Hasta La Ideas

In 1994, when the Beastie Boys released the album Ill Communication, I’m certain I listened to the song “Sabotage” continuously for weeks. The title of the song is fun to say (sab-o-tage), and the guitar and bass lines are rhythmically addictive. Additionally, sabotage is a powerful word that most everyone can relate to — we sabotage ourselves when we don’t trust in our abilities, we know people who sabotage relationships, and conniving companies sabotage their competitors to get a greater market share.

It’s simple to sabotage yourself when uncluttering and organizing. The easiest way to do it is to make excuses for why you can’t do it: not enough time to do it perfectly, don’t know where to start, will take too long, no one in the family will respect the work put into it so why even bother. These excuses protect you from potential failure and change. I remember sabotaging myself like this numerous times when I was embarking on my initial uncluttering project.

Another way to sabotage yourself is to take on too much at a time. You pack your schedule to the brim with outside responsibilities, and then decide you need to unclutter your entire house in two hours. When you fail to become super human and don’t succeed at your uncluttering efforts, you throw in the towel and give up. The sabotage is complete.

There are hundreds of ways to sabotage your uncluttering and organizing efforts, and just one solution for all of them — admit to yourself what you’re doing and that you’re sabotaging your success.

The minute you admit you’re acting in a way counter-productive to your success, you can stop that behavior. Instead of an excuse, you can spend your time and energy searching for a solution. Instead of having unrealistic expectations, you can set more practical and obtainable goals. Anyone who is of sound mind and body can unclutter and organize his or her life. There is no need to be your biggest obstacle. Stop the sabotage.

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