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Spring Cleaning Your Life

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by Mom It Forward on March 22nd, 2018 | No Comments »

It's that time of year! All the cleaning products are on sale at your favorite discount store and organizational bins are everywhere for you to get your home clean and organized. I love this time of year and find it totally therapeutic to let go of things in our home that we no longer need. I feel lighter even if nothing with with my physical body has changed. (Too bad, I don’t actually lose weight.)

Spring is also a great time to organize your personal life. Just as you would go through every room in your house and do the deep cleaning in every corner of the bathrooms, sometimes it's important to look at the spaces in our life that we have been ignoring or those that need a little extra attention to clean up. You can also book a maid service for an apartment or home to give it fresh look it deserves!

Relationship issues we haven't yet addressed, or past mistakes that are lingering inside the recesses of our brain can wear us down and keep us being from being our best selves.

In honor of the showers you didn’t take to clean and messy buns you’ve had for days I want to share with you three simple tips to spring clean your life and mind.

Recommit to your goals by letting go of past failures

At this time of year many of us have already forgotten about the New Year and any resolutions we have set to make our life better. Chances are this has been a repeated behavior year over year. While I know some of us are still currently committed to our goals, others have let them go. Now I know that sometimes goals and dreams change, and I realize that sometimes we set goals that really do need to be cleaned out because they no longer serve us. However, I also know that many of us simply give up when we have slipped up or it becomes hard. If you have a goal in the recesses of your brain that you put in a lonely box labeled “someday", open it back up again and see what else you could put away so that your goal can become a reality. Just as you would let go of clothing that no longer fits or is tattered and torn, limiting beliefs that are holding you back from your goals need to be taken out to the trash. If you have ever said to yourself, "I don't deserve that", or “I couldn’t do it before, so I can’t do it now,” those limiting beliefs needs to be removed and put in check right away.

I simply cannot do spring cleaning with my kids around…Items that I have put in the donate pile seem to magically reappear back in the toy box. Socks that no longer fit or leggings that have holes in them magically remove themselves from the trash and end up in the hamper as if they had always been there. Limiting believes are similar once you acknowledge that they are there and see mingling clean them out, they will threaten to come back from time to time. Becoming aware of the limiting beliefs in your head and making a plan to remove them (even if multiple times) will help you get back on track with your goals. Every time a limiting belief comes to your mind, replace it with something positive. If one of your limiting beliefs is “I don't deserve that,” replace it with “I deserve this goal and more!” Say it out loud, write it down, but be persistent so that you can replace old limiting beliefs with new positive mantras.

Consider healing a relationship or offering a forgiveness

When I clean, I tend to be a whirlwind. I’ll be cleaning the island in the kitchen and then I'll run upstairs to put something away only to get distracted by the dresser in my room. After some time in my room I may take some clothing into the laundry room and get started on another load for the kids. After I'm done with that I'll end up downstairs and remember that I started cleaning off the island in the kitchen two hours ago. Similarly, unfinished relationship issues can make you feel incomplete in many areas of your life. If there is someone you need to apologize to, reach out and say, “I'm sorry”. If you're waiting for someone to apologize to you, forgive them without waiting for them to make the first move. Ask yourself, “what is it costing me to be right?” And remember that people matter the most, including YOU. While some of this "dirty laundry” can often be the most hurtful, I'm often surprised at how quickly my heart is restored when I let go. Perhaps your marriage needs some spring cleaning, or a strained relationship with a family member needs a quick touchup, do it today so it doesn't weigh heavy in your life and heart.

Commit today to own your life

I love the principle by Jack Canfield to take 100% responsibility for your life. I have been an avid self-help book reader since I was in high school and I thought I had this pretty well under control. One day when my husband came home from work and asked me how my day has been I said the words, "My day was not my own.” Realizing that running a couple of businesses with a couple of kids was not the cakewalk I had envisioned in my head. It was easy for days to slip by with child needs, friend interactions, and demanding (but rewarding) civic and church responsibilities. This pattern repeated and I used this phrase as often as “What’s for dinner?” Many months later, I was aware that simply saying, “My day was not my own,” was really giving away the ownership of my life, and allowing other people's dirty laundry into my life through blame. Once I realized that I needed to powerfully choose if I was going to answer the phone or say, “Yes,” to a neighbor or quickly respond to a request from one of my volunteer activities, that I needed to choose that and that they weren't forcing anything on me. Some of us are wearing sashes with the word “Sacrifice” bedazzled on the front while we wear our stretchy pants and clean our house running on dry shampoo and caffeine. However, if we blame our outside circumstances for our lack of shower or lack of time we feel like we have, we’re missing the point. Make peace with the clock, use your “yeses” and “no”s with discretion, and choose how you respond to your day, even if everything around you is going wrong.

As you’re cleaning your physical spaces, allow your brain to think through emotional messes that also need your careful attention. Here’s a word a caution, sometimes our spring house cleaning goes faster than our spring life cleaning, stay the course. Freeing yourself of dusty memories and limiting believes will feel just as good (if not better) as a clean house and a job well done. You can do it, make it happen.

Michelle McCullough is owner of DreamBoard Media and the author “The Make It Happen Blueprint”. A highly sought after speaker, Michelle has also been featured in the 40 under 40, entrepreneur.com and has a regular segment on the Fox TV affiliate on Salt Lake City. See more from Michelle at speakmichelle.com