Why getting organized is like climbing Kilimanjaro

(Time to read: ~ 2 minutes)

The person who cuts my hair is an amazing woman. Earlier this year, she and a friend climbed Kilimanjaro!

I think she really appreciated that I, having had altitude sickness at less than 8,000 feet, had some tiny clue of what climbing to 19,000 feet might feel like, and that I expressed such amazed appreciation of what they had done.

But that’s not actually what this piece is about. It’s about something else she told me about the climb.

To get permission to climb the mountain, you have to have a guide. The guide walks at the front of the group.

And the role of the guide is to slow you down – to ensure you don’t start off too fast and exhaust yourself so that you miss your goal.

The role of the guide

That is very similar to the role I try to fulfill in supporting people with organizing tasks: to help pick a small and easy enough initial goal that it can be achieved.

And then helping to ensure that they don’t try to take on too much all at once.

Because when we do, not only do we not achieve that goal, but we can actually “upset the apple cart” in other areas of our lives.

The importance of leverage

For me, there are 3 key aspects to this:

1. Finding a powerful leverage point – something relatively small and easy that will have a powerful ripple effect on the ease and flow of life.
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2. Having a supportive and realistic plan for accomplishing the “leverage” goal.
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3. Putting effective and appropriate human support, especially “mini” (5-15 minute) support sessions, in place. After all, if you could have done this on your own, you already would have – long ago!
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   So that tells me that what you are working on is the kind of thing that needs extra support. Usually because it just doesn’t seem as urgent or important as the 50-1,000 other things you could be doing in that moment.
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   And connection with another person, even just on the other end of a phone line, can help us remember – remember the ripple effect of this seemingly small choice. Like a tiny stream that grows into a mighty river that has the power to light up a city.
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   This always seems like something a friend could / should / would do. Any perhaps you do have a friend who has the space in her/his life to offer you that consistent, ongoing, day-in and day-out support with your goal. If so, great!!!
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   But if not, perhaps I can help…

If you’d like to book a brief session to talk about what you need and what I offer, to see if there’s a good fit, you can do that here.

When you’re ready to get started, you can book a coaching session here.