is essential for growth yet challenging to accept. It’s how we learn from life. They say, “Receiving feedback sits at the intersection of these two needs – our drive to learn and our longing for acceptance.”  They explain that individuals who can view themselves are “…easier to work with and to live with.”  The positive news is they believe that receiving feedback is a skill that can be cultivated. The authors provide insights into the three triggers that can block feedback- truth, relationship, and identity triggers, along with strategies to overcome them. What would be possible if you were better able to receive and evaluate feedback?

2. Interesting Product – Morning Possibilities

Studies show that getting quality sleep is essential for our well being and functioning. So having good sleep hygiene and routines is crucial. What if we extended our good sleep habits to our wake-up patterns? How do you get up each morning? If you want to enhance your mood and possibilities for the day, consider this alternative way of waking. Sensorwake Trio designed a unique alarm clock that gently eases you into your day by slowly activating three of your senses- smell, sight, and sound. You can choose from a variety of scents like freshly brewed coffee or a pine forest, and also select a sound. The clock’s three minute “good morning” cycle has a minute of your chosen scent, one minute of light, followed by one minute of sound.

3. Interesting Resource  – Doing Good Possibilities

One of the challenges many of my clients have is letting go of things they no longer want. They often feel bad about tossing something that could be useful to someone else. We look at ways to eliminate their letting go obstacle by helping them feel good about giving things away. We identify potential recipients like family, friends, neighbors, charities, or resale groups. In most households, especially those with children, stockpiles of broken and full crayons are common finds. Bryan Ware, founder and a parent who created The Crayon Initiative, found a way to keep discarded crayons out of the landfills. The non-profit collects donated crayons, melts them down, remanufactures them, and distributes them to art programs at children’s hospitals across the United States. What could be better than releasing your crayon clutter to bring color, joy, and possibilities to kids in need?

4. Interesting Season – Organizing Possibilities

The inspiring, colorful fall is here. If you are feeling disorganized, overwhelmed, and unsure of how to move forward, make this your season to get organized. Take this opportunity to reset your organizing goals, declutter the extraneous, and create the calm you deserve. Change is possible, especially with support. Enlist help from a compassionate and non-judgmental friend, family member, or professional organizer like me. You’ll be amazed at how much more you can accomplish when you work side-by-side with someone. I’m ready to help. Let’s talk. Call 914-271-5673 or email me at linda@ohsoorganized.com.

5. Interesting Thought – Noticing Possibilities

How will your day unfold? Will you approach it with intention, dread, or an open mind? How will your attitude influence what transpires? When we seek out new experiences, opportunities we might have missed otherwise, come into view. Create your day full of possibilities.

What are your exciting finds? Which of these resonate with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Join the conversation!

When we try new things, neural pathways and connections are created in the brain. Last week, I wrote about the “expanding my universe” journey. As you may recall, I’m trying some new activities. The purpose of this adventure is to create an environment for inspiring possibilities to surface that I might not have considered or noticed.

As I collected ideas for possible activities to pursue, I organized them into seven categories, including creative, education, event, excursion, mind/body, nature, and not my comfort zone. Some sections, like education, had many ideas. Not my comfort zone, though, had only one, which I opted to try this past week.

“And its in practicing discovery, we feed our ability to create and soulfulness in our lives.”

— Rohnan Gunatillake

When thinking about engaging in something outside of my comfort zone, jumping out of an airplane, eating raw fish, and being submerged in a sensory deprivation tank came to mind. However, those didn’t make it onto my list because frankly right now, they are too far beyond what I’d consider. Instead, I chose to do something outside my zone that merged stretching with reality.

I went to Spins Hudson, an indoor and outdoor rope climbing activity course with my friend, Joanne. Wearing a harness, while clipped to a wire high above the ground, I walked and balanced over a variety of oddly shaped, narrow, and super-wobbly paths. This was a big stretch for me that required focus, faith, endurance, and letting go of fear and negative messages. While the elevated path crossings were physically and emotionally challenging, perhaps my bravest moment was when I took a backward jump to the ground from a 43-foot tall platform with my harness attached to a single rope. Talk about a leap of faith! Literally, that was one.

