205. Decluttering Thought Influence(r)s from Your Inner Circle to Your Social Media Feed

If you're looking for tips around how to be strategic with your social environement you're in the right place. This week I share a tip on why and how to clear what I call social clutter. 

Discover why and how I am letting go of certain influences and influencers who have lingered in my life for too long. Liberation comes from clearing not only physical spaces but also social circles, including personal relationships, business partnerships all the way to clients if necessary. 

From the books you read to the podcasts you listen to and the accounts you follow on social media, curating your influences and influencers can lead to fresh perspectives, renewed energy, and serve as a springboard to take action on your goals for 2024.

From Chaos to Peace Consulting Inc - https://connygraf.com

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Transcript

Conny Graf: 0:00

Welcome to my podcast from Chaos to Peace with Conny. I am Conny Graf and your host, and I will explore with you how a few minutes a day can keep the chaos away. And with chaos we're talking about the physical, digital, social, financial, mental, emotional and spiritual clutter that can accumulate in our life and business. In every episode, I want to make you aware how clutter is so much more than you think, how it affects your finances and how clearing your clutter leads to more time, more money and more peace. Let's go Well. Hello, my friend. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for allowing me back into your ears and, if this is your first time here, a very warm welcome to you too. I'm honored that you're checking out my podcast.

Conny Graf: 0:57

So the sun will move into Pisces this week. Happy birthday to all my fellow Pisces out there. My birthday is coming up and yours is coming up too, then, and the Pisces season is when we complete the 12 month cycle of the astrological year. The Pisces season is the time before Aries, when the sun moves into Aries is when we really start a new year, a new one year cycle, and something great to do before we move into something new is cleaning up and decluttering, of course. So Pisces has always been a good time to declutter the business, the finances, the house, the body, the mind and the soul. So let's do it. So, during the Pisces season, keep taking some time to reflect on what this last year has meant to you, has meant to your business and your finances, and what you are moving towards or wanting to invite, initiate and work on in this new cycle, in this new year.

Conny Graf: 2:11

And if you remember, I told you in episode 200 that I usually don't set goals for the year on January 1st because I'm still in the hibernating stage, and I believe it's the same for a lot of people. That's why they have abandoned their resolutions and intentions by now. And if that's, you, don't worry and don't beat yourself up because January 1st wasn't the right time. But can you feel it Now? Now it starts to become the right time, now the energy is starting to change, now it's starting to pull us up and forward, to start new things, to let go of the old. And if you haven't done so yet, you can still do the exercise from episode 200 and ask yourself the three simple questions what worked well in the last year or two? What didn't work in the past. And, third, what you want to and will do differently. Going forward. Pundering these three questions will give you lots of clarity and direction so that, when the sun moves into Aries in a month, when we have the astrological beginning of the new year and spring is here, you have all the clarity to move forward, start to make changes, start to take actions towards your goals, your intentions and your resolutions. And when you have clarity about your priority on priorities as we these days we have more than one priority it's easier to become aware of what your yes or no might really mean for you, because when we say yes to one thing, we're saying no to something else or to a lot of other things. So, for example, saying yes to helping out a friend, while that's a very nice and kind thing to do, might mean saying no to time for your family or no for time for yourself, no for an important priority in your life. So, therefore, clearing clutter and setting new intentions and goals can also mean re-evaluating what social environments we are in, and that is my focus for this week.

Conny Graf: 4:29

Maybe through the above exercise, you might more and more realize who you are and who you're becoming, and that you have listened to people that you don't want to listen to anymore and that you want and need to listen more to what you want, that you need to find and trust the expert in yourself. So pay attention to your social network. Which private and business relationships do you truly enjoy and which ones do you want or need to let go of? Have some relationships faded and slipped away, not because you had a disagreement, but simply because you moved on in different directions? Here you might need to decide to either re-handle those relationships intentionally, or maybe they are complete and you need to let them go. But then the other side is interesting too. Are some existing relationships deepening right now and if yes, why? Or are you maybe realizing some new relationships are starting to bring in new perspectives and maybe open doors for you that you were not aware of before? Contemplations like this might then have an effect on your private relationships and business partnerships, like your team, if you have one, but of course it may also have an effect on what clients you want to work with and what services you want to offer those clients. I have two former episodes you can go listen to if you want to dive deeper into this. Episode 93 called Creating Healthier Relationships, and Episode 190, how to Deal with Cluttered Calendars, thank you.

Conny Graf: 6:21

Now the social environment doesn't have to be just real life relationships. In my eyes, this includes what books you have and read, what people you follow on social media, what podcasts you listen to, and so on. It is interesting how we change and evolve and how some people seem very important in our life a couple of years ago and we couldn't even imagine them not being in our life. If that's a real person or a social media influencer, or a book or an author, I sure had that experience. I'm actually not really listening to the same people or reading the same books as I did three years ago. In this context, I'm constantly unfollowing people on Facebook or Instagram where I notice they themselves or their message are not aligned with me and my stage of life anymore. That doesn't make them bad people, by the way. It just means I clear out the noise and clutter on my feet and fill it with inspiring and uplifting people that resonate with me right now.

Conny Graf: 7:31

So what this energy inspired me to do yesterday, for example, was to go through my bookshelf to see which books are still relevant to present and future Conny, and what books have done their job and can move on. I read mostly e-books these days, but I still have a bookshelf full of real books. Some of them are in my life for decades already and they are still relevant, but then some of them have served their time here I noticed. So I took a few minutes and in this case it was probably about 15-20 minutes and I went through all of my books and got a whole big bag of books together that can move on and help out someone else. I know some of you have a lot of issues giving books away or struggle to decide how to decide what book to give away. If that's you, I have another resource for you.

Conny Graf: 8:30

Go back to episode 144, called Books Can Be Clutter, where I walk you through my process on how to decide what books need to go and which ones can stay. Now I didn't do the whole process yesterday that I described in this episode. I just cherry picked out the books that needed to move on and put them in a bag. I will drop them off at a thrift store next week where they hopefully find a great new home quickly. So you don't always have to go through the whole process. Sometimes it just helps to pick a few things and move them out of your life. You will see, this makes you feel so much better and so much lighter.

Conny Graf: 9:15

So, again, now is the time where we want to get rid of energy vampires in person ones like including clients, or virtual ones like virtual influencers, social media accounts you follow, podcasts you describe to, books you're hanging on to so that we can really focus with our mental, emotional and physical energy on our 2024 and beyond goals and intentions, when the sun moves into Aries and spring is here and we're full of energy to move forward.

Conny Graf: 9:51

Okay, my friend, that's it for today. Thanks for listening All the way to the end and have a beautiful week. Talk to you next time, take good care and spread peace. And remember you can bring your chaos to me. Use the link in the show notes and sign up for a complimentary 30 minute Chaos to Peace Jumpstart call, where we will address your most pressing pain point around clutter and chaos and how to solve it in a few minutes a day and, if you're ready, we can also discuss options for moving forward together and how I can help you out on your journey from chaos to peace. You find the links to sign up in the show notes.