Episode 2 - Finding your Ikigai!

12/24/20 • 17 min

Organize Your Closet And Your Life Will Follow

What does the world need from you right now?
What are you good at?
What do you love?
What can you get paid to do?
What is your bliss?
What is your Ikigai?
What is your reason for being?

These are great questions that we all should ask ourselves periodically. It's just to do a personal check in with yourself to make sure that you are on the right path to your own Bliss. Think back to the ages between 7 and 11 and try to recall vividly what you did during those years. What did you love to do? What brought you joy? What were you naturally good at?
During an organizing session, a dear client of mine just blurted out "what is my purpose - why am I here?" Hearing her say these words in quiet desperation just broke my heart. It forced me to go into a heartfelt speech about why she was so important in this world and to list all the amazing things I know to be true about her. To remind her what she is good at and what she loves. In my experience as a professional organizer, it seems that 80% of my clients had no idea why they existed, thoughts of suicide and living in perpetual depression and drowning in "stuff" was their existence. It had been their existence for anywhere from 10 - 30 years.
Covid has taught me that what I do to help people climb out of, literally their own man-made gravestone of stuff, is much bigger and has more impact than I ever imagined. I am their cheerleader. I am their motivator. I am their confidant. I help them get out of their own way. I am sometimes there only way out (words from that same client). I help them release the death-grip they have on "things" and open their hands up to growth, contribution, opportunity, life experiences and love. I explain very gently that the chaos and busy-work they have created is a barrier to do what they were born to do. It's a barrier that keeps them from bringing their personal best to the world. I say that removing all the "things" forces you to confront your shadows and everything that is holding you back, so that you can finally move past them, move forward and live the life you were meant to live. A life that you have a hand in creating. An exciting life where you are the star of your show!
I now know that my main purpose is not really the physicality of organizing and moving stuff around from left to right or into a box, my main purpose is truly to help people love themselves so fully that they always bring the best version of themselves to their own table. To help those who don't understand their own worth. This means they are capable enough and can take control of their own surroundings in such a way that they regain control of their lives.
I am here to also spread the word on minimalism and assist people in moving towards that so you can live life to the max. To share in a genuine way, that moving towards minimalism will touch upon and change every aspect of your life for the better. That is my purpose and my promise!!! It is so much bigger than the money I can make. In fact, it's so important to me that I slashed my pricing in half rather than charging extra like some organizers have been doing. When it's this big you can't put a price on it. I am providing a life-changing service that I want to make accessible to all people. Part of the reason I stay on the job until I can leave with good conscience is because I see what my clients cannot see. I don't see the 3ft high pile of mess. I see the space that is organized and pleasing with an incredible flow to it. That's all I see, which is why I work anywhere from 10-14 hours straight until my clients can see it too!!!! My purpose occ

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What does the world need from you right now?
What are you good at?
What do you love?
What can you get paid to do?
What is your bliss?
What is your Ikigai?
What is your reason for being?

Support the show

Consume less, live more!
https://linktr.ee/rumatenbrink

Previous Episode

Episode 1 - Pre New Year Refresh

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This is such a great time of year to declutter so that you can be ready for anything coming in from the upcoming holidays. Minimalism honestly helps you live your best life. Mostly in the areas of time, money and your physical spaces. Minimalism is being surrounded by things you love. Life should be about adventure, about love, about family and about food. Life is about experiences not things. What are the experiences that you absolutely love doing? With whom, when and where. Think about this and start your own “Fun things” to-do list. What brings you the most joy? Think about this and start capturing it on a piece of paper. The power of putting pen or pencil to paper and the neurons that fire in your brain while doing this is ten-fold. The manifesting magic is working on the inside – I promise!

Think about 3 things that you would like to spend more time doing. Do you want to cook more? Maybe go on nature walks or hikes? Learn a new skill, something you’ve been wanting to do forever like photography, watercolor art or wood working. Maybe you want to learn a new language so next time you want to travel, you won’t seem so much like a tourist or have that language barrier that can cause a damper on things. Doing things that bring joy can reshape the neurons in your brain and train them to seek more joy as time goes on. Imagine that. Let joy begin.

What are you holding onto? Do they hold value for you? What is most important to you? What value have you given all of your stuff and how much do you actually use them or how much energy do you spend on not using them? I know odd question right, but really think about that for a minute. These items can actually be a subconscious burden on your life. It could be these things that are holding you back.

