What better way to get ready for the Christmas/ new year break  than clearing out your cupboards. I’ve decided to motivate myself to clear the clutter with a a garage sale so I can grab some extra Christmas cash at the same time.

I’ve often read that clearing the physical clutter lying around your house or your office is a really important part of clearing your head in preparation for new plans and goals – like the ones you set for the new year.  You can’t really put new goals on top of old distractions, else the old distractions will keep sabotaging your efforts to focus on the new direction. It’s important to make a space first.

The concept of clearing a space in your head reminds me of the story about the martial arts instructor who was approached by a novice for advanced training. The instructor wasn’t about to take just anybody into his classes. He observed the novice and his techniques for some time and then posed the following dilemma. He advised the novice that the only way that he could learn from the master was to give something up. He used the analogy of a glass of water. A glass which is full has no further capacity. If the novice was unwilling to give up some of his notions of the martial arts, it would be like tipping out some of that water. Only then would the novice be open to learning new things from the master.

Once a space is created, it operates like a vacuum. A vacuum is a space which is compelled to be filled with something. Here’s what I mean.  Let’s say I have a goal of acquiring a new lounge suite at the beginning of the year, yet I don’t seem to get around to it after a few months. If I take action to remove the existing lounge suite in garage sale, I then create a vacuum-like space in my lounge room.  Now the compulsion to replace the lounge with a different one becomes overwhelming because the household still wants to use the lounge-room every day. With this day to day reminder,   it won’t be long before the vacant space in  my lounge room is filled with a different lounge suite.

Garage sale …here we come.