Messy house and all

I don’t usually let things get this bad, but I skirt right up to the edge.

Finally, the house is clean and tidy.

It’s been a long process. We had our floors refinished back in January, so we had to essentially move all of our belongings out of our house right after Christmas.

And then we had some new furniture delivered.

We booked both of these were things months before we knew that I was going to be spending five months away from home to close down one of my schools.

And then I spent five months away from home.

And then I came back, dying to start some new projects after being focused on wrapping up an old one.

That’s what I did, thereby increasing the chaos of my life instead of reducing it.

At various periods over the course of the summer, we’ve taken on smaller projects around the house.

But yesterday, I decided things had dragged on long enough. I was going to finally finish moving back into the house and making it a pleasant place to be. I was going to get all the way through the project. Nothing else would take precedence. This was the priority.

With this level of determination, effort, and focus, it finally happened. The entire house is like it was, but better.

I tracked my time carefully, so I know that the total time spent was exactly four hours, which took place over a period of about seven hours.

Theoretically, if the project was going to take four hours, I could have spent thirty minutes a day over the course of eight days, several weeks ago. But no.

Because each day, you have to start over. You have to clean the kitchen, do the laundry, and clear off the dining room table. That adds up to thirty minutes already, on top of everything else I was doing.

In order for me to see meaningful results, I had to put in meaningful time past the maintenance level. I had to do the thing that I would not normally do in order to see the benefit I would not normally get.

I spent the summer doing that on other projects. This day, clearing out my email inbox. That day, learning how to sail. Another day, working with clients.

And most days, spending hours making videos.

My reward has been new clients, new opportunities, new skills, and new friends. Those are extraordinary results from my extraordinary effort.

And yesterday, I applied that same focused intensity to vacuuming and rearranging and decluttering. No videos were made. No emails were answered and no clients were supported. And that’s how it got done.

If I focus on one thing, something else is necessarily put on hold. It’s always a trade-off. I can use that to my advantage to accomplish the things I care most about, when it matters most.

I don’t regret investing my time where I put it this summer. What I did, at the start, was visualize where I wanted to be by September. Then, I carried out the plan that I hoped would allow me to make the vision a reality. And it worked. I can’t believe it worked. And I’m glad I did it, messy house and all.

And then I did the same thing on a smaller scale yesterday: Began with the end in mind, made a plan, and carried it out with total clarity of intention (plus a lunch break, a nap break, and lots of chocolate in the home stretch).

Now, I ask you: What would you most like to accomplish in the next ninety days? What actions do you need to take in order to make it happen?

And what are you willing to put on hold so that you can give your best effort and focus to the work?

You might be a person who can keep all of the various plates spinning much better than I can. But even then, what could you let go of in order to make more space for what you want most?

In the end (which isn’t really the end), my house got tidy. But I got so much more than that.

Next: the overgrown yard. Yikes!