5 Things I Learned Packing A Big Life In A Little Box

Photo Credit Samantha Shearer - Final POD Loading & Security

The Pod Is Packed!

The giddiness of my smile, combined with the mess of hair and no make-up! Sharing that and more with the world is yet another step in my Tao of Transformation. My way to unapologetically live my life. Sharing here, with others, that it’s possible and can be done or as a cautionary tale to stay safe and secure wherever that may be.

This is what my life on the go is gonna look like.

Oh shit! What have I done?!?!

This is another reason to share. So I have ALL the interwebs, my friends, loved ones, and followers know exactly what I’ve done and that I’m not doing it alone.

Is it okay to blame mom? I only do it in juxtaposition to egging her on because I’m her coach in this. The one charged with making this fun and easy. Organized and well planned is my new form of perfection. I could call this whole thing: notes from a recovering perfectionist.

Charged and ready to go.

Tomorrow.

Oh shit! What have I done?!?!

We officially leave Vicksburg Mississippi tomorrow. I’m practicing life on the road at a bookstore with wifi to write this while mom is picking out a few books to read along the way.

Maybe in honor of Halloween this is a warning to beware of what you wish for, dream about, secretly hope will happen, plan for, only to have the dream come true. Leaving the life we have comfortably known for 20+ years to explore anew.

This is what I’ve learned so far or rather what I can express at the moment.

The 5 tips to packing a big life in a little box:

1 — Don’t block the storage unit door. It reminds me of my safety 1st motto — don’t block the exits. There is an immediate and visceral response to not being able to get the door open again on your storage container once you’ve shut it. This motto compliments; carry a big stick to help push shit back so you can triumphantly get storage doors open again if precious possessions have jostled about blocking the door. How dare they!

2 — Rope, bungies, straps — use all of them. Wrap all of it up and tie it back. Tie it down. Secure it tightly in place like you’re a professional dominatrix over your possessions. Telling them the whole time not to move an inch while you’re apart.

3 — Start clearing clutter now. If you don’t think you want it anymore, get rid of it now. This, I cannot stress enough and maybe that’s because I love all my things! It seems so much easier to keep them around me, adding to the collections until I can no longer be found under my mountain of precious possessions. Now I want only around me what I will keep forever or discard at the end of the day.

4 — Do it in stages. This is based on two of my life and coaching principles: make life fun and easy. This is impossible if you try to pack a big life in a little box in one day. It took me almost three years. Three years!! There is nothing quite like an afternoon with a platter of nosh, a bottle of bubbly, and a closet to clear of crap.

5 — Party along the way! Have people over that you will miss or maybe more important that will miss you. I never realized how many people loved and cherished having mom in their life until she said she was leaving. It was great to have brunches, and dinners, and get togethers along the way. This is also a great way to get rid of stuff. I can’t believe how many people helped us by giving them things they liked or wanted from our possessions. My favorite was some old Hellraiser comics that I gave to a friend amongst a couple boxes of albums that I’m still not totally sure he wanted but the comics he was overjoyed about.

It’s all packed up now and we are ready to go. If we’re not ready, too late now, we gotta be in Lafayette, Louisiana by 6pm tomorrow so we’re charged, revved, and raring to start this most fantastic journey. Excited to share with each other and you.

Stay posted for our final farewell shots of Mississippi, I knowI am. Then it’s all the wonders of the road that wait ahead. If you’re reading this from my website, thanks for visiting! If you’re reading from elsewhere and want 1st dibs on our latest and greatest antics, visit me at samanthashearer.com and sign-up for the newsletter. If we’re meeting on Medium, it’s great to be here and thanks for reading.

Cheers!!

Photo credit Samantha Shearer - OMG! I wrote that I wasn't wearing make-up and my hair is a mess but a zit too?!? Of course! Still smiling though! 

More of What You Want, Less of What You Don't

Sounds so easy!!! I don’t want to be stressed, tired, bored, smoking, drinking, angry and so on.

This mental chatter is in itself a drain. A total brain drain and takes up too much time. Time we know we want to be spending do something else, something more, something better.

I know it seems too simple, I know!!! And at the same time it’s a profound way I started shaping my day to day life more around the things I most wanted to do, how I desperately wanted to be living on the daily, and I can’t be more plain than to tell you I just wasn’t doing it.

After spending so much time saying to myself: I don’t want to eat like crap, I don’t want to feel like crap, I don’t want all these distractions, I don’t want to smoke, I don’t want to drink so much, I don’t want to smoke weed and binge watch old TV shows because I can’t think of anything else other than what I don’t want to do anymore!

Creating my daily life around what I needed to do, to do the things I most wanted to do became my catalyst for change.

