What hinders you?

As you know I was not doing so good with my 15-minutes desk de-cluttering task. (See here and here). What do you think I often find myself doing? Going on the internet! Just like Elizabeth @ Ready.Set.Simplify commented, there is just so much to learn...

Recently, I  has been consumed by the information on Unschooling and Home-schooling and whether or not we are doing the right thing by sending them to public schools.

A little earlier, I occupied myself with TED Talks.

When my little girl was smaller, it was cloth diapering that I tried to look into and later started. I also spent a lot of time reading up on Elimination Communication. Any blogs on green, environmental friendly and natural living information will get my attention. Blogs on Leadership was also very interesting.

The list go on and on.

Not to mention the occasional shopping bug that itch me to go on Amazon.com and the likes.



Running the Race

All these websites, videos and email groups are interesting, strike a cord with my values, help me evaluate my life if I am living a way that align with my value. But, unfortunately, they are distracting for me to become clutter-free. Just as Dave Ramsey put it, you need to have "unbelievably fierce, focused intensity" to get out of debt. It is about our willingness to work and sacrifice.

This is not to say that clutter free is more important than learning to live my life the right way. Quite the contrary, clutter has been hindering me to live the life that was meant to be. Not only did it mess up our space, it messes up our schedules and our minds.

The Bible says in the book of Hebrews 12:1,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

How ironically, literally true are the words "throw off everything"?

Instead of reading up on cooking from scratch, making my own detergent, or composing our garbage, I should throw off this baggage of clutter so that I may actually try all those things with my hands, not with my head. So that I may try all those things without a sense of guilt that keeps telling us we have all these other things undone.

Let's put things into perspective.

I desperately needed to declutter, because it hinders me. It is not the goal. But for now, I need to put my energy to focus and work hard on it so that clutter could not hinder me from running "the race marked out for us".

Let's put aside catching up on information a little bit. And. Get. To. Work.

I am writing this not because I think you needed to be encouraged. But because, I needed to be encouraged.

See you on Saturday.