Clean Up Your Room!

The phrase “Clean up your room” has more impact than the obvious. My husband shared some videos with me by well-known speaker Jordan Peterson, and I wanted to share some of those basic thoughts here.

Jordan was talking about making positive changes in your life, and I think this applies to everyone, not just those who are stuck in a rut or who are struggling. He suggests that one of the first things you should do is, “Clean up your room.”

“Clean up your room. That’s a good start. Organize your local landscape. Schedule your time. Start taking control of yourself. Start small. I had a girl come up to me who said, ‘I started cleaning up my room and it completely changed my life.’ She said, ‘Your room is an externalization of your mind.’ And that’s right, that’s exactly true. To the degree that you’re in your room, the room is you. So, straighten up what you can straighten up and quit saying things that make you feel weak. Then you’ll know what to do next.”

I have to say this has always been my go-to strategy in most situations. When I taught public school, I always spent a couple of days at the beginning of the year cleaning up my room, organizing everything, putting things in their place, putting up posters, etc. Some people would be busy lesson planning, but my mind couldn’t seem to focus on that until my environment was in order.

I’m like that in my home, too. I like things in order, otherwise I find it hard to concentrate. I like systems and schedules and calendars and organizers. Even with my writing, I love a good system. I suppose it’s why I’ve been a Scrivener fan for so many years and still find it to be my favourite writing software, despite others that have come along. It’s also why I take time to set goals each year. Having a plan allows me to “do the next thing”, even if that means deviating from the plan.

For more context, here are some other things that Jordan Peterson said which I think apply:

“If you don’t have an aim you’re aimless. You’ve gotta be oriented towards something because otherwise, you’re disoriented. You’d just spin around in a circle and then you suffer and so do the people around you. It’s not a good solution. Orient yourself towards something… You need a personal place to stand, otherwise, you’re going to be handed a place to stand on a plate, and it may be one that makes you a puppet of someone else’s goals.”

Wise words, indeed.

So, friends, next time you hear the phrase, “Clean up your room,” think bigger. It just might change your life.