Last week I posted the 12 week challenge to create real and lasting change in your life. Thanks to those of you who took the challenge! I’m so excited to hear about your successes later this summer! How are things coming along so far? Hope great …

So I’ve been dragging my feet a bit … deciding what to commit to and I’m at last ready. There are two things I am going public with. The first … and oh if you could have just felt the feeling of panic I had as I got ready to type this … purge my college text books and notebooks by August 22nd. Now I’m not going to purge everything. It occurred to me today that there are some really important papers I wrote for a creative writing class my senior year. It was a very pivotal year in my life … maybe that’s why I’ve been holding on to these books? I must find them and put them somewhere safe. So to make this measurable I am committing to keeping five or less text books, only the important papers, and a few notebooks (no more than three for posterity sake … the doodling is so telling about what was going on in my life and mind then.) Alright … I’ve said it. Now I will make it be.

Second thing … implement a workable chore system for my kids by August 21st, and consistently follow through. Workable seems a bit vague so I’ll expand. It will be easy to follow, even for my daughter who isn’t reading yet. I will consistently follow through on making sure it gets done and reward them appropriately. (Need to decide on an allowance system.) We’re currently in negotiation about what chores should be for pay and which ones are simply things we do because we’re part of a family. Goal here is to get buy-in at the onset. Any one chartered this territory successfully already? I’m open to advice because I’m on a time line, don’t ya know. Gotta have this baby figured out and fully implemented by August 22nd … just in time for kindergarten. Holy smokes.

Two more quick thoughts … it’s late so I hope this is making sense. None-the-less, here’s more potentially incoherent thoughts. I wonder if you find it interesting that I have things that are hard for me to part with. I do. It’s much easier for me to figure out why it’s hard to part with things for my clients than for myself … but regardless, the important thing is to know that most people have something that is tough to part with.

Do you have to part with these tough-to-let-go-of-things? Not if you’re working with me. I say keep what makes you happy. My philosophy is this. Does it hurt more to keep it or to let it go? If keeping something has you holding onto the past or stuck … then working towards letting it go is important. For me … the college text books are just taking up space. Not really hurting anything but by no means helping a thing. It’s just time to let them go. Because I have another philosophy … keep what you use, need and love. I simply can’t claim any of those for my economics text book, or my packaging book, or the fiber board handbook (yes it’s a real book – and even scarier, I’ve read it), can I? Alright … I think I’m talking myself into it .. .this could be easier than I thought.

Want to join in?