48 | From This Day Forward
48 | From This Day Forward
As we conclude 2023 and usher in the New Year, I'm excited to introduce a concept that I use myself and with clients.: "From this day forward." This phrase becomes a deliberate boundary, separating past habits from the intentional choices shaping your future. Whether you’re organizing your home or establishing new routines, ‘from this day forward’ is a mindset shift that allows you to let the weight of the past go without the need for heavy judgment.
Please know that your consistent support and presence each Wednesday have been a gift, making launching this podcast one of my greatest joys this year.
Turn in and let's embark on this journey by bidding farewell to 2023, to old habits, and embrace a fresh start in 2024 together.
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Intro: Welcome to A Pleasant Solution, Embracing an Organized Life. I'm your host, certified life coach, professional organizer and home life expert, Amelia Pleasant Kennedy and I help folks permanently eliminate clutter in their homes and lives. On this podcast we'll go beyond the basics of home organization to talk about why a clutter-free mindset is essential to an aligned and sustainable lifestyle. If you're someone with a to-do list, if you're managing a household and if you're caring for others, this podcast is for you. Let's dive in.
Amelia: Welcome to Episode 48, “From This Day Forward.”
Welcome to the last episode of 2023. Launching the podcast this past February was one of my greatest joys this year. And I’m excited – knowing that we’ll be celebrating its one-year anniversary around Valentine’s Day. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening. Know that when an episode drops each Wednesday, I’m reminded of the gift you’re giving me by showing up and supporting the podcast.
So, let’s hear a few reviews to celebrate the end of 2023. Akb4588 shares, “Amelia has the most beautiful way of talking. Her voice is soothing, and she delivers a message peacefully. Her real-life advice is applicable and realistic! The message of ‘you’re more organized than you think’ really resonated with me. It’s always best to focus on what’s going right!” I will continue to express my belief in each of you and looking for what’s working is one way you can point your brain to the positives.
Annieg11 writes, “Listened to the newest one from today. I loved it. Amelia has such a great podcast voice, and I can feel her smiling while talking. It makes me (who had told myself I’m a pack rat for years) feel capable about being organized! Thank you for creating such a great podcast that’s short yet chock full of great info!” You’re the best, Annieg11.
So, on today’s episode, I’m going to share with you a thought nugget that I use when organizing my days and my brain, and it’s one that I share with clients who are wanting to build new habits. The phrase is: “from this day forward.” It seemed like a timely topic given that the New Year often sparks the “fresh start” feeling. It's a transformational time – one where you may be considering items, beliefs, or habits you’d like to leave behind – and deciding what beliefs or habits you’d like to build or deepen. Some of you may set resolutions or pick a word or feeling you’re aiming for. Birthdays are another “fresh start” time, as are Mondays or the beginning of a new month, so you can practice this strategy at any point where you’re aiming for a change. Throughout today’s episode I’ll give a few examples of areas where this idea may support your personal progress, and I’ll encourage you to look at where it might apply for you.
Alright. You’ve heard me talk about in other episodes how your past – your home environment, your relationships, the impressions you’ve received from others about your character – your past influences your choices today. Naturally, your brain defaults to thinking that you can’t do XYZ – like, let’s say, keep the bathroom countertop tidy or take a daily walk – because you haven’t built the habit. It’s a quiet voice that suggests that your past behaviors determine your future choices and behavior.
You’ve also heard me talk about how pausing to create awareness of your thinking is a simple, highly effective tool that empowers you to identify that you have a choice around what’s next. The concept I’m offering now – from this day forwards – builds on that exact moment. So, first, picture the micro-moment where you’ve combed your hair, put on a little makeup, brushed your teeth, and you’ve either placed all the items haphazardly on the countertop OR you’ve considered putting them back in the cute acrylic container that’s meant to hold the tools you’ve just used. When you move through your routine without intention, you most likely leave the items scattered on the bathroom countertop. Then, later, when you come back to the bathroom, hear the automatic voice that says, ‘Ugh – I should be tidier.’
The phrase I’m offering you – from this day forward – is the awareness statement you say yourself when building the intentional habit change. (Now, if the task or habit change isn’t a priority or important to you, wait to use this phrase until it is one.) Again, picture the moment where you’re wrapping up your routine. It’s at this moment that you remind yourself, “From this day forward, I’m putting the tools away. It takes one minute.” Yep. It takes one minute to put the tools away, yet the kindness you’re giving yourself is that it’s the action that you’re taking from this day forward is the one that matters. All the prior days are irrelevant. You can drop the feelings and judgment about who you were yesterday. The habit changes we desire to make ONLY matter in the present and in the future. The past has no place when it comes to habit formation or habit execution.
