Since teaching my Goals workshop, I’ve been on a health kick. It started by refocusing on exercising and drinking eight glasses of water a day. That felt really good…so inspired by a student in my class, I picked up a copy of Flat Belly Diet. I’ve always wanted one of those (a flat belly, that is.) But my body design is such that, for most of my life, there’s been a bit of roundness in the midsection. After hitting the milestone birthday last year…that roundness has become…well…maybe this is too much detail. Let’s just leave it at this:  there are good reasons the title of that book resonated with me.

In the last week I’ve dramatically changed my eating habits, and have even given up sugar in my daily cup of coffee. (I can’t specifically say whether coffee is or isn’t part of this eating plan; for me the coffee was non-negotiable, though the sugar was surprisingly easy to let go of. Go figure.) I’ve also stepped up the exercise, vowing to walk for at least thirty minutes a day, six days a week for the next month, at which time I’ll reevaluate the midsection, the eating plan and the exercise plan.

So you may wonder what any of this has to doing with getting organized and “home confidence.” Well, walking for thirty plus hours a day gives my brain lots of time to wander…and believe me, in my mind I have been sharing lots of terrific blog posts. The trouble is translating those posts to my fingers, since my schedule is now overcrowded with walking and concocting new, belly-flattening recipes. Though I have saved 3.5 seconds per day by no longer putting sugar in my coffee…sadly, blog posts take longer than 3.5 seconds.

Anyway, during one of my walks while pondering my midsection, I realized my goal for changing my eating habits came down to this.

1) Health. Reading about the connection between belly fat (I know, I don’t like how that sounds either) and diseases like diabetes (which my Mom had for years), heart disease and cancer, well that was pretty motivating.

2) Body confidence. As I was walking one night, I realized that I simply want my midsection to be a non-issue. If someone invites the kids and (gasp) the parents to go to a swimming party…I’d love to simply go without giving it or my midsection a second thought. I want my body to be a non-issue.

And, since everything in my life always leads to a connection to organizing, I thought wow, this is a huge reason why people want to get organized and be organized:  home confidence. We want our homes, like our bodies, to support us in living our best life. We want our homes to be a place that welcomes us after a long day and we want our homes to be a non-issue when visitors arrive.

Body confidence will allow me to do anything, without giving my body a second thought. Questions like, “Will my favorite pants fit?” or “Will I look OK in my bathing suit?” won’t even enter into the equation. Same thing with home confidence. The doorbell rings, and you don’t gasp thinking, “Ah…who’s on the other side of the door…can I let them see my house like this?”

With home confidence, your home is a non-issue. It supports you in living your best life. Ah…now there’s a reason to get up, take action, and get organized! So, if you were looking for yet another reason to get organized this year…there you have it:  home confidence.

I’m wondering what your motivations are for getting organized. I’d love to hear. Is anyone else out there striving for home confidence and had you thought of it in those terms before? Thanks, as always for sharing. I love reading your comments!