Create an environment that is so inspiring and nurturing that it does half the work for you

When your work and living space are cluttered and dirty, when dishes are piled up in the sink or when your wardrobe is uninspiring, energy that you need to meet your goals will be bled out of you like a battery being run down by a forgotten dome light.  You need all of the energy you currently have just to run your life, and you need to generate more to reach your goals.  Do so by ensuring that your environment doesn't just meet your needs (organizing, cleaning, maintaining, restocking, etc.) but goes the extra step to ensure that it actually creates energy by anticipating your needs and providing you with a reserve.  How? Simple - overcompensation. 

For example, if you feel better in bright colors, don't just throw out your "blahs" and pick up a few nice colored pieces - recreate your wardrobe starting with a few basic neutrals and then fill the rest of the closet with a handful of the brightest, most flatteringly-colored and styled clothes you can afford.  This way, you will not only feel fantastic when you wear them, but when you look into your closet, you will feel inspired and energized by everything that is in there and not dragged down by having to fight your way through another "How can I throw together something decent out of this mess" battle. 

If your problem is clutter and mess, organizing and maintaining is a great way to keep it under control, but having a "stuff audit" - where you toss out everything (furniture included) that you don't absolutely love or absolutely need, and that doesn't fit your perfect life ideal - ends up giving you less that you have to clean or organize, more room and more emotional energy to apply to other activities, plus the space to move in some choice, consciously chosen items that inspire you and move you forward, such as great art, a truly wonderful sectional set or that professional kitchen knife set you've always wanted (and never bought because your drawer was already full of inferior, but reasonably serviceable, knives).

Don't settle for less than what you want out of life - but less can be more if your new environment supports, encourages and energizes you.

Soni Pitts

Soni Pitts is a writer and personal life coach currently living in SE Missouri, US.

As a writer, Soni has two main goals. Her first goal is to use her innate copywriting abilities to rid the world of ambiguous, confusing and boring copy. Her second goal is to use her creative writing skills to make a living meeting cool people and doing cool things, then writing about it.

As a personal life coach, Soni works with people who have reached the point of epiphany (eg: "There's got to be more to life than this") rebuild sustainable lives and lifestyles that work for themselves and for the world around them.

She is also the Assistant Community Coach of the Social Capital and Networking Community of CoachVille, and volunteers on the board of her local Habitat for Humanity Affiliate.