The 4 Reasons Why Your Life Is Cluttered

you know I've thought about it and I've decided that I'm going to be frank in this conversation but just know that it's coming from a place of love I promise you that see I've lived my life so cluttered for so long that it bothers me knowing that there's a possibility that you could be living your life in such a way as well so today we're going to be talking about the four reasons why your life is cluttered and can possibly stay cluttered if you don't make a change and reason number one is you're always on your phone now maybe me saying that triggered you in some way because you're probably watching this or listening to this conversation right now on your phone or some other mobile device right and if you are first off that's a privilege and it's important to recognize it as so because it means that you have Wi-Fi and a connection to the internet in order to stream this video or listen to this conversation so that's a privilege right but see constantly being on your phone is exactly why your life is cluttered let me explain what I mean when you're always on your phone it means that you're distracting yourself from the things that you could be doing or that you know should be getting done take for example the physical clutter in your life right and this is easy to visualize maybe you have too many clothes or knickknacks spread throughout your home or random things thrown all over the place and just taking up physical space in your life right now in the back of your mind you know that there's something you could be doing about this clutter you know that you should be donating and decluttering the things that you don't need and find a home for the items you want to keep but you don't do these things you don't find time to do these things you don't make time to do these things because you claim that you don't have enough time but the truth is is all of your time is being taken up because you're constantly on your phone scrolling through social media and consuming content that isn't necessarily adding value to your life right but if we're being honest the same thing can be said about the mental and emotional clutter in your life as well right which are two types of clutter that I believe are often overlooked in favor of the physical things that we can see in our life but again your mental and emotional clutter in my opinion carry a much heavier weight on you and your life than the physical things in your life do I know from my own experience anytime I've wanted to avoid digging into and dealing with how I felt I would always reach for my phone right and I would find something to do that would take my mind off of things right maybe that was scrolling through social media or watching a funny video or playing a game that I downloaded because it was advertised to me on social media but whatever I could do to pass time until those thoughts and feelings pass by I would do but what I've learned is that regardless of what it is in your life that you're trying to get rid of avoidance it's not the best solution in fact avoidance isn't a solution at all right and it really is the problem and a part of that problem is because you're always on your phone see the thing about technology and the fact that these devices keep getting smaller and smarter faster more convenient to use is that it's easy here to get distracted by them you know a fun activity that you can try is taking a look at your screen time on your phone and I'm not sure how to check this on an Android but I know on iPhone all you have to do is go to your settings and then click screen time and it will show you exactly how much time on average you spend on your phone a day if you want to dig deeper than that it will show you exactly what apps you spend the most time on how much time on average per day you are spending on those apps and really this is a great indicator to let you know whether or not you're always on your phone or if you're not always on your phone right but the truth is is that if you're always on your phone you're not going to have time to declutter your life you're not going to have time to dedicate to removing those items that aren't adding value to your life so my suggestion is to put your phone down right it's okay to be there you don't have to be on it all the time just put it down and take care of those important things so then you can enjoy some of those more fun luxury silly things like social media funny videos or silly game reason number two is your identity you know sometimes we live cluttered lives because so much of who we are is wrapped up in the things we own to the point where our identity is starting to be defined by our possessions right this is never a good thing see if you're someone who lacks an identity who doesn't quite know who they are or what they value outside of the things you own then I'm talking directly to you because this was my life right I was in your shoes at one point you know I've shared this story before in the past but in case you're new here in my teenage years in my early 20s I had a Persona that I clung to right that Persona was Mr Smooth and Mr Smooth was someone who was identified and shaped by my possessions not who I truly was but by the things I owned by the things I did by the things I bought right that was what shaped who I was and who Mr Smooth was but it wasn't me like I said right now my life was so cluttered at that time in my life that I couldn't see who I was if I really wanted to and that says a lot right that says a lot about the things I bought the things I held on to uh why I held on to these things why I clung so tightly to my possessions because they defined me right they helped me feel like I was who I was supposed to be but see I have a question for you if you can relate to this in some way I have a question for you if you had nothing but yourself maybe the clothes on your back right but if you had nothing but yourself in a mirror in front of you who would you be what would you be think about that question Ponder on it for some time Journal about it pray about it but really think hard about who you are without your possessions if all you have is yourself in a mirror in front of you who are you you know and it's not an easy question to answer sometimes it's it may take you a while right but really understanding who you are outside of your possessions is key to living a clutter-free life because it's going to help you live a value-filled life rather than a stuff and things filled life and that's the key right there right that's the key