Do you ever feel like you’re just completely overwhelmed by how much you have to do in every single day of your life as a mom? The list does not seem to end. We don’t even know how to give ourselves time anymore. Space, time, energy, and money (S.T.E.M.) are the precious commodities that we need more of. Discover how you can free up space, time, energy, and money so you can have a more purposeful life. After all, every mom deserves to wake up every day and feel excited about getting their affairs and their home in order.
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Space, Time, Energy, And Money
How To Get More S.T.E.M. In Your Life
I am super excited to fill you in on something exciting that is happening. I’m going to get to that, but I wanted to come on first of all and talk to you mom to mom. Do you ever feel like you’re just completely overwhelmed by how much you have to do in every single day of your life as a mom? The list does not seem to end. The to-do list is something that is always going to be there, and some days it is a mile long, and you feel like you’re never going to get to the end of it. On other days it can be a lot shorter. One thing that I’ve tried to tell myself over the years is to let go of the anxiety that the to-do list can cause. It is always going to be there, and we need to learn to be grateful for it. As long as we’re breathing and we have a life here on this Earth, we’re going to have a to-do list. That’s part of life. There’s no reason to get upset about it, but it does get overwhelming at times.
I’ve been doing this professional organizing gig for several years, and I have had the privilege to be welcomed into homes of hundreds of moms, which is my favorite type of client. Number one, I can totally relate to her. Number two, I think that moms have the biggest jobs in the entire world and they have the longest to-do lists. It makes me feel excited to be able to go into a mom’s home and share tips and tricks on how she can get her list done but also enjoy life as she’s doing it. That is one of the main reasons why I love my job. The thing about being a professional organizer is you get to know clients on a deep level and sometimes they actually become friends. I’ve had lots of conversations with moms and we’ve even shared lots of tears because they feel overwhelmed. That’s the number one thing I hear all the time is, “Jennifer, I feel so overwhelmed. I don’t even know where to begin.”
That usually tugs at my heartstrings because I feel sad when a mom feels that way. We have so many blessings as moms. We’ve been blessed with children. We’ve been blessed sometimes with marriages, sometimes with homes that we dreamed of. Sometimes we’ve been blessed with the life that we imagined ever since we were a little girl. We were playing with our dolls, plastic kitchen set and imagining the day that we had this home, these kids and this husband to take care of. Here we are smack dab in the middle of it. Nobody told us how it was going to be. They didn’t give you a book the day you had your first child and said, “File this manual when you get home.” I wish that were the case but what do we have? We have each other.
Only another mother knows this life as we do. Only another mother knows those days when you feel like you don’t have one more ounce of energy to give. What you would give to run away and have a few minutes to yourself. What you would give just to remember who you were before these kids took over your life. When was the last time you stopped and thought about who you were before all of this happened to you, who you were before you became a mom? It’s hard, sometimes we end up going through the motions day-after-day, getting the laundry done and making sure we load the dishwasher, get the kids to practice on time, pick them up for school, make their lunch, get them to dance, make sure we run to Target and get enough cleaning products to survive. Make sure we have laundry detergent in the cupboard.
[bctt tweet=”Do one baby step at a time and eventually you are going to get to the end goal. ” via=”no”]
We have a list a mile long but the thing about it is that you’re not alone. Every mother feels that way at times. Every mother that I’ve ever worked with I feel is a reflection of who I am. Deep down, we all want the same things. We want our kids to be happy. We want our spouse to be happy. We want to have a clean, organized home. We want to be successful in our job. We want to be in shape, we want to look cute and we want to have nice clothes. A lot of us want the same exact thing and that’s why I tell my clients all the time, “What is the vision for your life?” We stop and we sit there for about fifteen or twenty minutes. We talk about what the vision for their life is and to me, a vision is a painted picture.
