Smilingly I would comment to people when they called that if there weren\u2019t lots of people struggling on their own, my profession wouldn\u2019t even exist.\u00a0 This experience of feeling unable to handle things on their own elicits responses that vary widely \u2013 some people are nonchalant and comfortable while others are deeply ashamed and feel like they might be somehow broken.\u00a0 And if you fall into this latter group \u2013 read on as I discuss how understandable it is to be embarrassed and why it\u2019s completely normal to have someone help you.<\/p>\n
Anyone can be nervous about the state of his or her home and spaces.\u00a0 And I mean anyone \u2013 from the \u201choarders\u201d to those in an immaculate home, and everyone in-between.\u00a0 The self-described \u201choarders\u201d are often quite embarrassed \u2013 though by labeling themselves as such, they\u2019re putting themselves in with the extreme situations shown on TV.\u00a0 Then there are plenty of people being labeled as \u201choarders\u201d by their families and don\u2019t necessarily realize that having some (even a lot of) clutter doesn\u2019t make you a \u201choarder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our loved ones can sometimes unintentionally make things more challenging (if we\u2019re giving them the benefit of the doubt, and I like to give everyone that).\u00a0 There are people who seem to struggle to understand how anyone could get so behind, or not handle things more efficiently.\u00a0 As I\u2019ve interacted with some people like this, it seems that they cannot conceptualize anything beyond how they \u201cjust do what needs to be done\u201d so why can\u2019t everyone else do that?\u00a0 Others are frustrated and hurt at how things have fallen apart and their emotions interfere with being helpful about getting things back on track.\u00a0 And that can lead to becoming hopeless about things ever improving \u2013 for everyone involved.\u00a0 These messages \u2013 whatever they might be \u2013 can then add to the embarrassment of both the situation as well as needing help at all.<\/p>\n
I desperately wish there was a way I could shift everyone\u2019s thinking to understand that we all need help.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t make us a failure nor does it mean that we are broken in any way.\u00a0 Although it is contrary to many people\u2019s conceptions of a professional organizer, professional organizers will call in other professional organizer\u2019s to help them with their own spaces.\u00a0 Why would they<\/em> need someone to come in?<\/p>\n It\u2019s easier to do things when you\u2019re not alone.\u00a0 I cannot claim to know why this is so \u2013 yet many, many people talk to me about this.\u00a0 I feel this same way, and have asked friends over to simply keep me company while I work on something.\u00a0 We are social animals after all.\u00a0 Things seem less onerous and there is someone to bounce ideas off of.\u00a0 It can be amazing that simply having another person present can reduce how overwhelming things feel.\u00a0 Maybe it\u2019s an implicit accountability \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ve invited them over to talk to me while I do x, I better do x.\u201d\u00a0 When someone is right there with you, you\u2019ve got a place to turn for support if you need it.<\/p>\n Some people are more likely to view things from \u201cnew eyes\u201d when there\u2019s someone with them.\u00a0 I\u2019ve noticed that myself \u2013 when we had a small party, I suddenly saw all the cobwebs on the ceiling that I\u2019d missed and how this and that spot felt a little cluttered.\u00a0 It\u2019s like I was viewing my home from each guest\u2019s eyes \u2013 at least possibly.\u00a0 And when you bring in a professional, they can go a step further than simply another set of eyes \u2013 they can recognize how things could be improved (though most of us aren\u2019t going in looking for that randomly \u2013 just when someone hires us!).<\/p>\n It saddens me that any of us would be ashamed of needing help.\u00a0 If we think about it, there are lots of things we all need help with and have no embarrassment about \u2013 so why is there a double standard about needing help with some<\/em> things (even within ourselves) that brings up shame?\u00a0 Maybe those who are comfortable are those who recognize that getting help is the next logical step \u2013 it\u2019s not a big deal.\u00a0 Whatever you might be struggling with \u2013 I encourage you to lose the embarrassment or at least set it aside and find someone to help you through it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although we\u2019re all different \u2013 from how we feel about having someone come help us to how overwhelmed we feel \u2013 it\u2019s important to realize that it\u2019s completely normal to feel more effective when you have someone there to support you as you tackle things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[10,18,5,9,15],"class_list":["post-1570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-personaldevelopment","tag-behavior","tag-goals","tag-household","tag-motivation","tag-resources"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-pk","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1570"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1573,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1570\/revisions\/1573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}