right there so really think about this who are you then have the things you own the clothes on your back your car if all you have is yourself in the mirror in front of you who would you be now reason number three is you lack clarity now don't judge me for this metaphor that I'm going to use but the poet in me wants to go there so I'm just gonna flow with it right I'm not going to overthink this lack of clarity to me is equivalent to a lack of oxygen let me explain what I mean by that oxygen is one of those things that's needed for life right you need oxygen to breathe not sure you can go a couple of minutes if you wanted to by holding your breath and not breathing right maybe even longer if you train and practice right but at some point you're going to have to take a breath right you're going to have to breathe in order to survive in life now we look at Clarity from a similar lens or through a similar lens Clarity from my perspective is required in life not sure you can navigate life without Clarity on your goals and the things you want to achieve and who you are right you can navigate life like a zombie and just go through the motions you can do that for a short period of time but at some point you are going to seek Clarity at some point you are going to want to know what is important to me why am I living my life this way should I be living my life this way and if not what direction should I go in next now the common denominator between a lack of clarity and why your life is cluttered can be a few different things but a couple things that come to mind for me is that you lack Clarity around your values what's important to you right or you like Clarity around why what's important to you is important to you or you lack Clarity around understanding what it takes to live and to live out and prioritize your values right you kind of see a pattern here how everything results back to your values and that's because as I've learned in my life that without a strong sense of what you value your life is going to be cluttered and chaotic it's just it's going to it's just going to be right there's no way to live a clutter-free life uh a purpose-filled life if not clear on what you value so my encouragement to you is get clear on what you value I have a core values worksheet if you want to check it out you can download it for free on my website at ronaldobanks.com values but more than that just really think about what you value in your life what's important to you and if whether or not you're living out those values if you're living in alignment with those values and if you're not that's a clear sign that you are living a very cluttered life that your life is going to stay cluttered for a very long time because you're seeking that Clarity and stuff and things rather than and values and morals and what you believe to be true or how you want to live your life who you are and how you want to live out and show yourself to the world right so just think about your values like I said download my core values worksheet if you need some help but prioritize what's important to you why those things are important to you and that's going to help you get rid of the clutter in your life now reason number four is you over consume now I think this is a very fitting conversation to have especially with the holidays right around the corner my wife and I were just talking the other day and we cannot believe that next week is Thanksgiving already like where's time going right and then a few weeks after that there's Christmas within the New Year's it's just man slow down right it's crazy how fast times are going but even without the surge of holiday spending because this conversation is relevant regardless of what time of year you listen to it and that's because over consumption is a huge issue right check this out the average household has roughly 300 000 items in it 300 000 right that's crazy right when you think about it that's a lot of stuff but there are only two real reasons how and why you can accumulate this much stuff in your house reason number one is that you're holding on to and keeping everything right and reason number two is you constantly constantly constantly over consume you're buying things that you don't need just because they're on sale just because it's the holidays just because you saw it advertised to you just because you think you might use it one day you're over consuming but here's a truth for you it's impossible to declutter your life if you constantly have more coming in than what's going out now with this in mind it begs the question of what is enough what is enough now I can't tell you what enough is for you in your life but what I can say is that minimalism intentional living purpose-spilled living building a fruitful life right all of these things look very different for each of us and regardless of how you define these things in your life enough is always going to be less than you think it is it's always going to be less than you think it is enough it's always going to be less than you think it is and the way you figure out what enough is for you is you focus on what's important to you like I said it goes back to your values are you prioritizing those values in your life and if you're not how can you prioritize your values how can you focus on what's important to you because to be honest with you I want you to experience the benefits that I've experienced from this lifestyle from owning less from minimalism from living a clutter free life right I want you to live without the stress without the overwhelm right I want you to be able to enjoy the things that matter most to you and to choose to own less of what doesn't to choose to want less of what doesn't and the only way you can do that the only way to do that is to put down your phone to get clear on who you are your identity right to build Clarity across other aspects of your life and to stop buying things that you don't need stop over consuming it's not worth it keep growing on your journey friend keep learning always stay true to you and I'll see you in the next conversation it's going to be an interesting one for sure peace

Channel: Ronald L. Banks

Views: 29,610

Keywords: The 4 Reasons Why Your Life Is Cluttered, why your life is cluttered, decluttering, decluttering tips, how to declutter, minimalism, minimalism tips, cluttered life, overcome clutter, stop overconsumption, why you have clutter, how to own less, ways to own less, Eliminate clutter

Id: 2IM8ZvbCDaM

Length: 13min 15sec (795 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 15 2022