Cleaning up, clearing out!

Guest Contributor: Yvonne Mahoney
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We've just had a new member join our mastermind group and one of the gifts she brings to the group is a new sense of purpose infusing through us all. She admitted that it was difficult to see her way through to achieving her goals because she lives in a constant state of personal clutter permeating her home and I dare say, work environment.

Then it all came out of the woodwork. Who else was feeling stuck, unable to move forward, feeling drained of energy, not achieving all they wanted to? Well, no prize for guessing that pretty much nearly everyone of us to some degree or other are living with a decease common to an awful lot of people in the developed world. Lets call it Clutteritis.

And what this seems to do is to keep us hanging on to our possessions for dear life till we seem to need more storage space, bigger houses, more shelves, cupboards and outhouses to contain all the detritus of our lives. Well yes I know one person's junk is another's treasures, but honestly, have things not just got out of hand? And what does it cost us to be over our heads with 'more stuff'?

And how did my friend's admittance become a gift to us? Well firstly we had to look at what living in a state of clutter did to us and why it might contribute to us not getting what we want, and then we had to agree to do something about it.

So we have pledged to spend the next month in a solid commitment to ourselves and to the others in the group actively removing some of the junk on a daily basis. With more space to live and breathe, we have cleared the way for the things we really want to manifest into our lives whether that is an intimate relationship, financial, business or career success or any of the other goals we have actively been working on.

And just for this month, every day we are committed to emailing each other with our daily progress report, and along the way to support each other's efforts, to encourage, to 'kick ass' if we haven't heard from someone, holding each other accountable for what we said we would do, to challenge and to inspire. It’s much easier to stay in line when someone else is saying "Well done, keep going. You can do it. Or, what's going on, why didn't you contact us? How are you doing with your tasks?"

The feedback I am getting is that it is working and some people who would have caved in a long time ago or been 'too tired' after a hard day at work are motivated to persist. The best part of it is, it feels great and has such a transforming impact on how we feel about ourselves and our environment.

The energy is moving and flows through us. I can't wait for the final progress report at the next meeting. This way we can be models for each other, share ideas and inspiring quotes, make suggestions and be ready to receive ideas from others. And here's the thing. If we can achieve this apparently 'simple' yet demanding task we have set ourselves and demonstrated how powerfully we can support, encourage and challenge each other to achieving our goals, what else can we do with the combined energy of the whole group?

For some of us it’s been very liberating. Some are finding money, energy, people, a new intimate relationship are being drawn to them. Others have a new sense of renewal and expectancy of fulfilling their ambitions.

No, it isn't easy. Some days, especially if you've been out on long all day seminar sessions as I have been for 3 days, it was very hard to return home and find enough energy to start clearing files and cupboards. But the pledge to do it is very strong when there are others looking over your shoulder and also needing your help to remain focused on task.

It was interesting to me that we coincided exactly with the start of Ramadan which although there are no Muslims in the group, was very apt for us only in the sense of requiring self discipline and focused goals, and perhaps achieving a cleansing at least of the soul.

This for me is a very palpable benefit of the mastermind group. Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich said " Success in this world is always a matter of individual effort, yet you will be deceiving yourself if you believe that you can succeed without the co-operation of other people."