What if you tried to organize a space only to realize that it wasn\u2019t working?\u00a0 And you re-organize it and again find it wasn\u2019t working?\u00a0 And again, repeating the steps over and over again.\u00a0 Would you then tell yourself that you\u2019re not good at organizing?\u00a0 Have you ever thought about how you label yourself?\u00a0 The times that we encounter repeated struggles can be daunting and it might lead us to decide our capabilities \u2013 and not in a realistic or positive way.<\/p>\n
Would you think me less of a professional organizer if you knew that scenario above was from my home and life?\u00a0 Early last month I realized that I needed to divide a category I\u2019d created in my craft closet \u2013 that it was creating unnecessary chaos.\u00a0 That opened the door to how several parts were not working \u2013 there was clutter collecting again.\u00a0 There had been some great progress with the degree of clutter compared to the past \u2013 yet there were still problems.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m certainly not proud of the repeated problems I\u2019ve had with the space.\u00a0 It has been extremely frustrating and amazingly overwhelming \u2013 some of which I talked about almost 2 years ago in Overwhelmed?<\/a> ? \u2013 and I\u2019m grateful that these recent changes don\u2019t feel overwhelming, though they are frustrating sometimes!\u00a0 My experiences also illustrate that simply having a neat system does not magically make things organized or more importantly stay<\/i> organized.<\/p>\n How easy it could be to decide that I\u2019m not capable of organizing \u2013 consider that in over 10 years that I\u2019ve played with the closet, it\u2019s always broken down.\u00a0 There\u2019s more than a decade of \u201cevidence\u201d that I can\u2019t organize, isn\u2019t there?\u00a0 Yet, it is focused on that closet.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve read my blog for a while you know that there have been other spaces needing re-organizing \u2013 that spaces simply stop working sometimes.\u00a0 More signs that organizing isn\u2019t in my skill set, right?\u00a0 Proof, at least if we consider only those examples.<\/p>\n The way we interpret our experiences can have a huge impact on what we do or don\u2019t do.\u00a0 If you tell yourself that you are just no good at organizing, you\u2019re probably going to avoid trying to do it and focus on all the \u201cproof\u201d that backs up your interpretation.\u00a0 What would happen if you searched for all the evidence that was the opposite of your interpretation (and not minimize or discount them)?<\/p>\n As much as the repeated failure of the organizing inside the craft room closet is hard to accept, I can also see that each time I re-do things in there I make improvements \u2013 both in how things are arranged and in how long the organization is maintained.\u00a0 I recognize that my continuing struggles are centered on that specific area.<\/p>\n It\u2019s remarkably easy to discount our successes \u2013 it seems like we all do it in some way or context.\u00a0 Likewise, we all falter and struggle sometimes.\u00a0 It might feel that we\u2019re more prone to challenges than other people.\u00a0 What do you tell yourself?\u00a0 Do you see any possibility for finding your way through your challenges?<\/p>\n I keep chipping away at that craft room closet \u2013 riding the ebb and flow of emotions \u2013 from overwhelmed, to frustrated, to excited, to apathetic, to embarrassment, to any number of other reactions.\u00a0 I recognize that it is simply feelings \u2013 they will pass or at least subside and don\u2019t necessarily reflect the reality.\u00a0 My interpretation is that I\u2019ve struggled to find all the solutions I need for this space and stuff at the same time \u2013 that it is evidence that there are times we need to go through the process of discovering our answers, however long that process might take.\u00a0 (My post, Organizing Art & Craft Supplies<\/a>, talks about some solutions.)<\/p>\n Therefore, the way we interpret our own challenges can define how we progress through them.\u00a0 Professional organizers exist because people struggle with getting organized \u2013 there\u2019s nothing wrong with facing that challenge with help.\u00a0 Yet, if you tell yourself that you\u2019re just lousy with organization, what happens when the organizer leaves and you\u2019re left to maintain the organization?<\/p>\n Put a limit on your critical interpretations \u2013 in what way are you challenged, specifically?\u00a0 How are you successful, even in the midst of that struggle?\u00a0 Can you see that there\u2019s a way for you to develop the skills?\u00a0 When the ongoing challenges in a particular area tempt you to you give up, how will you interpret both the continuing struggle and your inclination to throw up your hands and walk away?\u00a0 You probably know generally what I would say \u2013 find an explanation that supports you and your strengths from the reality rather than any biases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When we find ourselves facing the same challenge over and over again, what we tell ourselves can have a tremendous impact on what we do and how we do it \u2013 the way we interpret the struggles plaguing us.<\/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":[3,6],"tags":[10,8,18,5,9,22,17],"class_list":["post-1684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-organizing","category-personaldevelopment","tag-behavior","tag-discipline","tag-goals","tag-household","tag-motivation","tag-productivity","tag-spaces"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7p82c-ra","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684","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=1684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1685,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions\/1685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.jenniferlinnig.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}