Here are some easy ways to move towards minimalism. Let’s use a mindful approach as well so we are part of the solution (of climate change and pollution) and not part of the problem. Becoming a conscious consumer and changing your shopping habits and going through some no-buy months will really help reduce your carbon footprint. Start shopping second hand if you can or look for companies that focus on quality and not quantity. These companies might cost more, but they can help you live more sustainably and live lighter, no fast fashion here please. These companies use fair-trade practices and recyclable packaging to help you eliminate your use of plastic as well.

I’m going to list off about 30 ways you can start living lighter today! These are all really easy to do and I guarantee when you are done you will become addicted to letting go and your muscle for releasing items will grow stronger and stronger! You can make a game out of this and start on any day that is convenient for you, or on the first of any month that you can dedicate to eliminating and releasing items in your home:

Wardrobe check.
Purse or wallet.
Junk drawer.
Socks and underwear.
Phone and stored media items.
Clear surfaces.
Remove paper and work on digitizing them.
Office supplies and stationery.
Extra furniture, side tables or chairs in your space.
Go through your refrigerator and freezer.
Go through your pantry.
Unsubscribe from unwanted emails.
Shoes.
Beauty routine.
Jewelry.
Unwanted gifts or hand-me-downs.
Electronics.
Magazine subscriptions or the newspaper.
Linens.
Cleaning products.
Physical photos with duplicates.
Art Supplies.
Sports equipment.
Holiday décor.
Tupperware

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Next Episode

Episode 3 - The 30-Day Minialism Challenge

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Wow! We made it to January 1st, 2021!!! Congrats y'all this is truly amazing! What a fitting time to start this challenge! I spoke of the 30-day minimalism challenge in my last podcast and wanted to elaborate on it in this episode. My heroes, Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus, started the 30 day minimalism challenge as a way to motivate themselves to get rid of all their excess stuff. Try this out for yourself and see how you react to this exercise. I was extremely challenged the first time I did this in May of this year, but then I got kind of addicted to letting go and believe it or not, I did it two more times in July and again in November. As hard as the last one was I'm considering doing this a 4th time!!! That's how addictive and freeing this has become for me.
I will be sharing on my IG page the items that were decluttered. So feel free to check that out for ideas to help you during your challenge. Follow me on IG @rumaten8r1nk and on Twitter @mylifeinflow.

Here’s how it works.

On the first day of the month you eliminate one items Two things on the second day. Three things on the third day. Four things on the fourth day and so on and so on and so on. Find a friend, family member, or coworker who’s willing to minimize their stuff with you. If you can't find anyone, just do this on your own and really challenge yourself. Be your own accountability partner! There's nothing more empowering than keeping a promise to yourself. I know you can do this and you will feel so much better when you are done. I promise you that and as far as the items you are decluttering,

Anything goes!
Collectables.
Decorations.
Kitchenware.
Electronics.
Small appliances.
Furniture.
Bedding.
Clothes.
Towels.
Tools.
Knickknacks.

Whether you donate, sell, or trash your excess, every material possession must be out of your house—and out of your life—by midnight each day. In the vein of efficiency and small carbon footprint, I collected all of my items in a corner of the garage so I could disburse all at the end of the month. I pinned up signs above the piles that let me know if the pile was trash, donate or sell.
I jumped on some neighborhood apps here known as LetGo, Close5 and Nextdoor for the items I wanted to sell. I also sold clothing through ThredUp.com which is an awesome service. I also gave away a lot of items through my local "Buy Nothing" chapter which you can find on Facebook and then lastly I take the rest of the donations to GoodWill or Salvation Army. These two places have become last on my list because it's just better to try to recirculate your excess by resale or direct donations.

It’s an easy game at first and I try hard to get ahead of each day by finding many items at the beginning of the challenge. Soon enough, it grows considerably more challenging day to day as you get to week 3 and week 4. By day 20 I was struggling a little and realized that I have to start really getting rid of the "excess". Excess is all the extras you have of one type of item. Who really needs 20 pairs of jeans or 40 t-shirts or 28 pairs of sweatpants and leggings. Why would anyone have 8 frypans when you can only really use 4 at one time on a regular stove top ? It's things like this that add to the chaos in your kitchen for example. When you have less stuff to manage, it honestly saves you a lot of headache. It's time to downsize all of that.
You can check out my inspiration and my heroes here: https://www.theminimalists.com/game/
Consume less, live more!

Support the show

Consume less, live more!
https://linktr.ee/rumatenbrink