Happiness Project: Creating My Theme

"Your image will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens." __Carl Jung

This is the quote that Julie Morgentstern opens chapter two of her book SHED. This chapter directs you to name your theme before diving into the process of organizing your life. It makes sense that you should first find your purpose before chucking all of your possessions so you know your direction or you will find yourself doing this all over again a year from now. I have done that and I am really tired of this process. It takes a lot of time and energy-time and energy that can be spent doing more enjoyable things.
The first step in doing this is to take the time to figure out what your theme has been-If you could put a label on it what has the past 5 or 10 years  been about. It took me awhile to figure this out. I feel like I am constantly in a state of change-A make-up artist, a mother, a student, a docent, a teacher, a business owner. Thinking about this made reflect on why am I always going in different directions. Do I have A.D.D? Why can't I stick to one thing and why am I never satisfied. After days of thinking about this I had an epiphany. I have spent the last 20 years of my life trying to prove myself-to others but mainly to myself. I save mementos from all of these accomplishments afraid to throw them away for fear of forgetting and losing the pride I feel when look at them. I save all of the cards, drawings, notes and letters from my art students. I save all of the pictures taken from photo shoots that I have worked on, I save thank you notes from friends, newspaper clippings and encouraging notes from my art museum classmates.
I decided at that moment that the past theme was : Proving

Julie Morgenstern recommends thinking of an opposite word for your next theme and I couldn't really come up with one, but what I did decide is that it would be a lot more fun to experience things without the pressure of trying to excel at them-just experience and enjoy. So that is my theme-Experience!

SHED

There are those of us who have the natural ability to keep our lives organized-they only have one calendar, they don't have to throw something away in order to find a place for something new and they can find anything they are looking for in a matter of seconds...I know, I would not have believed it either if I hadn't married one of these people. One of my husbands favorite sayings is "theres a place for everything and everything in it's place" and surprisingly he has avoided death for the past 20 years (I pick my battles).
Don't get me wrong I truly admire and yearn for the gift of organization but I don't have it naturally. I am great at organizing but it comes when things are out of control and I have to spend way too much time to accomplish the task and it never sticks. I have purchased organizing books in the past but I needed to try something different.  I found a book called SHED your Stuff, Change Your Life. The idea behind SHED is that by releasing your attachments to obsolete, tangible items in your space and schedule, you will gain the energy, insight, and clarity to make decisions about the big stuff.
So as part of my month of organize my way to happiness I am going to employ the help of Julie Morgenstern and her book SHED.
Step one is a SHED profile Analysis-an online analysis that can be completed for free on www.juliemorgenstern.com I completed the survey and here is the analysis:
     My identity is wrapped up in my attachments.I worry that heaving objects will cause me to forget who I am and what I have done. My identity has been defined for so long by outside sources.

That done-My next step: Creating my theme.