Extreme Cleaning FAQ

I’ve been having a lot of people write in and ask some questions about my current Extreme Cleaning project.  I thought it would be best to answer them in a FAQ format instead of answering them individually.  This way, all of my readers can benefit from the answer to these questions.

Are you really going to go through every paper clip and piece of paper you own?

Yes.  This is one of the most ambitiousi t projects I’ve ever undertaken.  What a lot of people don’t understand, is that they actually own a lot more stuff (physical, digital, and emotional) than they realize.  I’ve been very astute at cleaning out my life from time-to-time, and the amount of “stuff” I still own that does not contribute to my life is astounding.  I have a Clear Vision of my life after this project, and it excites me like nothing else I can describe.

When do you plan on finishing all of this up?

My goal is to get all of it done by January 1st, 2009.  I realize that this may not be realistic, and with my current time constraints I may not be able to accomplish this goal, but that doesn’t bother me.  The fact that I am setting a goal is more than enough to keep me satisfied.  I will work on it until it is done, however.

Don’t you think there is no end to something like this?  Can you ever truly be ‘Extremely Clean’?

Yes, there is no end.  I realize that and I’ve been i that trap before.  There needs to be an end goal in sight here, otherwise more stuff will come in and I’ll never be able to get to that magic point.  The way to solve this dilemma is simple: the stuff that’s been hanging around is on my list, new stuff is not.  If new stuff comes in and I can clean it, cool.  If not, no worries.  It’s the older stuff that’s on my list that’s in my sights.

What’s your plan after this project?

I’ve got a lot of plans after this project, but this is the foundation.  I don’t want to get into anything too specific, but I will for sure be starting the Public Album project I launched a while back.

How can you clean out emotional stuff?  I don’t get it.

‘Emotional  Stuff’ are things we mentally hang on to that don’t serve us: fears, negative thoughts, past experiences that were painful that still pain us, etc.  There is no room in my life for these things anymore.  They are unnecessary, harmful, and dangerous to my goals.  While I’m not sitting in a room thinking about these things all day long, some of them are in my consciousness and others can be opened up easily when thought about.  Whether or not they are directly affecting my life right now, I am on the path to resolving them emotionally.  Or as EFT practitioners would say bringing them down to a “zero”.

~ JS

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