I recently wrote about how liberating it was to go through the process of decluttering my home using the Kondo method. Both during and after the process, I felt lighter, refreshed and more energized.
I started to wonder, if purging items in my home provided me with such a “lift”, perhaps I needed to see what I could purge from my lifestyle. I was feeling committed to only keeping things in my house that brought me joy or served me purpose, but what if I wholeheartedly tried to do that for my life, too. After all, it seems quite cluttered to consider a lifestyle full of things that do not serve purpose or bring joy.
My first lifestyle consideration was a big one. I had a side business that was incredibly consuming. It provided me with some extra income, and I had quickly become well-known in the industry. However, did it serve a purpose or bring me joy? Two years earlier it most definitely had. It provided me with an enjoyable creative outline. However, right then and there, when contemplating the value of the business, I discovered that it no longer truly brought me joy or served purpose. Although the extra income was nice, I didn’t need it. What once brought me joy and excitement – now did not. Right then it brought me exhaustion, pressure and stress. I had been continuing the business because, well, I get easily consumed by things. I get caught up, drawn in too deep, and fail to realize when something is no longer a good “fit” for me.
Well then, I had quite easily identified one area in my life that no longer brought me the level of joy or purpose that I valued in my life. There were many “what ifs” circling in my head – but, I realized none of those considerations devalued my original conclusion: The business didn’t bring me joy or serve me purpose.
I made the decision to pause the business completely for three months. Know what happened after three months? I realized I had zero desire to keep the business going. I wasn’t giving up, instead quite the opposite. I was rising up. I was brave enough to press pause, even with customers knocking at my door. I’ve found that the willingness to listen to my own intuition can be a struggle at times. Lifestyle routines often become so comfortable that questioning such a drastic change can so easily be dismissed.
Taking time to pause can provide the opportunity to see things with a refreshed sense of clarity. Now that I had removed such a consuming piece of my lifestyle – I was ready to do some more shuffling.