MaXIMIze by Minimizing

You can MaXIMIze your life by minimizing the baggage you carry through it - both physically and otherwise. Sometimes though, you need to work through the otherwise to be able to minimize the physical baggage.

Whether you have an issue with collecting things - perhaps not to the extent of ending up on that show about hoarders, but enough that your obsession with owning things shuts out other things in life - or collecting non-so physical things like credit card debt, most of these habits can be traced back to things you experienced early in life.

And yes, doing the work to recognize and deal with the issues that led to these habits is not easy - you will find I rarely say anything is truly easy - however, your life will be much enriched by relieving yourself of excess baggage, no matter the source.

I may or may not get back to this subject during the course of this MaXIMIzing year, so I will give you some resources that have helped me over the years:

Tightwad Gazette by Amy Dacyczyn (pronounced "decision") - three books gleaned from a newsletter she used to publish.

FlyLady.net - a friend at work turned me on to this site over ten years ago now - one little gleaning I remember is that you can spend 15 minutes doing anything. I've used that for housework, exercise, writing, anything I want to accomplish but sometimes feel is too big to tackle.

Patricia V. Davis - a more recent find and author of Harlot's Sauce and The Diva Doctrine.

Learning yoga - the holistic teaching of yoga, not just a gym class (although I did take this as the PE requirement in college - the teacher, however, taught it holistically).

Developing your support network - garnering mentors, joining groups that do things you enjoy or who help you grow (My Girlfriends' Garden in Auburn and Roseville do this for me!), etc.

These are just some of the things that have worked for me over the years to get from where I was ten years ago or so to now - and I'm still growing and shedding unneeded baggage as I go!