For decades, I've left a clear and clean desk in my office virtually every evening. No matter how chaotic the days. No matter how many meetings and flying from one project to the next. At night, I put everything in its place. It has always been worth that extra 10 minutes at the end of one day to walk in each morning with a fresh start.
The mindset that each day is a new day in which something interesting - even exciting - might happen fuels my spirit.
But this photo is a morning shot! (And I know, some people would not exactly call my idea of clutter "chaotic.") Yet, that's my US absentee voter's ballot in the big yellow envelope (sitting under my calendar, beside two unfinished glasses of water and a stack of stuff to read, sign, or distribute.) It's exactly where I left it all week - saying every day I need to mail my vote.
In the last two weeks, though, I've started what feels like a "refresh" at work and home. Lots of changes are now initiated and in progress: new deal and understanding with my largest client, new web site for my company initiated (look for it by year end) and 2009 calendar organized with new perspectives about where my clients and I are going. And at home, I took down all of my curtains to give my apartment a more open look. I even have a new haircut and learned from a Bobbi Brown stylist what's fresh and modern.
Busy as we are, I'm rested overall and find a great deal of energy to inspire exploring.
By Friday, I left my desk once again clear. I even bundled up the recycling (cardboard goes out on Monday) and found some new spaces for client project notebooks that had avalanched as they were overtaking my credenza.
I will mail my vote on Monday. First thing. A fresh start to a new week of possibilities. Life's simple symbols of freedom, choice and living where you can be yourself matter. One of my symbolic acts is starting my day with open space on my desk for new ideas...
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