My client can sit there and paint this picture for me of what they want their life to look like. They can tell me what kind of mom they want to be. They can tell me what they want their home to look like, how they want their children to feel in their home, what they want to do with their time that they have here on Earth. That gives me a real clear indication of what we’re striving for. If we don’t take those minutes to sit or those times in our lives to sit down and think about these things, we end up getting on that hamster wheel. We run around and around every single day, and we don’t even know how to get off anymore. We don’t even know how to give ourselves time anymore. We don’t even know how to take a break and sit down and read a book for fifteen minutes, journal or spend time in prayer.
It’s so important to do that, to take that time because otherwise, we forget to check in with ourselves and say, “Is this the life I ever wanted? Is this the way I want my life to look? Is this the way I want my home to look? Are these the type of kids I want to raise? Is this the friend I want to be to my girlfriends?” It’s important to check in. I’m a huge advocate of doing that. Over the years being able to work one-on-one with clients has been a complete godsend and I’ve seen these women transform their lives. They’ve thought they were hiring me to get a Pinterest perfect closet, but it’s a lifestyle that they learned about. I give them skills. I teach them how to make the most out of their life, how to get organized, how to give every single thing they own a space in their house and how to decide what to get rid of and what to keep. How to make that decision, do you love something? Do you use it or should you get rid of it? Should you donate it? Should you sell it?
S.T.E.M.
I love teaching women those skills. I don’t like doing it because I want them to have the perfect home. I like doing it because it frees up STEM. That’s what I call Space, Time, Energy, and Money. I love teaching moms how to figure out a way to free up S.T.E.M. in their home and their life because it’s that Space, Time, Energy, and Money that they need more of. You know that you have those days where you’re, “If I only had one more hour. If I only had an extra $100. If I only had a bigger house. If I only had the energy to get through the day without feeling completely exhausted by 2:00.” Those are the precious commodities that we need more of, Space, Time, Energy, and Money. That’s why I call it STEM.
Clear Out The Clutter
I love doing what I do because I want to remove clutter that’s taking up that precious STEM to show the mom I’m working with the life she could have. We are all capable of having a more purposeful life. A life that we wake up every day and we feel excited about, but we can’t do it until we clear the clutter. That I know for sure, we cannot do it. Anybody you’ve ever heard that reached some level of success, did basic principles and one of them is they made sure that they got their affairs in order, they got their home in order. They got their office in order; they cleared out the clutter because every single piece of clutter in your life is taking up some STEM, whether it be too many papers that you’re wasting time on, whether it be relationship clutter or mental clutter. Mental clutter that keeps your brain cluttered up all day. You can’t seem to get onto the next task because you’re stuck in your mind.
There are so many different types of clutter. Clutter can be stuff, clutter can be big. It’s from relationships. Clutter can be debt, clutter can be excess weight or clutter can be guilt. Clutter can be fear and clutter can be the negative voice in your head saying, “What are you doing with your life? You could do more.” It can be so many things but the one thing that clutter always is something that is keeping you from your highest potential. Whether it be the best potential for your home, the best potential for your time, the best potential for your life, that is clutter. My job is to get you to recognize what the clutter is because sometimes it has been around in our life for so long, we don’t even recognize it. We don’t even realize how much it’s tripping us up. We don’t realize how much time we’re wasting on it. We don’t realize how much space in our home is being wasted.
Take That First Step
When we recognize clutter that it gives us the motivation to start tackling it, to start going through it. When you do that, when you actually remove clutter, you free up space, time, energy and money. It allows new opportunities and new things to come into your life. As an example, maybe you end up freeing up time that you spend cleaning your home and you have an hour extra a week to sit down and plan out that business you’ve been dreaming about building. You have that extra hour a week to sit and spend time with God, to pray, journal and dream. Maybe you have an extra hour a week to take a big project like writing a book, putting one foot in front of the other, starting and saying, “I’ve always dreamed about writing a book and I’m going to take that first step. I’m going to write up a table of contents this week and next week I’m going to spend an hour outlining each chapter. After that, I’m going to start working on chapter one.”
