We hope that you had a Fun & Relaxing Labor Day Holiday!
I took a little break from social media for the past few weeks, so I hope that you’ve begun to tackle your closet and you are breathing a little easier. My break should have also given you a little more time to complete the two most difficult steps of the process, which were Sorting and Purging. Today we’re going to work on Organizing, the final step of the organizing process and to me, the step which is the most Fun!
We are in the homestretch of this journey and again, I ask that if you have any questions, concerns, ideas or suggestions along the way, simply leave us a comment.
“Stay With Me… We are going somewhere”! As we reflect on our past, we must anticipate revelations for our future. I believe that the turning point for us to find Order in the continuous chaos, is realizing that the one and only thing that we can change are ourselves. One day, I heard a missionary say, “it is not how the situation looks, it is how we look at the situation”. Now is the time for us to take a real serious look at what we want and need in life. Now life is not perfect, nor should we expect it to be, but there should be some semblance of Peace and Order.
Take a few moments to invest in our future. Jot down some notes about our life as we know it today…. we might be amazed at how our life looks on paper!
Take a look at those things that we would like to see changed, Big and small.
Does clutter in your physical environment of any kind, have an impact on those changes? We will talk a little more about this next week…
Remember, it is very difficult to change something, without understanding our current state and our desired outcome.We must keep moving forward!
I pray that you have found some time to pause, so I decided to reshare my eBook, which is an easy read. We hope that you will find a word or two that may encourage and or enlighten.
It’s Official! Today is the Day that my first eBook is available to the public. My true testimony is not in the box itself, it’s what the Lord taught me through the experience of writing the book. I pray that you find something that will touch you and bless you in some small way. Here’s another small excerpt… I hope you enjoy!
Chapter Two: LIFE IN CORPORATE AMERICA con’t.
Me and Brother Dominique (Xerox mascot, year ? )
In the midst of my personal challenges, life at Xerox continued. Officially, I was a customer service representative and I spent all day on the phone taking requests for service manually, with pencil and paper. We were rated on our neatness and accuracy, which was right up my alley. I was really good at my job, but within 18 months, I was hit from behind by technology. But why, I asked? Things were fine just the way they are. I won’t take you through the gory details of what it took to maneuver from a strictly paper process into this new world of computers, but it was not pleasant. It was just not fair my life was now turned upside down. I can’t do this, I thought to myself. Don’t they know how disruptive this is… it’s hard to breathe! I can’t function in this chaos of change. But ultimately, I discovered that I was not going to let this wave of new technology get the best of me. I was still young and I should be able do this. It just may be a little different from what I’m used to. Well, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Now, as if that wasn’t traumatic enough, as I was making this transition into this new world of technology, I found myself on the fast track into the realm of management.Was I destined to be a “them”? There were tons and tons of manuals of policies and procedures to read that were very interesting, not really. At the time, I really didn’t know what being a manager really meant. For the moment, it would be more money and more responsibilities. But I found that it was even more than that. I’d have an opportunity to develop my own plan on how my team would operate. I would be able to strategize and maximize the talents of my employees to achieve the success of my team, my way, I thought.I would be able to establish order in the chaos. All I had to do, by definition, was “to get the people together to accomplish desired goals and objectives using available resources efficiently and effectively. This was again right up my alley. These were mature adults that I had worked with already and they know how to do the job. I thought to myself that this is going to be fun, again so I thought.
Within two years, I was a manager, but what I quickly discovered was that people don’t always do what they are supposed to do, even when they know how to do it. One day, my manager’s manager called me in the office and I knew immediately that there was a problem. Apparently, 2nd level management felt that I was “too defensive” with regards to justifying my actions and those of my team, among other things. I was devastated! I wanted to scream or yell. I really just wanted to cry. I must admit that I really didn’t like feeling as though I’d failed. Were they supposed to be smarter than me, just because they had more experience than I? Or was it simply that they were better at creating chaos? At least, that’s what I thought at the time. As I look back, God knew better and my demotion was in order, even if I didn’t know it at the time.
Let’s skip ahead to the year 1984 and I’m in the midst of my own real life of chaos and disorder and I’m about to get married, which added a whole new dimension to the equation. We’ll talk more about that little later. In the midst of the turmoil of this period of growing and maturing, I began to discover that sometimes our steps are ordered in a way that we don’t always understand. We have to take a step and He will order the next. Little did I know this revelation would play a huge part of my future?
As I was preparing content for my blog and most recently for my new eBook; Order, Organize & Obedience, my lovely daughter, Mya, had agreed to write “TheOrganizing Story” for me. In addition, this story is a great lead in for my 2nd Annual Order Your Steps Women’s Workshop: DeClutter Your Mind, Coming in April. So please allow me the pleasure of presenting to you, none other than my own daughter, Ms. Myiesha.
Although she is not aspiring to become a world renowned author, she has been an avid writer since she was ten and self-published her first book “Last Look Back” at the age of 21. Myiesha is currently attending Graduate School at University of Maryland pursuing a Master’s degree in Library Sciences. Shehas also graciously agreed to pen “The Organizing Story”, a creative work of fiction to further illustrate the Psychology of Clutter.
So without any further ado, enjoy “The Organizing Story”….
“I’d like to explain how I work”, Rhonda said. She was having a sit-down with her newest client, Mariah Kellar. Rhonda is a professional organizer and usually liked to have a conversation before she began. “But first, would you consider yourself an organized person?” She asked Mariah.
Mariah took a moment to think about it. “Um,” She said. “I don’t know…yeah…maybe…yes! Definitely yes~”
Rhonda smiled at the woman’s indecisiveness. She was used to people being unsure about their organizing habits. After so many years as an organizer, she had seen people at every level of organization and she knew how to effectively help them proven in her 100% success rate. The reason for her success was simply because she was no normal organizer. “Organized? Well, there’s only one way to find out,” She said. “Let’s have a look see, hmm?”
Mariah was confused. “I don’t think I understand.”
“Give me your hand,” Rhonda said. Mariah eyed Rhonda warily, but put her hand in Rhonda’s anyway. “Please take a deep breath and close your eyes.” Mariah did as she was told. She was beginning to get worried that her time was being wasted. Rhonda was known as the best in her field, but for what Mariah was paying, she wouldn’t be able to afford it if Rhonda was wasting time. A few minutes passed and it seemed that nothing was happening. Mariah opened her left eye to take a peek, but to her surprise, Rhonda was gone.
“Wait, where’d you go?” Mariah asked, looking around annoyed. She definitely deserved a refund if all Rhonda was going to do was play hide-and-seek.
“I’m in here,” Rhonda yelled. She added, “And I don’t appreciate that last statement, I don’t do refunds. Good Lord, it’s a disaster area in here.”
“What?! Where’s here?” Mariah asked.
“I’m in your mind, Mariah, and I’ve got to say, you’re not organized at all,” Rhonda said.
“How can you say that? I’m not perfect, but I’m not a slob.”
“I know better than that. Just because you look organized on the surface doesn’t mean you’re an organized person. If the state of your mind is of any indication, I have my work cut out for me. Goodness gracious, when’s the last time you cleaned up in here?”
“Well, excuse me.” Mariah replied. “I’m not really sure how to clean up something I can’t get to. Besides you don’t understand, I’ve got a LOT going on”
“Good thing you called me then. You see, organizing begins in the mind. You need to get your mind in order first before you can begin organizing your space. You have to start getting rid of the things you’ve been holding to. Pick your priorities. Pick what’s really important to you and just let go of the rest.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
Rhonda chuckled. “It’s not, but it has to be done. I can’t organize your area if your mind is cluttered with things you don’t need. If I don’t start with your mind, it makes my job a lot harder because there’s no guarantee you’ll keep up with the order. If there’s no order to your brain, I’d be wasting my time organizing the rest of you. Does that make sense?”
“Yeah,” Mariah said and she understood how Rhonda became the best.
“Excellent,” Rhonda said, rolling up her sleeves preparing for the feat ahead of her. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”
Available for Pre-order, scheduled for release in June, 2019.
As I mentioned briefly a few weeks ago, my new eBook, Order, Organize and Obedience is a tale spanning four decades of my journey with God to find order in the chaos of my life. It begins in August of 1979, as I’m returning to DC from Austin, Texas, after only five months. I will take you through my life in Corporate America, into my life as a wife and mother and all that I learned along the way. I had always known of God, but I never really knew God truly for myself. Over time, I have realized that my steps have always been ordered by Him through the good times and the bad. This can especially be seen as I recount how the Lord orchestrated my leap of faith culminating into the birth of Order Your Steps. Order Your Steps was not only a business, but a ministry that God had ordained for me. He has not only allowed me to share God-given gifts and talents, but to also be able to share His Word through my testimony, which you will find a few sneak peaks in my blog over the next few months.
As my story begins, it’s Monday, September 17th, 2018 and I’ve been up since 7 am. It’s now a little after 8:30 am and I’m finally here! I’m sitting in front of my computer, ready to start the writing of my book, but now what? Where do I start?
Early on, during the inception of my own professional organizing business/ministry, Order Your Steps (I’ll explain more about that later), one of my objectives was to write a How-to-Organize eBook. I started to write a blog entitled Finding Order in Corp USA. Its primary purpose was to share my life at Xerox, as a backdrop to owning an organizing business. But what I discovered was that people were more interested in me and my mission, versus learning just about my career and organizing. So as Order Your Steps continued to evolve, I focused on my blog posts and the eBook took a backseat. But now I believe that the book has taken the forefront and I’ll try to explain why.
Have you ever been in the midst of a God Set-up? You probably have, but you just didn’t know it at the time. I’m realizing that I’ve had numerous Set-ups throughout my life, but let’s just talk about this year, for now. I’ll give you a little backstory how this particular Set-up unfolds. My last organizing session with a client was on September 7th. So, a few days in, I decided that God was giving me a period of rest, which He’s done before. So I didn’t really worry… at first. I just started to look forward to my next scheduled appointment, which would have been the 12th of September. But then, as the 12th got closer, the client rescheduled, and then another client rescheduled and then another. Now, I must admit that I was becoming a little concerned.
Interestingly enough, Order Your Steps turned 7 years old on Sept. 13th and the number 7 in the Bible represents “Completion”. I knew in my spirit, with an assurance that Order Your Steps (OYS) wasn’t over, but that we had entered our year 8, our Year of New Beginnings. Since 2018 began, I felt that my business/ministry was evolving into its next phase. In a few days, I’ll be 62 and I must say that although I really truly love my job, it has always been rather labor intensive, i.e. walking lots of steps, lifting boxes, carrying clothes, etc. etc. etc. So you can understand that now that I’m 60’something and to be truthful, even when I was 50’something, I’ve needed periods of rest from time to time. The Lord would always provide His strength and stamina and then He would set aside a time of rest. However, it’s now 11 days in, with very few client organizing sessions on the calendar?! I don’t believe that I’ve ever had 11 days straight without an appointment, that I can remember. God always had another client on the horizon, seemingly coming out of nowhere … Thus, the Set-up!! There’s obviously, maybe not so obvious at first, something that I should be doing, during this “time of rest”.
September has been a rather interesting month thus far and I’m acknowledging the push from the Holy Spirit to do something productivity, so I’m writing my book. I’ve realized that even when God says “Be Still”, He doesn’t mean for us to stop moving!
Available for Pre-order, scheduled for release in June, 2019.
My graphic designer, Inked Designs by Elayna, and I discussed a few different concepts, however, Elayna had suggested a bull’s eye from the start. Initially, I was a little concerned that it may not fit with the theme of the book and then the Holy Spirit led me to this scripture:
My question: What are God-worshipers like?
Your answer: Arrows aimed at God’s bull’s-eye.
They settle down in a promising place; Their kids inherit a prosperous farm. God-friendship is for God-worshipers; They are the ones he confides in. If I keep my eyes on God, I won’t trip over my own feet. Psalm 25:12-15 – The Message (MSG)
It was interesting to discover that this scripture was the basis for my book for the beginning. The Lord continues to show me how to worship Him for who He is. I must focus only on Him for guidance and direction and He will always Order my steps. This journey has been and will always be about what He wants of me, much more than what I want from Him for me.
Order, Organize & Obedience is a tale spanning four decades of my journey with God to find order in the chaos of my life. It begins in August of 1979, as I’m returning to DC from Austin, Texas, after only five months. I will take you through my life in Corporate America, into my life as a wife and mother and all that I learned along the way. So please join me on my journey of Order, Organize & Obedience, with all the twists and turns, up and downs. As a bonus feature, there’s organizing tips too.
