Have you ever felt stuck moving forward? Maybe you felt challenged with decision-making, figuring out the next step on a project, or making a significant life change. Over the last few months, we’ve talked about the influence and motivation boost that a fresh start brings and how to embrace change through thinking and actions. Many of you have done fantastic work around those concepts. But now what? You have ideas, energy, and motivation, but next feels elusive. It’s as if a fog has washed over you, and you’re waiting for it to lift.

Getting unstuck and finding next is a regular part of the work I do with my virtual organizing clients. It’s also something I experienced recently. Without going into the specifics about a new project I’m starting, I felt stuck with figuring out my next step. I will let you know more about the project at another time. (It’s not ready for prime time just yet.) For now, I will share three strategies, which helped me move forward, and can help you too.

Three Strategies to Get You Unstuck and Clear About Your Next Step

1. Capture the Ponderings

Our mind is the vessel that holds all of our ideas. Isn’t it incredible how it expands to house an infinite amount of thoughts? However, while our mind is vast, it is useful to download ideas to another container. We often call this a “brain dump.” You can write in a journal, capture notes in an electronic document, or talk into a voice recorder. The idea is to transfer your project ideas from your mind to a specifically designated location or home. This helps you isolate and organize those thoughts from the other million swirling ideas in the vessel.

I found this tremendously helpful for my project. I thought a lot about it but overwhelmed myself with all of the possible ideas and directions to take things. I could almost visualize the bullet points in my head, but it was too much to organize. So what did I do? I opened up a Word doc, created headers with bullet points. Seven pages later, my download was complete. I captured the project ideas on paper, and my mind felt freer. But even on paper, it was still a lot to assimilate. Next wasn’t obvious yet. That’s when I paired this with the second strategy.

2. Talk With a Gifted Listener

We have different processing modalities. For verbal processors, like me, writing and talking aloud helps me make sense of the world. It’s not just talking but conversing with someone who is a great listener and reflector. I recognized how helpful it would be to discuss my project with someone who asks great questions, listens deeply, provides valuable feedback, and was objective. I reached out to Marcy Stoudt, the very generous and insightful Executive Coach and Founder of The Executive Mom Nest. She helped me distill things so that by the time we finished our conversation, I felt more focused and clear, less overwhelmed, more energized, and ready to embrace the next steps. I used one additional strategy that helped bring everything together.

“Walking helped me define my essential next step.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVPO™

3. Walk in Nature

Research exists on the benefits to our mental health and well-being for walking in nature. Think forests, water bodies, gardens, grassy knolls, and mountains. Walking is part of my daily routine. I walk to shift my energy, stretch my body, and clear my head. To help me figure out the next steps for the project, I was specific about this particular walk. I wrote my notes and talked with Marcy. Walking helped me define my essential next step. Just as walking loosens and frees-up movement in the body, it has a similar effect on the mind. While I walked, I thought about what I wrote along with Marcy’s insights. I breathed in the fresh air, appreciated the beautiful Hudson River, and allowed my thoughts to simmer. My hope was by walking, my actual next step would magically appear.

Incredibly, it did! By the time I returned home, I knew what my next step was. You might be surprised by my choice. I decided to take a few days off from thinking about or taking action on the project. I needed balance at that moment. The project had been consuming my thoughts and creating undue stress. I needed some distance to move forward with clarity- not years or months, but just a few days.

There are many ways to get unstuck and figure out the next step. These three strategies- capture, talk, and walk helped me. I hope all or some of them will help you when you’re feeling challenged by next. Have you felt stuck recently? Has finding next been difficult? What helps you move forward? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation. 

New trends and concepts promote possibilities. They occur in response to challenges we’ve had. In our world of 24/7 access to information, connectivity, and consumption, I’ve noticed several ideas that have converged around the trend to “go small.”  Micro-trends, minimalism and mindfulness have gained traction as a reaction to feeling overwhelmed by too many choices and excessive acquisition. By focusing on small we have the opportunity to reduce overwhelm and allow possibilities to thrive.