It doesn’t matter how long it takes us because we’re going to get it done. We’re going to do it one baby step at a time and eventually, you are going to get to the end goal. Every single time you choose to take that time to put it towards something that is calling you to do, something that is down deep in your soul that you feel, “I feel it down in there.” Maybe you don’t even share it with your best girlfriends. Maybe you haven’t shared it with your husband but down in your soul, that thing that is calling you, that thing that is knocking on the door saying, “This is what I want you to take a step forward doing. This is what you’ve been called to do.” That message, that feeling is worth freeing up that space, time, energy and money.
[bctt tweet=”If we are living our best life, then we are being the best mom we can be.” via=”no”]
I’ve seen so many women transform their lives by following through with this process and it’s a process. It’s a step-by-step process to do this. It’s a lifestyle change. It’s a commitment. I can tell you, you will be so excited. You will feel so much more peace and you’ll feel more alive. You’ll feel like, “I’m not just here to change diapers, get groceries and do laundry. I’m a woman and I have a calling on my life.” When you recognize that there’s no better feeling every morning, you wake up, that’s what will give you the energy to keep going and saying, “I’ve got this to-do list but that’s okay. I’m going to knock it out and then I’m going to focus on my dream. I’m going to focus on my purpose. I’m going to learn something new that’s going to help me with that calling deep inside. Maybe I’m going to learn how to outline a book. Maybe I’m going to learn how to start a business plan. Maybe I’m going to learn how to get in the best shape of my life. Maybe I’m going to learn Spanish. Maybe I’m going to learn how to manage my money better.”
The thing about it is every time you realize that there’s a bigger calling for your life that requires growth. That requires time to spend growing and to spend learning quite frankly. It’s the best feeling in the world and I know that because I’ve done it, I’ve done this whole process and that’s why I’m able to teach other people how to do it. I wake up every morning excited about my life. Even though the list is long. I feel like everybody thinks they have the longest list in the world? Sometimes I feel like I do, but it doesn’t matter because everything on that list excites me. It makes me feel energized. It makes me hopeful. It reminds me that I’m going to make an impact on the world and that’s what I want to do.
The Created Order Conference
One of the things that are coming up that’s going to be making an impact is the Created Order Conference. If you follow me along on Instagram or Facebook, you’ll see that I’ve been talking a lot about this Created Order Conference. It’s a personal growth conference and the reason why I started it is because I want every woman that comes to learn this process. I want every woman that comes to feel she has a new lease on life that she can specifically see these dreams coming to fruition. She can specifically spell out the vision for her life. From that point forward, her life will never be the same. She will be reaching her highest potential. She will have a community of women behind her that are going to support her and lift her up. On those days when it’s hard, we need each other. We need other moms. We need other women to get behind us and say, “You’re not giving up on your dream, girlfriend, not now.”
Especially those days when we feel defeated. We feel like it’s not going to happen. I’ve put all this work into it, and I’ve been dreaming and I’ve been planning but it’s not going to happen. You will have days like that and that is okay, trust me. When I reached for this dream of creating the Created Order Conference, I felt this is such a big goal to go after not only because it’s farther away from my hometown. It’s in Charlotte, North Carolina, which I haven’t lived near for years and years. I feel by having this goal set in front of me; it makes me wake up every day excited. I have a closer relationship with God because without him I know this isn’t going to take place. I know that unless he gives me the grace, the discernment and the wisdom to pull this off, it’s not going to happen. I rely on him every single day for it and I know that at the end of it, all the hard work will be worth it.
I want to invite everybody that’s reading this and thinking, “This is resonating with me, I would love to be in a room filled with other moms and other women that want to make a change in their life” to buy a ticket. I am personally inviting you to attend. I’m telling you, I would love for you to come! The lineup of women that are going to be speaking at this conference is amazing. They have changed their lives. They have transformed their lives and they’re living on purpose every single day. They have kids, jobs, spouses and homes and all of those things on the to-do list. They’re just like you. They have committed to make a change and to make sure that they’re living the biggest, best life. I’m telling you, YOU WERE NOT PLACED ON THIS EARTH BY ACCIDENT. You were put here by God for a specific purpose and for a specific time. THIS is your time. This is God knocking on the door saying, “Here’s an opportunity to transform your life and make it the best it could possibly be.” I truly believe as a mom that if we are living our best life then we are the best mom we can be. We are what our children are looking toward.
