Cleaning up the junk in your trunk

I think that in order to live a happy life you first have to know what makes you unhappy and then clean it up. It’s kind of like the junk in your trunk. If you don’t clean it up you won’t have room for your groceries, your packages or your golf clubs (my personal favorite).

We live our lives in a constant state of motion. We wake up in the morning thinking about what it is we “have” to do before the end of the day. We ‘re so busy doing, that we don’t take time to examine all the baggage that we’ve carried around with us for years. We’re so focused on getting ahead and achieving that coveted prize that we seldom stop to consider how our lives could be transformed by cleaning up a little junk.

We don’t do this on purpose. I think it’s how we’re taught. Schools force us to focus on the end result. We do, do, do in order to get a certain grade. We’re never taught to examine our problems with certain subjects. What if we knew at the beginning of the school year that we needed to spend more time studying math? What if we actually did it? What an awesome accomplishment that would be. But school isn’t like that. We just do what the teacher wants and hope to get a passing grade.

So how about you take a few minutes to silence your mind and look deep into your heart for one thing in your life that’s not quite what you want it to be.

What is it?

Be brutally honest with yourself here.

What one thing do you wish you could change in your life?

Next, examine how changing that one thing would make you feel. Really imagine your life without that one problem or issue or thoughts of killing that person. Go ahead, I give you permission to imagine a different life without that one piece of junk that’s rattling around in your trunk.

How does it feel?

Lighter, easier, freer?

Your final step entails letting go of the thing that makes you so incredibly unhappy, crazy, sad, depressed or fearful. To do this you need to make a decision to do something about it. Then you need to do it.

If you’re broke you need to figure out a way to spend less or make more.

If you’re lonely you need to figure out a way to invite more joy into your life. You could do volunteer work at a local homeless shelter. I promise you’ll come away from the experience grateful for the opportunity to help others and the home you get to go to.

If you’re carrying around more weight than you’d like then it’s making the decision to eat less or exercise more or both for quicker results.

Facing your problems, fears or issues and then actively moving towards solving them makes them a lot less scary.

Taking one teeny weenie step after another brings amazing happiness and opens the door for miracles to come in.

Once upon a time I was afraid to fly. For six years I traveled by bus or train. Then one day I had to get on an airplane. There was no other choice. I checked all the possible alternatives and they all took too much time. My solution: prescription medicine one hour before the flight. Although it didn’t erase all my fears it made getting on the plane possible. A few days later, after an intense workshop with 5 amazing women I realized my fear. I was scared the plane would tragically fall out of the sky and my two kids would be orphans. None of this was true. Planes rarely crash and it was just my thoughts that made me miserable.

Once I learned to focus on the fear and decided to count the seconds I felt sheer panic once the plane took off, I realized I spent six years fearing eight seconds of fear. Now it’s only four. You see the fear is still there. I now know how to manage it so that it doesn’t keep me from doing things that make me incredibly happy.

Once I cleaned that piece of junk from my trunk I was free to travel the country and I have enjoyed in immensely.

Take a look at the junk in your trunk this week and imagine how happy your life will be without all of the extra baggage you’ve been carrying around