Overstimulation is everywhere. That adds to overwhelm. Think about the constant barrage of entertainment in public areas. TV monitors are no longer just in bars, but in restaurants too. You can’t even wait in line at the bank without being entertained by multi-screen videos demanding your attention. Cars, buses, and waiting areas in airports are plastered with monitors. It’s a challenge to find public or private spaces that are without the intrusion of constant visuals and sound. And even when we’re not paying attention to the public monitors, most of us are engaged instead with our personal devices like our cell phones or tablets.

The trends that have emerged are in reaction to all of this.

Micro-Trends

The trend of micro, spans multiple disciplines and industries (think micro-entrepreneurs, micro-volunteering, micro-breweries, and micro-lending.). It’s a trend focused on something specific, smaller and more personal. They’ve emerged as a reaction to the many demands on our time and the overwhelming amounts of choices? The micro-trends offer micro-focus.

Minimalism

The rise of Minimalism has become more prominent, as a reaction to excess acquisition. The overfilling of spaces with stuff has created overwhelm and stress for many people. The Minimalist movement emphasizes lightening up, letting go, and filling our lives with people and experiences instead of things. There are many blogs and books on the subject including Joshua Becker, Francine Jay, and The Minimalists (Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus.)

Mindfulness

This isn’t a new trend, although I’ve noticed that it's gained more popularity and attention in the last few years. It’s a frequent topic seen in blogs, magazines, classes, and social media. There are tons of apps like for practicing mindfulness such as Headspace, Mindfulness Daily, and iMindfulness. The idea of being present, taking that small moment to focus instead of being distracted and multi-focused is very appealing.

How does narrowing the focus help you? Does thinking in micro, small, and minimalist ways help you visualize other possibilities more clearly? Does “going small” reduce your overwhelm? Does it help you focus and eliminate the abundance choices? What have you noticed? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation.

Recently, one of my friends used a term I’d never heard before which caused me to think about our unique sources of motivation. While driving together and seeing a dumpster in one of the neighbor’s driveways, she exclaimed, “I have dumpster envy!” I’d never heard that expression before so I asked her to explain what she meant.

My friend shared that when she sees dumpsters, she becomes envious of the organizing and editing work other people are actively doing. It makes her think about her own projects she’d like to be tackling, like emptying the attic. This increases her desire to move forward too.

While I don’t have “dumpster envy,” I have experienced similar situations. When I see renovations going on or clients working hard on their organizing goals, I feel inspired and motivated to do more too. Have you experienced this?

The dumpster is a strong visual. It’s a huge container that gets filled with things that no longer are needed. Filling the container means that areas inside the home are emptying and getting lighter. The dumpster becomes the container for letting go.

Seeing the dumpster not only represented action, but it represented the hope of what action and letting go can bring. For you, maybe it’s not a dumpster, but another object. What will inspire or motivate you to take action with the clutter that's weighing you down in your life?

I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!

As a professional organizer I view myself as a facilitator of change. My clients start at point A with a desire to get to point B. As you can imagine, that’s only possible through change. The journey is never a straight trajectory. There are bumps, glitches and adjustments that happen along the way. There’s also potential to experience more happiness and joy.

There are a few essentials for a successful change journey. The first is being as clear as possible about your goals. The better you can articulate, imagine, or visualize which changes your want, the greater motivation you’ll have along the way and the more likely your decisions along the way will be aligned with your goals.

The second essential to make your journey a happier and more fulfilling one, is to enjoy the ride. The type of change my clients seek doesn’t happen overnight. It’s not instant. In fact, it’s often a slow process that happens over an extended period of time while they simultaneously navigate the other parts of their lives. Acknowledging the successes as you go, noticing your progress, and doing some impromptu “happy dances” or high fives, will increase your happiness.

What’s fascinating is there’s an actual happiness factor that comes with working towards goals. In a 2013 study conducted by Time, they asked the question,

“What makes you happier…working toward a goal or achieving a goal?”

35% responded that working toward a goal made them happier. 59% responded that achieving a goal made them happier. Here’s the interesting twist. Science indicates, “Savoring the journey brings joy, even if we don't realize it.”

So while respondents perceived that achieving a goal made them happier, science offers that if in fact we savor the ride, we can boost happiness during our change journey.

What have you noticed about making changes and working towards goals? How do you experience your journey or arrival? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation!