Finding our "best self"

Have you ever noticed how many times you’re ready to head out the door only to discover you can’t find your keys?  Or, you’re ready to wrap a birthday gift and can’t locate the scissors and tape?  Or, maybe you’re like me; if I could only remember what I’ve forgotten I’ve lost…then maybe I could find it. 

We’ve all been down the road of “lost and misplaced possessions.” I’ll bet you have a few of your own stories.  Once, when on a trip to Washington D.C., I’d misplaced my sun glasses and asked the clerk at the hotel desk if anyone had turned in a pair.  The attendant on duty promptly grinned, as if on cue, and pulled out a basket literally brimming with lost designer lost sunglasses from Rayban to Gucci.  “See any you like?” He cheerily quipped.

Karla Jones, a professional organizer, speaker and seminar leaders, says, “Physical clutter is called Visual Noise.  Just as it is impossible to work and live productively with constant noise, so is it impossible to live and work productively when your environment is in chaos.”  Granted, de-cluttering one’s environment and better organization can do wonders. 

It’s always intrigued me how much time we spend each year looking for lost keys… but I can’t recall where I put that folder to give you that figure!  It must have sprouted little feet and moved itself.  Perhaps I should follow the suggestion I saw on the Internet, “setting up a database for lost and misplaced items.”  Can you imagine?

Is it the daily overload many of us carry around that freezes our brain from functioning?  Perhaps, it’s not enough down time?  Or, not enough quiet time?  Except we all know that quiet time is virtually non-existent in the Northeast or any other mega-metropolis.  Thus, we waste time trying to locate important documents, looking for a pen, or trying to locate the grocery list all while keeping the mad mystery of looking for things alive.

My daughters laugh at me as I keep a running list of things to find; keys, my passport, a 40’s style fur trimmed sweater that belonged to my eclectic Aunt Roberta, my headache pills, my reading glasses, and a glove.  That’s right; one glove.  Right now a solitary brown Fownes leather glove with black fir trim lay atop my dresser along side my list of things to find.  I thought I dropped the mate right in my own drive way while getting out of my Jeep one day.  But, ah, I know just where it is…the parking lot at the Weehawken Ferry Terminal.  I inadvertently dropped it while rushing out of the car when trying to keep up with a date to catch the ferry to the city...and hasn’t been seen since!  Neither has the date which turned out to be a positive item to lose.

  But, what if our challenge is less memory and simply more the daily dollops that fall into our lap?  I recently read that, “The main reason people misplace keys is actually not a failure of memory.  Factors such as fatigue and stress also play a part.  If you go without sufficient sleep, neglect goodeating habits, worry excessively, suffer an emotional upset, your mind will lose itsfocus.  The first solution is then preventative.  If you take steps to reduce stress and take better care of yourself, this would help one to return to the state of ‘best self’.”

Wonderful!  That sounds easy enough.  I’ll just add ‘best self’ to my list of things to find.

Until next time… Top Blonde taking the day…