CLUTTERFREEREVOLUTION

I am so grateful for the recent feedback I’ve gotten about my work. The funny thing about it is that I’m not telling anybody anything they don’t already know. I lead with it. I put it right out there before I do anything. I say, “Now, I’m not going to tell you anything you don’t already know.” You want the real truth? I am nobody special. I am just a guy. I enjoy what I do and revel that somehow it seems to resonate for people. From time to time I share my biased musings in t

It’s apparent that the ‘powers that be’ are not telling us everything there is to know. Our history is filled with horrific examples of the depths to which humans will go to acquire and hold power over perceived competitors. It is undeniable; our evolution as a species is squarely focused on the subjugation, eradication and domination of others. Those who serve as shepherds of integrity and kindness survive as beacons of hope and inspiration. But time and again, no matter the

Juniper was only three months old on her second real camping trip. My parents drove up from Phoenix for my first Father’s Day weekend and met us in the Lincoln Creek campground 11 miles outside of Aspen, Colorado. My dad and I went paragliding off Aspen Mountain; our women nervously watched us soar overhead and greeted us in a grassy field off North Star Preserve like soldiers home from war. That weekend we brought mountain bikes, climbing gear, a small raft, coolers, a guita

Let’s talk small business promotions. By promotions, I mean strategically positioning your product or service for the purposes of soliciting new and repeat business. It’s a simple concept. We have all experienced reasonably effective and embarrassingly disastrous methods in the fine art of self-promotion. When things go well, it feels simple, sensible sincere. When things flop, the entire experience can do more harm than good (insert cheesy used car ad here). With an increase

Like stinky cheese, obnoxious bosses come in two aromas: those blissfully unaware of their subtle smelliness, and those unapologetically stinking up the entire building. If you are employed, you probably have a boss. If you are a boss, understand the influence you have on the lives of your people. I do a fair amount of career counseling for local clients seeking greener pastures, so I get an earful about unpleasant supervisors. In 2012 USA Today reported that “seventy-five pe

I’m an efficient guy, so when I expend effort and energy I like to double down on results. That means I tend to look for simple methods that leverage benefits in many areas of life. After a debilitating on-the-job neck injury that culminated in the loss of employment at the end of 2011, I had to rest, recover and rebuild – everything. Repairing my body, starting a new business, restoring self-confidence, and striking swiftly with control and precision required poise; somethin

There are some things we know we do well. These things don’t feel like work, even when they require considerable effort. These things are fun and usually have inspiring effect on ourselves and those around us. These things spark curiosity, creativity and resolve. Business psychologist, Miriam Meima, describes these things as an individual’s unique genius. I have discovered that my unique genius is connecting individuals around some cooperative effort. For me, there’s nothing

Allow me to introduce the working mommy. You think you know her but I assure you, she is running circles around us, and it’s time we give her some due credit and more than just a little help. This elegant creature of style and poise does more before breakfast than most of us accomplish all day. The working mommy thrives behind the scenes, where subtle details comprise every nuance and time sputters in manic fits just long enough to get the kids up, dressed, fed, and out the d

What if the human brain evolved to sabotage our own thinking in order to keep us safely on the sideline and out of harm’s way? That is one premise of Jonathan Clark’s Mastering Performance three-day leadership workshop. Clark supposes that our brains evolved to keep us alive just well enough to procreate. But beyond reproduction, Clark affirms neuroscience proves human brains are hard-wired to react to two primary questions: 1) is this something I can eat, (i.e., an opportuni

Collectively, we have become obsessed with our happiness, or lack thereof. Like a single-serving dark chocolate square of fleeting fulfillment, happiness exists for many as an elusive possibility more than anything tangibly sustainable. Instead of simply choosing it, we search for it like lost keys in the clutter of our lives. It evades and seduces with irreverent flirtation, retreating just out of reach and into the grasp of others. And when suddenly, happiness reemerges, ou

Twice a year my family takes an inventory of our immediate assets. I don’t mean our investment portfolio. I’m talking about immediate access to life-preserving essentials: water, food, warmth, light, and basic first aid. The stuff we take for granted until we’re up the proverbial creek. We have seen alarming trends demonstrating how vulnerable we are to circumstances beyond our control. We’ve grown accustomed to relying on others to respond on our behalf. We’ve become so dist

I’m writing this from a partially reclined hospital bed on the lavish fourth floor of Valley View Hospital – on Thanksgiving Day. As I lay here with an intravenous antibiotic drip and a team of talented medical professionals tenderly attending my every need, I think about the deeper meaning of what I’m really doing here. The French poet Antoine de Saint-Exupery famously penned ‘perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to ta

As humans, most of us don’t take action until our pain becomes intolerable. Any of the following caricatures sound familiar? The stuff in your space has taken over your life. You are drowning in things you don’t want, like or need. The useless and irrelevant has cluttered your spaces to the extent that you no longer feel inspired to take corrective action on your own behalf. No matter where you look, you feel overloaded, disorganized, and dispassionate. You procrastinate and

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life

‘Storage’ is a specific concept with an ambiguous definition. Simply, it’s a means to hold something for future use. Without further description, that’s pretty vague – and when I work with my clients around their personal and professional storage systems, it shows. Clarifying what is worth storing and how has an important impact on understanding why we hold onto things in the first place. People tend to dump and cram ‘items for future use’ anywhere they can – without very muc

My favorite picture is a photo of myself on my first day of kindergarten, standing at the bus stop with my arm around my big sister. I’m wearing Magnum P.I. short shorts and striped soccer socks pulled up to my knees. I’ve got freckles, great big ears that stick out the side of my face, and a big sign around my neck with my name on it so the school knows which bus to put me on at the end of the day. Imagine a six year old Alfred E. Neuman with tinted prescription glasses. I’m

I recently saw a woman wearing a t-shirt sadly affirming, “I can’t brain today. I have the dumb.” I can relate, but at the time, I couldn’t decide if I was amused or offended. I’m sure I’ve learned somewhere that it’s impolite to make assumptions about a person solely on the basis of the captions on her clothes. But then it occurred to me that this shirt resonated with her enough to broadcast her ill-fated condition openly, as much an admission of guilt as a plea for understa

Sometimes I catch myself wanting things that others have. People do this. It’s called envy. The problem with fantasizing about what others have, is we tend to cherry-pick specific traits or possessions, and glorify them in isolation of the entire package. I think it’s healthy to admire, even strive to achieve and acquire what others already enjoy – but envy is a toxic irony that can leave us feeling deflated, rather than inspired to purposeful action. Sometimes I wish I had a

As a holistic organizer, I focus on four primary areas of life: spaces, systems, time, and content. My tag line reads, “Who we love, what we do, how and why we live – because everything else is just stuff.” So, I’d like to shed a little light on “who we love,” which I kind of lump in with systems – how we do what we do. Let's just call it parenting. My work with kids started with a master’s degree in education and a short-lived teaching career that evolved into program develo

In business, if our work is anything, it should be honest. People should feel a depth of sincerity that resonates in their bones. Musicians get this better than anyone. In just a few moments, a song can convey feeling, express emotion and communicate clarity with a universal power to open hearts and lift souls to new levels of inspiration. I think the magic formula for self-expression is good ol’ fashioned honesty, plain and simple. When we apply this level of heart to how we