If you don't love it, let it go.

If you don't love it, let it go.

That's my new motto, and it applies to more than just stuff. Can you imagine either loving or truly needing everything you have? What a powerful way to be connected to your physical world! What a genuine commitment to your goals and values! I am helping one of my clients edit her book. She has worked hard to open her channels of creativity, and now it's time to polish the final product until it shines. At the top of one page I found myself writing:

"It's time to be ruthless toward content that doesn't serve your purpose."

Over the past few years I have stepped into many peoples' lives to see where and how I can assist them. The most challenging jobs have had nothing to do with how messy someone is, how busy they are, or how long the clutter has been accumulating. As long as a person is ready to make a change - to clear the clutter from their lives and embrace the energy and focus that follows, my job is easy. I feel that sometimes my clients don't believe me when I congratulate them so enthusiastically for all their hard work. It takes a lot of inner strength and resolve to look at your life, see it for what it is, and decide to make a significant change.

Sometimes when we are centered in our bodies and happy with our lives we come to a point of startling clarity about exactly what it is that we want. What do I want to do? How do I want to be? How do I want to live? In this particular moment I know the answers to all of these questions. If you also know the answers, the first step is to eliminate possessions and habits that do not support your goals. The second step is to take a step back and see what is missing from your life in general, and on a daily basis. Acquire that tool, that teaching, that companion that your ideal life requires. No substitutes! No temporary fixes. Be exact in your requirements in order to reach your goal.

At a late stage in my own clutter clearing process I am finding that I can get rid of even more if I tune into the fact that I am keeping ten things I don't like as space-consuming substitutes for one thing that I really, really want. If I have the one thing I want, it will allow me to let go of the mediocre substitutes. Eventually, if I love everything I have, my daily life will be even more awash with love, and my surroundings will support improved focus on reaching the goals I have set for myself. When the hard work is done I am so much happier loving what I have than having what I want.