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smartwentcrazy

‘I have nothing to wear! I can’t believe it! ‘

I stomped out of my bedroom, glaring at my closet as I passed. I had an important appointment and had nothing to wear. How frustrating! And it was an important appointment, too. I had been invited to present my workshops at a large company in Vienna and I was nervous. Would I be able to sell myself? Would I find the right words? The closer the day of the appointment had come, the more nervous I became.

The feeling of doubt had slowly begun to creep into my mind. I wasn’t sure of myself anymore and this was making me very irritable

I went down to the laundry room to see if there was anything interesting down there. There were several t-shirts, a few blouses, a pair of slacks or two, but nothing good or interesting. Just old things that had pretty much taken up residence down there because they hadn’t been worn for so long. Their absence upstairs had, until today, gone largely unnoticed.

I went up stairs again, grabbed my tea and went back to my bedroom to have another look in my closet. There must be something I could wear. I wanted something serious and businesslike, but not too conservative. Something that showed open mindedness, but not too casual. But an old familiar feeling of nervousness crept up my back when I thought about the appointment. Darn it! I thought I had dealt with these issues ages ago! But this old doubt in myself, this self-uncertainty was evidently still there, and had been hiding in the back of my mind, and now it had come back out and sat in the middle of the room watching me.

Hadn’t I already worked on my self-confidence? Hadn’t I already found more constructive ways of thinking? This old self-doubt issue was certainly not going to help me be successful during my appointment. I needed to have access to a more productive and supportive belief.

I forced the closet doors open, pushing back a stack of old sweaters that threatened to fall out. I ran my fingers over the hangers which were wedged together like sardines in a can and extracted a white blouse with pretty stitching on the sleeves. Nope, that one didn’t fit anymore. I attempted to shove it back in, but no go. I hung in on the back of the door. I could hang it away later, when I had more time.

Next I pulled out a cream colored blouse with wide lapels. Naw, that one really wasn’t my look anymore. I hung it up with the pretty white blouse. I rummaged around a bit more and pulled 5 or 6 assorted blouses out. I rejected each one in turn – didn’t fit, wrong style, not my color anymore, out of date. This was getting difficult. I proceeded to the pants, hoping to have more luck there. After much digging, I found high-waisted slacks (yuk), tight leather jeans (not very businesslike) and slacks from old forgotten suits. Sigh. Was there nothing I could wear in here? It was hard to say because the closet was so full.

How frustrating. I couldn’t find anything. I had some nice clothes – I knew that, but I couldn’t find them and I needed new clothes, but I had no place to hang them. I had kept so much old hanging around that I couldn’t find a thing. I had to get rid of the old before I could find anything good or buy anything new.

Wow, I guess that’s really true.

I needed to get rid of the old clothing, and the old belief systems, before I could have, and use, new ones (and really call them my own). If the closet is full, you’ll never find anything and you have no room for new. Just piling new thing in on top of old, doesn’t leave you much room. Everything just becomes wrinkled, ruined or lost. First you have to throw the old out, before you can have room for (and find) the new.

Old belief systems, just like old clothes, hang in the closets of our minds and clutter our thoughts. We can’t really find positive thought patterns, supportive belief systems or nice pants if they are squished in too tight. My self-doubt, just like my old high-waisted pants, had been hanging around in the corners of my mind getting in the way of the new, more appropriate (and snazzier) self-confidence. I needed to take each piece out, the pants and the beliefs, have a good look at them and decide if they were worth keeping. Reducing the clutter in my closets and in my mind makes it easier to find the appropriate pieces for any successful appointment.

So if you’re finding your closets a bit too full of old clothes and your mind too full of old beliefs, then do what I’m doing – really throwing out the old (not just hiding it in the back), and making room for the new.

Happy un-cluttering,
Lisa

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