One of the ways I artificially limit myself is by leaving behind a trail of clutter. Some of this is creative clutter, like piles of books I am reading for a project, but some is damaging clutter. What needs to happen is to first reduce the piles of clutter, but then, more significantly, change the habits so that the same thing doesn't happen again. This means spending a little time everyday decluttering, so that the clutter will decrease over time rather than accumulating.
I started with my car. I tend to put books in there to have something to read, but then the book stay then and I have library in my car. Untrashing my car was a first step, then my mailbox on campus, and, today, my office. Then I will work on home office, the most crowded and cluttered area of my dwelling place. After that, clothes in the closet and the kitchen.
The clutter itself is not important, except that is takes on a symbolic importance as my deliberate sabotage of myself, and freeing myself of it is tremendously... freeing I guess. If I can eliminate it, it means that it is not necessary, that I don't need it to protect myself and that it is actually a negative adaptation.
2 comments:
You don't have a great deal if you are getting finished that fast. I've got 30 years of it and nobody realizes that, since it is all in files and bookshelves and it looks organized. But it's clutter, or baggage, or treasure, treasure that became baggage that became clutter and I have to find the treasure in it again, piece by piece.
I have some of the 30-year baggage too, though I cleared some out a few years ago, and a fire, divorce, and several moves took care of some of it.
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