My name is Nettie Owens. I’m with Sappari Solutions, creator of the Take Control System. I’m a certified professional organizer in chronic disorganization. This is not going to be very structured, so I hope you will just go with the flow with me. But I’ve got some things I wanted to share with you. The ideas that I want to share with you are a reflection of my experiences and my journey through 2016, that you might learn from what I’ve done.
So I’m going to take you back through 2016, because for me 2016 was a pretty tremendous year with lots of great things that were happening. That’s not to say that there weren’t a lot of challenges. I mean some pretty significant challenges that happened for me personally and just kind of like around me and the world. I don’t know if you felt this way too. But 2016 was somewhat unsettling.
Successes & Challenges in 2016 were unsettling to say the least.
There was a lot of anxiety about what might be happening next in people’s families, in their communities, and then like in their countries if you’re here in the United States. If your international there’s a lot of unrest and unsettled stuff, that was anxiety-provoking in 2016. So I’m acknowledging that happens and is still happening in 2017. But I want to talk about some of the good stuff that happened anyway.
So in 2016, it I started off with me making the decision to home school my children and actually take a step back from my organizing business. Very quickly I decided that I still wanted to home school my children, but I’m also going to dive right in to my business in a big way. Through that decision I was able to write and publish a book, trademark my Take Control System, changed the way that I price and packaged my services. I hired five people in the year. My organizing team changed and flowed in kind of an amazing way that I would have never expected at the beginning of the year.
I traveled in 2016 a whole lot more than I usually do, and I love to travel, so I was feeling really fulfilled in that way. In September I was recognized by the Institute for Challenging Disorganization as their volunteer of the year, a very prestigious recognition. That’s totally unexpected and felt so abundant and blessed to receive that recognition.
Feelings of abundance and blessings…
Goodness gracious, there’s more. I brought on 5 new people in 2016 to help my company grow. If you’ve worked with Sappari Solutions in-person services, you probably have worked with Mary, Amy, Jennifer, or Jane or Karen in the past couple of years, even Sam or Scott. We’re out there reaching people and people just like you trying to help them create an environment that supports their mind.
Another thing that came out of 2016 was my shift from “streamlining your life so you can live” to “creating an environment that supports your mind.” It felt so good and connected to be in alignment with what I am here to help you accomplish for yourself. I actually have a list of accomplishment for 2016 but instead I’m going from memory right now. That being said, those are only some of the big things that happened for me in my life and in my company in 2016.
On a more personal level, I celebrated 15 years of being married to my husband. I cannot forget that! That happened in September 2. All really great things!
Goals & Visions
Why am I sharing this with you? I’m sharing this with you because none of it happened by accident. We talked before about goals in organizing and we talked about vision. And these two things are actually really important aspects of organization to remember.
So part of what allowed me to do all of this stuff in one year was to see myself doing all that stuff, right, to imagine that all of it was possible. And when you imagine what’s possible you can create that reality for yourself because your brain starts thinking and solving problems and asking questions and going, “How could we make that work? How might that be? Who might we talk to to make that happen? How can we fit that into our schedule?” So I would encourage you to take some time to imagine the possibilities of where you’d like to go in your life, and I’m talking about organizing so you could think about how you’d like your space to be, what you’d like to have time to do, any of that. Just sit down for a moment and close your eyes, take a deep breath, and just imagine the possibility that lays before you, because there is so much possibility. There’s so much and it’s available to you.
Dreams need ACTION
The next thing is to begin to take some steps towards it. You don’t have to know how it’s all going to unfold. But you can at least start taking some steps. It may kind of feel like you’re walking in the dark at the beginning, but just trust that if you are moving in the direction of this greater vision that you have, that just by moving you’ll be able to figure out where the next thing, step, action is going to take you.
So setting a goal and saying, “Okay, I’m going to do an organizing plan. I’m going to sort out this particular drawer.” And it may seem really small, but again it just starts getting moving into that right direction and it will allow you to reach that vision that you’ve just imagined for yourself.
PLEASE share: (1) goal for 2017 organizing project & (2) your 2016 accomplishments
I know this is a little different than what I normally communicate, but I just felt really strongly that I wanted to share all of this with you. And what I really, really would love for you to do is I would love for you to comment as to what it is that you’re imagining. And also to share with me what you accomplished in 2016. Do not diminish anything, even if it seems like 2016 might have not have been your best year ever, something good happened. I assure you, something good happened.
If it feels like nothing good happened, I want you to think about that challenge and I want you to ask yourself the question – What good about that challenge? What did I learn from that? And put that down as your accomplishment for 2016.
So share with me two things – one your vision, your imagination, where you’re going, and two what you’ve accomplished. And I can’t wait to hear about it. I’m going to respond as you comment. So I’m signing off for now. Nettie Owens, Sappari Solutions and I can’t wait to hear from you.
You can achieve peace and calm 
It’s time to get out from underneath the clutter. And it is not just physical clutter that is holding you back from living the life of your dreams but the clutter in your schedule and your mind. The focus for you right now needs to be on identifying the issues, finding their source, letting go of that stuff that is holding you back. You need to set goals and prioritize around what it is you are trying to achieve and why that is important to you.
No comments yet.