From Christina - motivation

 

A card and envelope combo from Christina. Her choices with the western wear stamp are quite nice. I love the pattern on the back of the envelope. If she did the math to make it come out right, it was worth the time it took. Or maybe she was just lucky that it fit so nicely. I also like the orange, blue and teal pumpkins. They are asking to be saved and used on something else....

A.W. left a comment on the Nov 25th post wondering if I had tips for how to motivate one's self to do the Swedish Death Cleaning. She did not call it that. She referred to my post about helping my BigHBrother and SIL with their down-sizing. A.W. also mentioned that she had experience in helping others organize but was a bit stuck on getting around to her own *stuff.*

One of my favorite motivational quotes is:

We change our behavior when the pain of staying the same becomes greater than the pain of changing. Consequences give us the pain that motivates us to change.

For my brother and SIL, maintaining their current home was getting to be *a pain.* IMHO if people are still enjoying their current abode, it's hard to motivate changes within familiar surroundings. Downsizing necessitates a lot of change. 

Sometimes, people get motivated to organize (at a current abode) because they can't remember what they have. Pulling out everything and putting the like-items together can be a very good jolt to the system. Realizing how much there is of a particular item can inspire a person to part with a portion said items.

I do much better when I designate a space for something and do not allow any overflow whatsoever. It is still painful to part with things -- but, once they are gone, life usually goes on.

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I looked up the quote (to get it right) and it is from John Townsend and Henry Cloud - authors of self help books. I do not recall where I first heard the quote. I'm not familiar with them. I did notice that *how to get motivated* is a HUGE topic. I'm guessing I won't be coming up with anything that would be new or more effective than everything that is already out there.

I guess I can offer to make a house call to A.W. and reorganize your space. I have no idea who you are or where you live. My apologies if I know you -- but I just don't have your name attached to your *handle.* Is there another name for the alternative names that people use on the internet?