Don’t ever try to straighten up my office. You may see it as a mess, I see it as creative filing.

But I will admit to one thing. Not all that I keep is worth keeping.

Now, I would be the first to tell you that I didn’t always think that way. I was totally convinced for most of my life that I kept things for a reason.

Who changed my mind? I did. By mistake.

Permit me to attempt to describe my office.

As I sit here typing this message there is a small pile of paper on the desk in front of the monitor. Underneath the keyboard are some supposedly very important notes. They are highly classified and barely legible scribblings of utmost importance.

To the right of the monitor is another pile of paper and to the right of that sitting on top of the computer, still more.

On the very top of the computer desk are piles of cd’s, some music, some data. To the left are my reference books…”The New Dictionary of Thoughts,” Roget’s Thesaurus, a “Flip Dictionary” College Dictionary, The Possibility Thinkers Bible, Bartlett’s Famous Quotations and Roget’s Thesaurus of Phrases.

Above all of that, trinkets, treasures and stuff.

Behind me is a table filled with recording equipment, a Casio keyboard, I don’t know how to play, and two book shelves filled with books, tapes, and a gazillion stuffed animals mostly from McDonald’s Happy Meals.

So why am I telling you all of this?

One day we were having company over. They wanted to use my computer. I rushed upstairs and shoved everything from those neatly and creatively filed piles of paper into one shoe box. I closed it and shoved it into the closet.

That, my friend, was months ago.

So what?

I have never even opened that shoe box once since then. Which tells me that there was absolutely nothing of value in those piles of paper. Nothing I needed within reach while writing. Nothing I needed to complete a project I was working on. Nothing I needed that was so important that I was lost without it during that time.

Nothing I needed.

I just started piling up more stuff in its place.

Now, this isn’t a story about priorities. This isn’t a story about time management skills. It’s not even about the creative, messy mind.

It’s about life.

Your life. My life.

All the stuff we carry with us. All the things we hold onto that are so very important. All the garbage and baggage we drag along the road on the way to a better time, a better life, and freedom.

Freedom from what? Stuff!

Stuff we had to have, needed so desperately, couldn’t do without, can’t forgive or be forgiven, not worth anything now but if you hold onto to it long enough…stuff.

Stuff you could shove into a shoe box and place in the closet.

Stuff you can walk away from and never need to return to, ever again.

Anger. Resentment. Hatred. Drugs. Alcohol. Smoking. Hopelessness. Denial.

Go ahead, add your own to that list.

So why don’t we?

Because it takes work, commitment, dedication, will, faith, belief in self, change and yes I’ll mention it again…work.

Go get a shoe box and cut up a sheet of paper. Write down everything you would like to free yourself of. Include all of the burdens, fears, doubts, and issues that you cannot let go of and place them in the shoe box.

Mark the date and time you did this on top of the box and sign it.

Cut a small slit in the top of the box big enough to slip small pieces of paper through.

Tape the box closed.

Now stick it in the closet and promise yourself that you will never open it again nor will you ever mentally take anything from that box. Ever.

Give yourself time to let go and move on.

Every time you consciously think of one of those things write it down and put in the box.

Every time.

At night when you are lying there tossing and turning because you can’t let go of something, see yourself writing it on a paper and placing it in the box. Again and again.

But never see yourself taking from the box.

In a short period of time you will find that you are returning to the box less and less. You will begin to make the mindful decision to let go of something simply because it is not worth carrying any further.

The box? Hold onto it. When you are ready you will one day realize that all the big stuff that held you back, all the life challenges you thought would stop you in your tracks, all fit inside a shoe box.

You’ll say, “It’s nothing I needed.”

Bob Perks Bob@BobPerks.com