From chaos to reorganization for your life or your office

For the past few weeks so many clients and friends (myself included) have been going through chaos. I don’t mean a little bit of chaos, I mean chaos from 4-5 areas of their life. Issues from money, ill family members, big news and big decisions.

Bill Harris, Founder of Centerpointe Institute, refers to chaos theory saying that things will eventually reorganize at a higher level. While it’s challenging to remember this during the chaos, it is a refreshing thought. It’s like that saying, “Things will get uglier before they get prettier.” It’s like that in organizing as well. You’ve got to make a mess to get things clean.

Chaos is the decay phase of the 5 cycles of nature: fertilization, gestation, birth, death, and decay. Decay is what comes before fertilization. When there’s decay that means there is something new about to be born.

We experience these cycles in nature, in relationships, and in our business. It’s the way things work here on Earth.

In your life, you will experience periods of chaos: if you move, if there’s a death or birth in your life, or if you decide to expand your business. If you have been super busy birthing a project or seeing a bunch of new clients because your business had a growth spurt, you may return to a cluttered office.

By accepting and embracing chaos, you can move through the natural cycles and experience new growth. But if you stop in chaos, or give in to overwhelm, you may stay in chaos. If you leave the clutter on your desk for too long, it will just get worse!

Use the situation to transform the decay into fertilizer and to nurture what’s next. By accepting what is before you at this moment, you can approach what’s next from strength and power-and from choice. When you judge yourself and your clutter, you’re giving your power away to your clutter. You’re saying the clutter is bigger than you, and you don’t have the power to change it. Start by picking up one thing from your messy desk and decide what to do with it. Start with one decision, one simple step. And remember to breathe deeply.