The Success Principles ~ Principle 28

I continue to be amazed at synchronicity. The Universe is really taking a hand in my life right now. I decided my focus this week would be tying up loose ends and clearing my plate of things that aren't serving me. Guess what Principle 28 is? Clean up your messes and your incompletes! Canfield argues that if you "don't complete the past, you're not free to fully embrace the present."

He explains that we only have so many "units of attention" and that all of those outstanding "things to do" are using up valuable units. He recommends doing a brain dump of all the activities you can think of that require completion and determining a strategy for each of them, then getting started. He also points out how things like clutter and irritants take up units of attention and that by removing them from your life you will be freed up energetically. And he also insightully shares that incompletes often represent an area in our lives where we are unclear. So true!

I recognize that underneath my renewed motivation to "complete" is a greater sense of clarity - about my self, my work and my priorities. As I recently felt the strain of an ever-filling self-imposed schedule, I started to get very conscious of just how much time I actually have. First I had that regular feeling of overwhelm and fear, like somehow I wasn't going to be able to find all the energy to do all the things I had committed to. Then I looked closer.

One of the things I had booked in was studio time for the Expressive Arts program I'm starting in a couple of weeks. Spending some time painting, exploring music, writing, choreographing or rehearsing - bring it on! No strain there. That registers as more energy to me, not less. And I booked in time for teaching Nia, which I am loving. And time for my husband, whom I adore. And there was a lot of delicious stuff, so I started thinking okay, what can I get rid of? And I began getting really rigorous. In my heart, I knew that I simply didn't want to spend time on anything that wasn't serving me or supporting me or that I wasn't wild about. There are so many wonderful people and gorgeous possibilities and amazing things to experience, I want to spend my time on those things.

And then the universe took over and helped make my decisions really clear. One of my Nia classes was garnering lots of interest and one, none at all. So I'm going where the energy is, committing to the one class and cancelling the other. I signed off on all the details today. And I had signed up for a practice-building program that I was finding really wasn't for me - bam, I took that off my plate. No agonizing. Simply cutting. And you know that I've been working on renovating my wardrobe for what seems like ages, right? I've made major progress on that (More about that later).

Once I got clear, decisions were easier. Once I got clear, the Universe helped me out. Now, I didn't have to be clear on every little detail. All I had to be clear on was "I want to spend my precious time on activities, things and people that support and inspire me, that I love deeply and that are magnificent."

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

Mary Oliver