As I head toward my 45th birthday this weekend, I can appreciate the power of practicing this simple technique everyday for a couple years now. It took me a bit to get here and hopefully by sharing my experience it can help energize yours towards what YOU most want to be doing a little faster and easier - I’m sharing a super shortcut here!

So this is what I do; when I think of something I don’t want to be doing or feel guilty about the thing I am doing that I don’t think I should be doing, I stop and take a moment to flip that bitch around on itself!

First, if I don’t like what I’m doing what is the first thing that comes to mind that I’d like or love to be doing instead? Right now. Then I think of that thing in a mantra(a short phrase or word that encompasses the positive thought) Dance, dance, dance for instance.

If I can do that now, I do it. If I can’t, I take a few moments to think about when I can do it and how I want to do it. Do I want to go to a dance class, a dance club, or put on some music right now and dance around my living room like Tom Cruise in Risky Business?

This helped me so much when I quit smoking. When I decided I wanted to quit, I spent so much time fixated on not wanting to smoke, which just made me want to smoke more. When I switched my thought pattern to what else would I like to be doing, it occured to me I wanted to breathe more deeply and freely. Then I thought of activities I loved doing or wanted to try that would support this thought more. I came up with hiking, yoga, and meditation and then looked at a calendar and asked myself when I wanted to do these things. Picking a day hike for the weekend, time to set aside for morning meditation, and since I had a yoga schedule from the neighborhood on the fridge, a couple yoga classes to go to starting the next week.

The simplicity is exquisite. If you are thinking about something, anything that you don’t want, take a moment to think about what it is you would like to be doing instead. Breathe into that experience, go to a calendar and see when you can start doing it if you can’t do it right now. Try making it a regular part of your life for 90 days - this gives enough time to really find the activities you love and adjust if it’s not the right fit. As well as a little room to slack and come back. See if it is really something you want to do and you’re doing it more, moving away from the thing you no longer enjoy doing. Give yourself time to really have the time of your life!

1. Thing of something you want to be doing.
2. Do it! Do it now. Plan to do it. Schedule it in a calendar with a reminder. Do it!
3. Keep doing it until you suddenly realize you're doing something you really enjoy and haven't thought about that old worn out thing you were so over!

What’s one thing you’d like to be doing? When do you want to start doing it? Please share in the comments to inspire others.

If you like this video and found it helpful, let me know in the comments as well, and questions are always welcome here or pm me and I’ll do my best to answer and respond. Join my email list here to get the insiders scoop on new videos, programs, talks, and workshops.

Until next time, Cheers!

HEADS UP! THE FLEDGLING LAUNCHES!

Getting my attention as I sat creating copy for my website, I was bonked on the head by a Carolina Wren that's been nesting on my deck. When I shook my head, with a surprised, “what the..” and looked up. I saw the culprit and then looked back over my shoulder where they had built their nest near by, just weeks ago. While I sat much of the time near by, loving their vibrant personality as I worked. Such a bold, inquisitive, and noisy bird. No wonder we get along.

Seeing the nest all a flutter I exclaimed, "it’s fledgling time!!!" I’ve never been invited to a party like this one and many thanks for the invite!

A lesson in fearless exploration and wild abandon right in front of me. Chicks going every which way! Climbing up the side of the house, falling into the baskets below their nest, and then one by one, wildly taking off in every direction even though their parent was calling them anxiously to come out into the world. First launching to the deck railings, two holding their landing and one completely over shooting past the deck, landing in the garden, then frantically flapping back up. They would double back toward the nest and the adult would coax them back out again. Real coaching in action!

One of the parents didn’t get the memo that the fledging was today and came flying up with food, and seemed as surprised as I was with the event. Then they both got in on the effort to head out into the wild world and no longer hunker down in the nest. One by one they took off, not a graceful landing among them into the garden, the bird bath, a bird feeder, and then in amongst the flowers of the garden. It wasn’t 15-20 minutes later and I could no longer tell where the wrens were, other than the many chips, whistles, and rustling amongst the flowers.

Like the wrens, it is time to climb out of my wooded, cozy nest I’ve created and launch. The website I’m writing copy for is for my coaching business, focused on personal development, combined with my blog to express lessons I’ve learned, some I’m still learning, and creativity I unleash, to share and connect with others driven to do the same. This is my invite to the party that is possibility!

Join in the journey through signing up for my newsletter to get weekly insights in my 1% Blog. A conversation to launch your own flight into action is right here, and many thanks to my coaches mentors, friends, and teachers that continue to inspire me to do this - 1% at a time.

Cheers!

Sam Lee Shearer