In doing and engaging in life, there is learning. There is a possibility for expansion and understanding. From my rope course experience, I had several takeaways that I hope you’ll find useful.

5 Ideas to Expand Your Comfort Zone and Possibilities . . .

1. Respect Your Zone

Know where your line is and find ways to push your limits periodically. What is outside the zone for me might be well within your comfort zone. When I described my rope course experience to one of my friends, she thought it sounded like pure fun and something she’d do without any hesitation or fear. However, she said that speaking in front of a big audience, which is enervating for me, is frightening and entirely outside of her comfort zone. 

2. Reframe Your Fear

When I was waiting to begin the rope course, one of the things I quickly noticed was how many negative thoughts were racing through my head. Phrases like,

• “You’re not strong enough.”

• “You’re not brave enough.”

• “Maybe this wasn’t such a smart idea, Linda.”

• “I don’t understand the instructions for hooking and unhooking the clips. I’ll never get this.”

• “What if the clips unfasten?”

• “What if my hands slip?”

• “What if I fall?”

• “What if . . . ?”

I understood that these thoughts weren’t helping me, so I worked on reframing them with more positive messages like,

• “Breathe.”

• “I can do this.”

• “Use my adrenaline and heart-pounding to move forward.”

• “Take one step. Balance. Take the next step. Keep going.”

• “Stay in the moment instead of analyzing it.”

• “Wow! I crossed my first path!”

• “I am strong.”

• “I am walking across my comfort zone.”

3. Understand Your Ground

Doing the rope course made me realize my tendency to gravitate towards safety, security, and that feeling of my feet planted firmly on the ground. But life isn’t always that way. Walking across the wobbling paths, I was indeed on shaky ground. Uncertainty abounded. Would I make it across without falling? Would my grip give way? Every step forward was unsteady. Only stillness settled the movement. But as soon as I shifted even a minuscule amount, the path would move. When I walked from the indoor to outside course, my feet were firmly on the ground. Despite that, my legs felt shaky, my heart was pounding, and the adrenaline was coursing through my body. These sensations felt like the physical manifestations about the uncertainty in life, in embracing change, and in challenging our limits. At the same time, I derived comfort in discovering that we can find our way forward even when the path wobbles. 

4. Appreciate the Pangs

The rope course had me engage muscles in a way that I don’t usually do. It’s been several days since going on the course. When I move in a certain way, I feel a slight ache in my upper arms or wrist. It’s nothing terrible, but just a reminder that I used different muscles in my body. Those pangs are small reminders that I was open to testing the possibilities. I was willing to strengthen and exercise the getting out of my “comfort zone” muscles. This experience will encourage me to be brave and open to other challenges and possibilities.

5. Embrace Support

We don’t walk through life alone. I recognize that I wouldn’t have considered this experiment, let alone to manifest it without support from others. While we often feel as though we can handle life on our own, embracing help can enhance our experiences. I’m grateful to Jane for challenging me, to Joanne for doing the rope course with me, to Eli for teaching me how to navigate the paths, to my family and friends that listened to me recount and make sense of my experience, and to all of you for reading and engaging in the conversation. 

Do you have a comfort zone pushing experience that comes to mind? What possibilities did you notice? What resonates with you? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

One of the things I love about living in the northeast is experiencing the change of the four distinct seasons. Every three months, nature’s cues offer us an opportunity to rethink, reset, and regroup. With the arrival of September and fall quickly approaching, this is an ideal time of year to prepare for successful organizing outcomes and other significant goals. Combining specific actions with mindfulness perspectives can enhance your success. While there are many ways to gear up for success, I’ve compiled a short list of five useful ideas for you to experiment with. I’m excited for you and all of the success that you are about to experience. Which of these concepts will help you in the next few months?

