Lighten Your Load

Do you feel like a pack mule carrying around a heavy load? It is no wonder we are always exhausted with the load most of us carry. It's not only the physical stuff we carry but also the emotional and mental load of the stuff we carry in our heads. Everyday when I go to work I see people burdened down by backpacks, briefcases, laptop cases, purses, bags, rolling carts and more! Why is everyone always carrying so much stuff? Maybe you job is such that you have to take all that paperwork home with you every night. But do you work on it or are you too exhausted? So then what happens? You carry it back to work the next day! We bring laptops home to work on them but do we? You carry your workout clothes, water bottle, cd's, books, extra shoes and a ton of other stuff "just in case". Ask yourself how you would feel if you didn't have all this stuff with you everyday?

How is your home? Lots of stuff there too? Are you a pack rat saving things for a rainy day? Magazines stacking up for the day you have time to read them? Clothes hanging in the closet that you haven't worn in years? Boxes of stuff packed away that you don't even know what is them anymore? Junk mail piling up on the counter?

Having lots of stuff around you clutters your mind. It starts to overwhelm you and you don't know where to start. You start to worry about it, what to do with it, where to put it. Pretty soon you can even think about it anymore and then it just continues to get worse.
Then there is the emotional baggage you might be carrying. Anger, depression, financial concerns, relationships, employment can all add to an already heavy load. If you start to deal with these issues you may find it is easier to deal with the other clutter in your life. At the same time you may find getting rid of the physical clutter will help your emotional and mental load.

Start to lighten your load by making a list. What is the number one thing you could do to lighten your load? Next outline the steps you need to take to start reducing the clutter in your life. Break it down into small steps such as cleaning out one closet, not the whole house. Sell off, giveaway or throw out the stuff you no longer need. Have a garage sale or sell off stuff on ebay. Use the money you earn for treating yourself to a day at a spa. Make a vow not to keep carrying the same stuff back and forth to the office.

Once you start to lighten your load you will feel like you have more energy, clearer thoughts and a happier outlook on life. You will no longer have to worry about all that stuff that has been cluttering your life. You will find you can travel farther in life with a lighter load. 

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Motivational Speaking - Stuck in the Middle with All of You

Why do we need structure? Why does the desire for the cubicle life consume us all? What is it about money and the white picket fence that dismantles our dreams, destroys our imagination and devalues the sense of adventure in people? 

From the time we enter kindergarten until the time we exit college we are poked and prodded and led in the direction of the average; of the middle-class. Athletic dreams are squashed at an early age save the very few exceptional talents, artistic pursuits deemed unnecessary unless you are the second-coming of Picasso or Shakespeare, traveling and seeing this incredible world first hand is to be put off in favor of your "education" and "real life". 

There is such an immense aversion to failing that in an attempt to shelter our children from the pain of it, we, as a society, encourage them to be average, conservative, and just like everyone else. It's as if we believe by setting our goals low enough we can all achieve perfection but perfection is not interesting. Being faulty is. Symmetry is not as exciting as asymmetry and straight is not as fun as winding. 

Where's the adventure in going to school, studying all the time to get your meaningless to anyone, but yourself, "A" average, getting a job, making a good salary, raising two kids with your wife and dying after your retirement in Florida? 


My uncle spent eleven years traveling through Europe and Africa before coming home after getting sick in India - that man has stories to tell. What does Joe in accounting have? Tabloid headlines.

People end up living their lives vicariously rather than accomplishing their goals by themselves. The worst example of this is sports parents pushing their kids, for their own personal glory, to the point of hating the sport they're playing. Sure your kid may be a champ at fifteen, but when he's a nervous wreck who can't hold a steady job or find a girlfriend who can tolerate his constant bouts of depression we'll see how proud you are of your accomplishments then.

What good is an imagination if you don't believe in it or dreams, if you don't attempt to follow them? And what's so scary about failing anyway? I do it all the time and it always makes me more interesting and more intelligent. Sure, it's uncomfortable sometimes: awkward situations, apologies for mistakes, but so what? No one can go through life without being uncomfortable ever, so why make such a fuss about it. I say develop some ideals, see the world, turn off your TV, turn on your mind and live life.

And if you get all-in with bad cards have the guts to ante up again and play another hand cause who knows this time it might be rockets. 

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