Another great place to use this phrase is with home organization projects or tasks that feel overwhelming or too large to make headway with. For example, photos or paperwork are big ones. ‘From this day forward’ acts as a barrier between the past and the future. It’s a conscious way of separating what you did before from what you’re purposefully choosing in the future. Right, so, most of us take a ton of photos. Some of them you post, some of them you value and share, but most of them languish as digital clutter. Now, I’m not saying you don’t go back and look at them; I’m just saying most digital photos don’t get used in any tangible way. Most of us aren’t great at creating folders, labeling, and filing them in a strategic way. If this rubs you the wrong way, if you feel like you’re always searching for photos or memories but can’t locate them easily, you might want to make a new habit or process for handling the excess.
Now, I’m not going to go down the rabbit hole of strategies for managing digital clutter, because that’s outside the scope of this episode. If you’d like to organize your digital photos or create family keepsakes, either send me a DM for an expert referral, or check out The Photo Managers website for a list of qualified photo professionals. What I would like you to take away, though, is that if you’d like to develop a small habit of deleting poor quality photos on a daily or weekly basis, the phrase, ‘from this day forward’ might be just the interruption your brain needs to get started on the new habit. First, find the time of your day that you’ll do the photo decluttering. For micro-tasks like this, I slot them in micro-moments of my day. Think while you’re waiting in the checkout line, carpool line, or waiting in the lobby of an appointment. Any time that you’re mindlessly scrolling or shopping online is a great time to declutter a few (or multiple dozen) poor quality photos.
To be clear, you’re not focusing on the 15,000 old photos. You’re focusing on decluttering the photos you’ve taken in the last week. You’re looking forwards in time by only concerning yourself with the very recent photos. You’re thinking about how when you take the next set of photos, you’ll declutter the average ones soon after taking them rather than letting them languish. The 15,000 old photos are a separate project that you can outsource, leave as a collective bunch, or make decisions about later. ‘From this day forwards’ is a way of separating the before from the future. The photos before are one set. The photos taken this past week and tomorrow onwards are the ‘from this day forwards’ photos.
Paperwork is another category that I hear folks complain is a burden. There are the piles and the stacks. There are the items to make decisions about and take action on, then there are the pieces of paper to be digitized and filed. I’m sure I’ll eventually record an episode of setting up a fluid paperwork system, but in the meantime, I’ll offer the idea of ‘from this day forward.’ With paperwork, it may be making one decision to take all the loose paper that doesn’t have an immediate or forthcoming deadline and sweeping it into a banker’s box. These are the “before” papers. You’ll get around to them. Now, if you just experienced a twinge of anxiety when I suggested placing the papers in a box, I’d invite you to get curious. How is lumping them in a box different from leaving them on the counter? (You’re welcome to leave the box within view if you easily forget things that are out of sight.) Explore whether the same reaction arises when you think about digital email versus physical paper. Email is often piled in a box too. But I digress. The key here is to identify your future habits. What will be the different actions you’ll take or different decisions you’ll make from this day forward?
For example, from this day forward will you assign sorting incoming mail to one person? Too many hands sorting the mail equals too many hands that disrupt the process of managing the paperwork. You’re more organized than you think, so this is one straightforward change you could make. Or, perhaps from this day forward, you’ll set aside 30 minutes a week to process the papers in your “in” basket. Perhaps you’ll designate a place for kids to put their papers and projects and look at them each day during dinner. Select one or two habits you want to build and give yourself full permission to let the version of you who did things differently alone. No shame. No judgment. You’ll make errors and mistakes again, and you’ll repeat the process of pushing pause on looking back and instead focus on looking forwards.
The last example I’ll give involves that daily inner dialogue we all have. My son is an elite soccer player. He’s had the dream of going pro since he was a little boy. He’s fourteen now. He’s put in a tremendous amount of daily work to stay focused, improve his ball skills, compete at a high level, and keep showing up, even when his inner dialogue says, “not today.” His journey could end at any moment. He could head in any number of directions, yet as of this recording, he’s still laser focused on what’s ahead. He doesn’t have the privilege of looking back because he knows that it doesn’t matter. What he did or didn’t do yesterday impacts today, but it doesn’t control today. It’s the decisions he makes today, and from this day forward that matters. The same is true in a soccer game. If his team scores or the other team scores, there’s a micro pause in the game. Great. Now the score is 2-1. That can’t be changed, except through future action. Future focus. Future decisions. In this scenario, it’s thinking like a goldfish… only a few seconds at a time then resetting one’s mindset to the future. It’s thinking that what matters is my future behavior more than anything. My present decision and future behavior become the new foundation or baseline. That’s the essence of my offering today. You always have the opportunity and choice to reset, from this day forward. It’s up to you to pause long enough to feel it. Have a glorious New Year, and talk to y’all soon.
Outro: Thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode. If you liked this episode and know of just one other person who'd get value from it too, I invite you to share it with them. I'd be more than grateful. I'd love to stay connected with you too. Make sure to follow this podcast to connect with me on Instagram @apleasantsolution and join my community at apleasantsolution.com. Talk to y'all soon and remember, you’re more organized than you think.