Available for Pre-order, scheduled for release in June, 2019.
The year 2018 is now only days away! I’d suggest that we take just a quick glance back over 2017 and see how much our lives have changed. The things that we’ve accomplished … or not, are totally dependent on our perspective! However, we’ve experienced almost 365 days (over 8,000 hours) of life, some days were challenging and others enlightening, but I pray that we have lived EVERY day to it’s fullness!
As a NEW year approaches, we must look beyond the Chaos of the world today and continue to focus to establishing more Order in our lives day by day. In spite of what we see, we should move forward with Purpose, Determination and Expectation!
I believe that we will continue to experience a “Shifting” in our lives in 2018. Shifting is defined as changing, especially unpredictably.
IF we…
Keep our eyes open, so that we can avoid the distractions and move the barriers.
Walk through the doors that the Lord opens, but don’t try to push through the doors that He closes.
Plan for success, but don’t give up if we fail. Just get up and TRY again!
Organize along the way (I am a professional organizer :-D) and Stay on Track…
It was very interesting looking back on my post from the First year(s) in Review of Order Your Steps! We are now going into our 7th year and it’s been an AMAZING journey, thus far.
Here are a few highlights:
YES! The job is still VERYlabor intensive ! 😦
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I still LOVE my job!
I’ve seen 100+ clients….
My most recent testimonial…
When I told my husband that I would be hiring a Professional Organizer to help me organize our home office, he thought it would be a total waste of money. I, however, was desperate. I couldn’t walk into my office without climbing over heaps of paper and other random items. The documents had been piling up for almost ten years and the office space was totally unusable. READ MORE: A Client’s Perspective II
I’ve written over 300 WordPress blog posts, over 900 followers, including Facebook and over 20,00 hits.
One of my first WP post and the most LIKED!
The Lord has opened doors that may not have been opened otherwise. Selling was not in the plan?? But working for ShelfGenie was truly a Blessing! I resigned from ShelfGenie last June. Unfortunately, it had become my “safety net”!?!? However, Arline, the former franchise owner and I are still the best of friends! The Lord always has a purpose, although one that we may least expect.
The Lord continues to provide me with a steady flow of OYS clients… and that one client that was my most difficult back in 2012 taught me the most about being about business! The experience will always serve as a LESSON LEARNED!
I am sooo excited about what my SEVENTH year will hold. I am in awe of what God has done. He continues to allow me to touch the lives of the people that He has ordained. This is about SO much more than money, it about ministry!
“I’m too busy to get organized!”REALLY?!?!? ……That’s makes absolutely NO sense! OK, I need to calm down… BUT, people just don’t understand that if we would take the time to get organized and put some semblance of Order into our lives, then we would have more time to enjoy what’s really important in life!
Let me explain… It is my true belief that disorder & clutter has a psychological effect on our productivity, stress level and overall state of mind. As we enter another new year, things are hectic (as usual) and sort of out of control (again!). Therefore, some of my clients are simply TOO BUSY for our organizing sessions and have postponed, in some cases, until the Spring …. which is kinda ok, IF we resume in Spring. It is so frustrating for me, because I have seen their spaces and I know that if we could just get to Ordered Chaos, their lives would be so much better.
We must ask the questions, Are we just TOO busy to take a moment to breathe, Too busy to spend quality time with the ones we love or Is everyone on the run all the time?? Ultimately, life is too short and time is too precious to let it pass us by. All I am asking is that we come out of the forest and see the trees …
For us to say that we are TOO busy to organize, is an oxymoron. “What will it truly take to get our house in Order?” Don’t try to eat the elephant, we can only take one small bite at a time…. the papers on the dining room table, our home office with files stacked high, the kids’ closet, the daily morning routine, family mealtime after work, or even finding quiet time(what’s that?!?!?)
Well, my moment of frustration has passed. It means so much to me to help you to get there(?), whereever your Order is.It’s so logical to me. I see it so clearly inmy mind’s eye. But I know that it is not an easy task. It is extremely difficult to convey the concept of Divine Orderto those that are in chaos. But I will NOT give up! I will continue to chip away at the clutter and disorder, one life at a time. It is just that important to me. It is my mission, it is my calling. So, March, April, and even May will get here soon enough….and hopefully, by then, at the very least, we will be able to see the trees!
Finding Order in Chaos 