How to Declutter Your Mind and Get It Organized

Did you declutter your home during the past few months? Is that all you need to declutter? Here’s what one of my clients said that had me laughing and cheering him on. Two levels to declutter…. Your home and your mind! 

“Dear Dr. Sylvia, 

I have always been a leader, and I have been known as “the boss who is not bossy.” 

I guess that’s good.  

I always like to include others in decision making. 

However, being at home with my wife and two teens has been anything but pleasurable. 

Their grumpy manner finally got to me and I created a family project. I was/am in charge. 

My wife took a back seat and simply watched as I maneuvered this project like I was at work, where people really listen to me. 

The project was to declutter the house. 

I know that wonderful Japanese author, Marie Kondo wrote “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” and talks about the virtue of a decluttered home. 

However, she really doesn’t talk about how to harness the power of a girl who is 14 and a boy who is 17 who hate being on the same team and annoy each other to their limits. 

I apologized to my wife who has put up with more of their GOTCHA Games than I do. I told her I should have been more involved sooner. 

But, I digress….. 

What I learned as we cleaned out the cabinets, got piles together to take to Goodwill, was the following, and it’s what you have been teaching for years and years. 

 Here goes…..  

The clutter in your mind is as important to get rid of as the clutter in your home. 

I now see that all the work I have done with your organization about behavior patterns and pattern repetition is really to declutter your mind. 

I had a really amazing talk with my kids about this as we cleaned the closets and made the space in the house feel calm and expansive. 

We talked about why they are such jerks to each other and how that patterns of GOTCHA could become so ingrained they would take them to work and there, it could mean lost opportunities for promotion or creative collaboration. 

Honestly, to my surprise, they listened. 

They asked questions, they wanted to learn. 

So, please can you send a copy of your e-book GOTCHA to me (signed would matter) so I can go over it with my teens. 

And just FYI, my wife was able to leave us to our education and get some of her work for her high– powered leadership job done without begging for peace and quiet. 

My new theory is to do both: 

                            Declutter your home and get it organized 

                            Declutter your mind and get it organized. 

Thanks in advance for the book, and thanks for all the great info about these dang patterns that we need to purge and transform. 

Best wishes, 

The NOT Bossy Boss 

About Sylvia Lafair

As a curious kid, I was fascinated watching how often people would make the same mistakes and complain about the same upsets time after time. I observed it in family, neighbors, at school and even in books and films.

As I grew older I saw how specific experiences become behavior patterns that people lived by yet barely noticed. It was “same stuff, different day,” just like in “Groundhog Day.”

My fascination with the power of personal and cultural patterns deepened after my father died from a sudden heart attack when I was 14. The cause? Constant conflict at work.

My determination to understand what happened and why led me to an amazing discovery: unresolved family patterns follow us to work. That’s what was behind the stress my father carried throughout his career.

Work stress became the enemy.

My search for more answers became my passion, to find ways to transform outdated, ingrained patterns that destroy health and the joy of success.

Now, I do what I do to prepare, liberate and empower leaders and teams — and to ensure no one need lose a loved one over unresolved conflict and stress at work.

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— Sylvia Lafair PhD — founder of Creative Energy Options (CEOInc.) and the world’s leading authority in Pattern Aware Leadership Development, Top Global Leadership Guru and award winning author of Don’t Bring It To Work.

Read Sylvia’s columns in INC.com and The National Business Journals