Spruce up for Spring

Here you are emerging from an entire year of limitations and life changes. There isn't one person one this earth who hasn't been effected by the Covid pandemic. You aren't alone. Our life was turned upside down, and now we are gradually making our way back to a new normal...whatever that may be. Things will never be exactly as they were, and I have come up with a fun strategy to start getting your life back on some sort of track. I love the word spring almost as much as I love the season. Let me show you how the very word itself let me embrace a new concept of "spring cleaning" to reorganize my life.

1. Sort. Whether it's physical stuff, emotional stuff, or promises you've made to yourself or others, now is the time to sort through everything. Evaluate your life. Put everything that seems to be necessary, useful, damaging or holding you back into their respective category.

2. Prioritize. After you have sorted the various aspects of your life into these categories, you must prioritize them. Reflect on the past year and search your soul to discover how important these things are to you. What are the top five things you listed in each category? If you haven't already, write a list of those things in order from most important to least important. Leave the items that didn't make the top five on your list, but keep your focus on the top five items or issues that you have just prioritized.

3. Renew or revise. Remember those things you meant to get to last year but couldn't because life kind of stopped, or went into hibernation? Now is a good time to revisit those things you meant to do and reevaluate how they may or may not fit into your life style post-pandemic (yes, optimism). Look at the list you just made and do the same with the top five items in each category. Be realistic. We aren't superheroes. We are human. Give yourself a little breathing room and compassion while you renew your goals for the upcoming year.

4. Integrate. As you reflect upon each item in the various categories, jot down ways you can integrate them into your life or integrate a new habit or practice to replace the things that are unhelpful or no longer serve you in a positive way. Easier said than done, but this is an important step in the "spring cleaning" process. You've identified at least ten positive things and ten not so positive things you want to keep and/or change. You've prioritized how important it is to you to keep what's working for you and change what isn't. Now its time to put these ambitions into action. continue making progress on reaching the goals you've already started working towards. Begin changing the negative things by integrating new, helpful and healthy habits to replace the old habits that aren't working for you anymore.

5. Negotiate. As the old adage goes, Rome wasn't built in a day, so don't expect your life to change over night. Out of the top five items in each category, pick the first item in each category and start working on those first. When you accomplish one of the tasks on your list, find a way to reward yourself. Or predetermine what you think is a fair reward for completing each task so you have something to look forward to when you reach your goal. You can even adjust your priorities as you go down the lists. Life changes. Priorities change. But don't abandon things that you know you need to address. Again, easier said than done, but putting in the effort is the only way to accomplish anything in life. People rarely appreciate the things they didn't have to work hard for.

6. Gratitude. This is the most important aspect of this new take on "spring cleaning". This process must start and end with gratitude. Be thankful for whatever brings you joy. Be thankful for the lessons you've learned by the mistakes you've made. Express your gratitude for the strength you had to muster to accomplish the goals you outlined for yourself. If you make mistakes along the way, be thankful for those too. We are human. Failure is how we learn to solve problems more effectively in the future.

Take the word SPRING and apply it to your life. SPRING into a new you. Don't rush it. Enjoy the process. Take the time to give yourself the credit you deserve. None of us are perfect, and if we were, life would be pretty boring. Everything you're dealing with makes you who you are. We don't have control of everything in life, but we do have the ability to make better life choices. I hope this new perspective of "spring cleaning" helps you regain a sense of autonomy in these unpredictable times. No matter what you take away from reading this, know this, you are great. We are in this together. Be kind to yourself and others, and just keep trying. You've got this!