5 Powerful Ways That Will Prep You for Organizing Success & More . . .

1. Do one thing.

When we’re in pursuit of a goal, we can quickly become overwhelmed by the enormity of what we want to accomplish. The end isn’t visible. And guess what? When overwhelm takes hold, it can stop us from moving forward. Instead, we feel stuck. We procrastinate. It’s like being immobile at the intersection, continually waiting for that red light to turn green. What’s helpful in these situations is to do one tiny, small action that will move us toward our organizing or other goals. Take your foot off of the break, go through one pile of papers, drop off the no longer needed bag of clothing at the donation center, or set-up an appointment with your professional organizer. Use that one small success to get you going and encourage more. Build from there.

2. Open up thinking.

So often when we’re in the midst of change, we desire something different, but we don't know what that will look or feel like. So instead of being open to the new, we dig in and hold on to what we know. While I understand this and believe me, I’ve had my share of digging in, being open to possibilities will lead to successful outcomes. Mindful awareness comes first. Pay attention to when you are gripping tightly to the known. Notice when you are dismissive of a new opportunity, possibility, or idea. Stop. Slow yourself down. Take a few deep breaths. As you exhale, notice your body relaxing and letting go. With each out-breath, imagine your hold loosening. Remind yourself that success often involves doing or thinking about things differently. In this more relaxed state, you will be poised and ready to consider a new perspective that will lead to unimagined success.

3. Say “yes” to now.

One of the conflicts that my organizing clients frequently encounter is the pull between the past and the present. They are deeply connected to the emotions and physical possessions from the past. At the same time, they feel burdened and weighed down by all of their stuff. They are in conflict between holding on and letting go. It can be an internal tug of war, and a painful one at that. One of the ways to ease this challenge is by focusing on the present. Use the “you are here” locator icon to decide which of your belongings support who you are and what you are doing today. Everyone has a past. While the past has created who we are, not all accouterments from previous times need to remain with us in the present. Saying, “yes” to now can encourage more successful decision-making as we organize and create the life we truly want.

4. Embrace “niksen.”

Many of you are probably familiar with the popularized Danish word, hygee, which is a mood of coziness, contentment, and well-being created by enjoying the simple things in life. There is also, lagom, the Swedish concept of approaching life with an “everything in moderation” mindset. Now there is a Dutch idea that is trending. Niksen is the act of doing nothing or being idle as a way of managing stress and burnout. It encourages an antidote to busyness. You dial things down by just hanging out, looking at your environment, or listening to music without multitasking. The idea is doing something without a purpose. So how does this relate to success?  Sometimes in the quest for our goal, we become hyper-focused at the exclusion of everything and everyone else. Our disconnectedness can lead to exhaustion, frustration, and discouragement. Adding niksen or doing nothing into the mix can rejuvenate us. After a break, we can return to goal chasing with renewed clarity and energy.

5. Acknowledge uncertainty.

When we are chasing a goal, whether that is how we edit and organize our stuff or how we select the priorities included in each day, we are shifting the status quo. While we might be uncomfortable, which is why we are pursuing something new, our shift in habits and patterns along the way, can be unsettling. We can feel unprotected like jumping out of a plane without a parachute. What will happen? Will we land in one piece? The simple acknowledgment that you are doing something unfamiliar, scary, and different is essential. It doesn’t diminish the anxiety you might feel. And I’m not suggesting that you actually jump without a chute. But acknowledgment of your circumstance can ease some of your stress. Recognize that uncertainty is key to growth and change. It’s ok to be uncomfortable. It’s ok to be unsure. In the pursuit of a fresh challenge, you can experience the confidence and satisfaction that comes with successfully reaching a goal.

Whether you take action, a break from it, open the mind to new ideas, or simply recognize the uncertainty that comes with change, you have the opportunity to prepare yourself for organizing success and more. Which ideas resonate with you? What has helped you with reaching goals? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.