We are the examples that our children are watching every single day. I don’t know about you, but I want my kids to take risks, to be bold and to go after their dreams. More importantly, I want my kids to feel super happy and energized every day of their life. I want them to know what their purpose is and I want them to go after that purpose with everything they’ve got every single day because there’s no better feeling in the world. Go to my website, JenniferFordBerry.com and you’ll see under the ministry link it says Created Order Conference. It’s a one-day conference in Charlotte with an optional add-on for a VIP package. You can come and hang out with me personally if you want to add on the VIP package and that’s where we’re going to hang out, girls in my suite, we’re going to get personal, we’re going to share our dreams and our aspirations. You can ask me anything and we’re going to have a super fun time. It’s an all-day affair, including lunch, coffee, music, inspiration, and fun.
This is going to be a gift you give yourself. If you don’t want to give it to yourself, tell your husband to give it to you. Tell your mom to give it to you for your birthday. Tell your sister and even better, ask them to come with you. The other thing is if you have a teenager thirteen to nineteen, you can bring them with you. We are going to have a separate keynote speaker and a whole separate mini-conference for your teen. I am a mom of teens and I feel this is something that all teens need to learn. They need to learn how to get their life organized. They need to learn time management skills and they need to realize that there is a purpose and a calling on their life. I don’t know about you, but I wish someone would have told me all of this before I went to college. I would have probably driven the car down some different paths. I would have been so much more empowered and educated if I knew that there was a greater reason for my life.
The way the world is and because of the levels of anxiety and depression for these teens, I think it’s more important than ever to reach our hands out to these kids and bring them into these personal growth conferences with us. As a mom, you’re the example and if you’re not a mom, you can bring your niece, your nephew, a neighbor. Maybe you are a teacher; you can bring a kid from your school that you know needs this. The tickets for the teens are so cheap. There’s no excuse. I want you to come. I want you to go onto the website, check out the list of speakers and check out the schedule. I want you to email me and tell me this podcast spoke to you. What are you struggling with? How can we help you?
I don’t want you reading and feeling alone. I don’t want you to be sitting in your car, cleaning the house or wherever you are and feeling overwhelmed. There is a community of women being built that wants to get behind you! I want to be your number one fan, so please share with me. I hope this is informative. I hope that you’re feeling good and don’t forget, JenniferFordBerry.com is where all the details are. We also have a Facebook page. I know you’re busy. I greatly appreciate that you the time for this show, where we know every single precious minute of your day counts.
Important Links:
- Created Order Conference
- JenniferFordBerry.com
- Facebook – Jennifer Ford Berry Page
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![<p>By Jennifer Ford Berry • Posted in Organize, Space • Edit MAY 31 2009 >Organize Your Photographs > Ahhh, organizing photographs. This is one of the longest chapters in my book. It is probably because I have always taken a lot of pictures, even when I was a kid. Now that I have children the […]</p> <p>The post <a rel="nofollow" href="https://jenniferfordberry.com/tips-for-organizing-photos/" data-wpel-link="internal">Tips for Organizing Photos</a> appeared first on <a rel="nof...](http://i.pinimg.com/236x/d7/38/c7/d738c7292286224734c44763e162c178.jpg "<p>By Jennifer Ford Berry • Posted in Organize, Space • Edit MAY 31 2009 >Organize Your Photographs > Ahhh, organizing photographs. This is one of the longest chapters in my book. It is probably because I have always taken a lot of pictures, even when I was a kid. Now that I have children the […]</p> <p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https://jenniferfordberry.com/tips-for-organizing-photos/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\">Tips for Organizing Photos</a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nof...")
