The word “purse” has a lot of connotations.

For my little sisters it means “cute-bag-that’s-just-for-looks.” For Mothers with young children it is a “diaper-bag-with-my-wallet-inside.” At our high school, purses are an accessory that you change when you change your outfit. In Old English, a “purse” represents a sum of wealth.

My purse is not for looks, it never changes, and it definitely doesn’t represent wealth.

 This 20 pounds of goodness puts Mary Poppins to shame.

But honestly, it’s embarrassing.

Sure, it’s nice to always be the girl with the tweezers, the dental floss, the extra bobby pin, the spanking stick, even the extra car toy and toothbrush. But anytime someone carried my purse…

“Wow! This is heavy!”

My closer friends…

“What the heck is in here, Katie?”

I felt like a premadona.

People probably thought I was a millionaire, had every make-up product in Nordstrom, or carried a rock in my purse. Even I wondered why my purse felt like the proverbial millstone around my neck.

I carried it (or had others) carry it around for one whole weekend before I unpacked to find a family-sized (eleven-children-and-two-parents-family-sized) lotion bottle in the bottom, and two family-sized jugs of make-up remover . . . 

Last week, our whole house was in a frenzy because deodorant was nowhere to be found. You can imagine our desperate search since eleven people work-out in our home and we live thirty minutes from the nearest deodorant replacement option. Three days after the search began, I opened my purse for a stick of gum. You guessed it, not one, but three deodorants. The family didn’t know whether to be mad or hug me to death. (At that point, I preferred the first option. No hugs until deodorant application please!)

So, what’s the point, you’re asking. You have purse problems. So what?

You’ve got purse problems. That’s what.

Maybe they aren’t like mine, but most of us have something bogging us down in life. What are you carrying around and putting up with because you don’t want to deal with it? Are you like me, unaware that fifty dollars of change is holding you down.

DEAL WITH IT!

I don’t pretend to be a wise counselor, a personal coach, or an inspiring writer. But, I’ve experienced the power of all three, and I’m here to pass on the wisdom.

Stop procrastinating. 

The sad thing is, I hauled around that purse for months . . . no, literally years before I decided to clean it out. We’d rather waste valuable time and energy putting up with what is, than taking active steps to change it. Are you scared of what you’ll find? I’m sure you’ll be surprised. I found I’ve carried six bottles of colored nail polish all the way across the country even though I can’t remember the last time I painted my nails anything but clear. Ridiculous.

I saw this purse problem in other areas of life too. I had borrowed a friend’s computer this June, this June, to do some work. I had started on the project, but problems arose (and trust me, problems always arise), and I decided I was too busy.

By the way, lame excuse. “Lack of time is actually lack of priorities.” (Tim Ferriss)

Anyways, turns out, I am always too busy. I carried around “Do project X and return computer” on my to do list for five months! Talk about a burden hanging over my head. After I cleaned out my purse last night, it felt so good to throw out thirty receipts and a ziplock bag containing a hairball (do not ask) I decided to eliminate other burdens.

Two and a half hours after attacking the computer problem, I sent the coveted email: “I can drop off your computer tomorrow.”

That felt so good, I’m still on a high. (Don’t say you can tell.)

It feels so good I want to encourage you to clean out the “purses” in your life. Dig into those hidden burdens that wear on your mind and wear down your confidence. I tell you what, it took infinitely less energy to finish that project than it took to worry about finishing it every single day for five months.

You know what I’m talking about.

So, here are a couple things that helped me bear down and attack the molehills that turned into mountains in my mind. (They grow fast).

1. Decide which project is crucial to your mental, emotional, and physical freedom, and attack it from start to finish without ANY interruptions.

(Okay, maybe a bathroom break. But chances are, everything else can wait.) I know most of you aren’t as “free” as I to totally turn off your phones, but forget about Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter likes for a couple hours and think about how much you’re going to like yourself when this burden is 100% gone!

(If you give in to distraction, it can take up to 45 minutes to psychologically switch gears and regain that focus. It’s not worth that Pandora ad.)

2. Go big or go home!

Be extreme.

Some people can slowly chip away at big projects, but if this has sitting in the closet for months, chances are, the chipping method isn’t for you. Take all that energy you’ve spent hauling this baggage around, and shove it in one aggressive push to blow up this target. It may be a dirty closet, an email that needs to be written, a sprinkler system you need to winterize . . . I don’t know. What I do know is, hit it hard.

It’s more fun if you embrace the pain.

You may come up with more points, but those are the two I used. If you’re like I am, you’ll find that when you finish a project, you feel so free you want to attack something else!

Reading a powerful book jumpstarted me to eliminate subtle stresses in my life and regain control and responsibility.

I hope this blog will do the same for you.

If not, stay tuned for another post about this epic book’s review. If that doesn’t do it, just settle on back and continue down Facebook’s newsfeed. It squelches the feelings of productivity well.

For the rest of you. You know what the “purse” in your life is. You’re thinking about it right now.

Know this. You will never feel rested enough, prepared enough, or time-free enough to attack your molehill. It may have already grown so big you don’t know where or when to start. I’ll help you. 

Start now.

Gaining freedom with you,

 

 

Note: I wrote this two months ago. Those of you who have seen me recently know it’s time to clean that purse again.