Tip: Your outward environment reflects your inward condition!
Tip of the Week
08/12/13
Tip: Your outward environment reflects your inward condition!
This Tip is primarily for me. In other words, I am talking to myself and letting you listen in on my conversation. It is somewhat painful, but I don’t mind sharing it with you because I believe it will help me – and you, in the process as well!
There are many different ways to measure personal growth. Children like to see how tall they have grown. The doctor wants to know how much we weigh and our blood pressure numbers. We can assess our overall physical health by asking ourselves some questions like, “Am I taking good care of my body by eating properly and exercising regularly?” Another way to check our growth would be to look at our bank account. We may also discuss our relationships with our immediate family to see if they are healthy and happy. We might look to see if we are growing in the areas of honesty, character and integrity, too.
One of the most telling ways that I have found in determining how I’m doing is by looking at my surroundings and environment. When I look around, what I see is a lot of piles and clutter. Unfortunately, I believe that what I see on the outside is an indication of what is on the inside. Piles and clutter on the outside usually means that there are piles and clutter on the inside of my life as well. Therefore, for me, it is time for a “check up from the neck up.”
Having a lot of clutter and piles of unnecessary “stuff” lying around is a sign of hoarding. It can be a sign that someone is living with a scarcity mentality, afraid that if something is misplaced, it will never be found again. If something is lost, the opportunity to get it back will not come again. But, there are better ways to live than that!
There are ways to be organized. One way would be by writing down notes in a notebook or keeping them on the computer in order to avoid all the piles and piles of paper. Another way would be to develop a good filing system so that papers are kept in a systematic manner and more easily accessible when needed.
Sometimes over the years I have been well organized and could put my hands on almost anything at a moment’s notice. However, when I get busy, I have a tendency to allow my files to become piles. Soon I have to spend unnecessary time looking for a piece of paper that I have misplaced when if I had filed it away where it belonged to begin with, I could have found it in a matter of minutes.
It is such an easy thing to do, to procrastinate putting something away where it belongs at the moment you are finished with it instead of thinking, “I will put that away after while.” Unfortunately, it takes time to be organized and put things away in the right way, at the right time. If you don’t, pretty soon twenty to thirty pieces of paper have piled up and what would have been a simple project in the beginning has just gotten complicated and more time consuming. And that is what begins the cycle of piles and clutter!
Now, one word of caution: I am not talking about becoming a “neat freak” to the point that every paperclip must be lined up in perfect order. But, what I am talking about is keeping things in such a way that my surroundings are orderly, clean, neat, and organized so that I can find things quickly when I need them.
I am on a personal mission to de-clutter my life – both outwardly and inwardly. I want to be well-organized and professional so that means I have some work to do!
Take a look around at your life and your stuff. Is it all over the place? Is it a big mess? If so, would you like to join me in the exercise of getting more organized?
I could go on with other examples, but I have already said everything I need to say in this Tip. And, besides that, I need to get to work to practice what I am preaching…if I could just find my desk! I am going to do a better job of being organized and I trust that you will join me in that effort as well!
Tip: Your outward environment reflects your inward condition!
Have a great week! God bless you!
Dr. Robert A. Rohm
