When Gail Medrick came over to organize my office (and my life), some of her ideas got me excited.... like her idea to transform the triangular closet under the stairs from a junk heap to a kiddie fort for my son. I couldn't wait to get started!  But other ideas gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.... She insisted that I create a budget.

I mean, I just wanted to know where to put the inbox and the shredder.  But she was asking about my budget (which, frankly, doesn't exist) and about how many companies I pay money to each month, and whether I have a savings plan. Honestly, I wasn't planning on working on those things, and the more questions she asked that I couldn't answer, the more I broke into a cold sweat. 

She was touching on a major weakness. One that, if whacked from the right angle, will knock me to my knees. I wasn't sure if I was up to overcoming this particular weakness either. I mean, how can I possibly learn to keep track of all this stuff?  And even if I can, will there be room for anything else in my brain?

Just as I was thinking those things I met Brian Korzec, another organizational consultant. He is certified by the Focusing Institute at the University of Chicago. "What I do is based on being true to yourself," he said. "When you do that everything else falls into place."

According to Korzec you start by asking yourself what it is that you want out of life.  From there you organize your things and your time to make it happen. 

When I thought about it that way, even the dreaded budget had a purpose. It went from a needless display of self-control to a way to reach my dreams. 

Like the dream of going on a fun vacation: Since my husband and I have been married, we've travelled a lot, but our trips are always for the purpose of going to a wedding or a funeral.  It's depressing because after all that flying around there's no money left over for a vacation - just for the purpose of traveling and exploring. 

Armed with a purpose, I was able to go through pages and pages of bank statements to find out where all of our money was going. Yeah, we spend too much eating out and we're not efficient with our groceries.  But the good news is that by being just a little more disciplined we'll easily be able to find the money for our vacation.

And you know what? I didn't have to get too wrapped up in it or get a brain transplant like I thought I would. I just set aside a little more time to deal with issues like budgets and files and whatnot, and move on. And the sick feeling in my stomach is totally gone!