There is a woman on social media named Brogan who loves cleaning up hoarders’ houses for free. Seriously—she is SO happy doing it, and the level of emotional satisfaction she gets from seeing the results of her work gives me a serious case of FOMO.

Every time one of her Not the Worst Cleaner reels pops up, I watch in disbelief at two things: 1. That someone can live like that—the spaces she cleans are just—WOW—and 2. that there is someone who actually gets joy out of cleaning up all of that mess (which I would run away from).

Brogan has taught me a lot, and here are my takeaways:

First, she says that people who live in hoarding situations are often overwhelmed by decision-making. Making decisions takes energy, and when you’re struggling with mental illness—or simply overwhelmed by the state of things—even deciding what to make for dinner can feel like too much.

Second, her approach is brilliant: She works in four-foot-by-four-foot sections. That’s it. She says people look at a hoarder’s house and throw in the towel before they even begin. But section off a four-foot area and BOOM—suddenly the overall task feels manageable.

Next, she says our brains lie to us. A four-foot section that someone assumes will take an hour, she can power through in ten minutes. Brogan can completely clean a large room filled with hundreds of bottles, cat waste, and 10 years’ worth of dirty clothes in a matter of hours.

Finally, do what you love. To her, cleaning up these spaces is not work—it’s a labor of love. She does it for free, and she’s been doing it for five years. Now she has over 4 million followers on Facebook, but that is the result of her hard work, not her motivation for doing it.

Lately, I’ve been feeling like I’m in liminal space, which is a little like being in a mental hoarding situation. For me, my thoughts are like the objects in a hoarder’s house. Prioritizing which idea is worth keeping and which one should be trashed is difficult, so I try to hold on to all of them—which is exhausting and nonproductive.

Like someone who desperately wants to live in a clean house but doesn’t know how to get there, I have a big goal: I want people to understand their power to create. Because this is an emotional journey, I’ve started borrowing Brogan’s approach. I’m giving myself short projects that I love doing, with absolute boundaries—my own metaphorical four-by-four space.

For example, last week I wrote a children’s book called The Monsters’ Tea Party, which teaches kids how to deal with their big feelings. The inspiration to write it hit me while I was picking up a rotisserie chicken at Costco. At this point in my life, I’m old enough to know you’ve got to bottle those inspirations as soon as they hit, or you will lose them to the ethers—so I pulled out my phone and recorded the story right there in the middle of the meat aisle. The story is a small thing, but it feeds the larger narrative of what I am trying to do.

Then I set a goal of reaching out to ten literary agents on Sunday.

Unlike Brogan, I tend to underestimate how long things will take.

Querying ten agents, I thought, would take half an hour. Instead, it took a couple of hours. But it’s a project I enjoy, so it was fun for me. And when it was done, I got the dopamine hit of crossing it off my to-do list.

Alcoholics Anonymous has a few sayings I’ve always liked: “One day at a time.” “Keep it simple.” “Progress, not perfection.”

When the space we occupy—whether physical or mental—feels murky and overwhelming, taking one step we enjoy at a time may be all we can do.

So if the world is feeling heavy for you right now, find your own metaphorical four-foot-by-four-foot space.

Pick something you can actually do, finish it, and let yourself enjoy the feeling of progress.

It doesn’t have to be big or perfect. It should, however, be aligned with your greater vision for yourself. Reading a romance novel or playing video games is not what I’m talking about here.

Brogan found something that gives her enormous personal satisfaction while bringing order to a chaotic physical world.

For me, bringing order to the chaos of the emotional world is fun and satisfying.

What is fun and satisfying for you?

Next week I will be sharing an interview I did with Jeremy Schifeling on his book  Unbreakable: How to AI-Proof Your Job Search, Career and Future
He is a LinkedIn + AI Trainer and amazing. 
We had a great conversation on how to leverage AI to find your strengths, develop your resume, and exponentially improve your career. There is so much information in this interview. 

Not sure what is fun and satisfying?  Well, do I have something for you! 

I would love to see you here. It's FREE
Dream Lab on September 30 at 7:00 pm the Chapel Hill Public Library

Sign up at www.wethepeoplerise.info