206. How you can "Act as If" to create an organized, clutter free and supportive workspace (a self-test)

In this episode, I explore the concept of 'Acting As If' and its transformative impact if we let it. I share my personal insights from my experience with a new computer monitor that created a bit of chaos in my otherwise very supportive workspace. You will hear how going though the Act as if process you too can make significant improvements in your home, life and work environment, and your mindset that will lead to more productivity. And all of this in just a few minutes a day. Listen in as I break down the 5 steps or phases of act as if to overcome my temporary chaos, manage my mental clutter, and cultivate self-leadership and how you can too. 

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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 another episode of from Chaos to Peace with Conny. 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 so honored you're checking out my podcast.

Conny Graf: 1:00

Holy moly, I'm in the middle of reorganizing my workspace right now because I realized that for the sake of my eyes, for the sake of the sake of the health of my eyes, I have to stop working on the tiny laptop screen and get a real, decent sized computer monitor. And the monitor is here and I love working on it. But it requires quite some changes in my workspace setup and my routines, and I will talk you through this in a future episode, how I set up my workspace, but today I want to talk about a concept that I read in several books and that I now experimented with, now that I have to rearrange my workspace, and that is acting as if and I'm almost certain you have heard about this too for example, in the context of if you are in the beginning and not really a successful entrepreneur or business owner yet, that you could just act as if. That's what the experts whoever that is usually suggest. Just act as if and I actually a lot. I actually think a lot of people do that, especially on social media. They just act as they were successful. But that is, or can be, a bit deceiving and also self-deceiving, because you know you're not successful and you pretend to be, which really doesn't create good feelings within us, and it's not honest and will create probably a lot of anxiety in the background. I would think so.

Conny Graf: 2:51

Anyways, that is not the acting as if I'm talking about. The acting as if I'm talking about is different. It's more like don't judge a situation from the outside without putting yourself in it first. This acting as if can bring you insights, for example, how it would be if you were organized, how it would be if you were living clutter-free, how it would be if you had no chaos around you, if your workspace was supporting you. But not just from thinking about it, what most people do and which doesn't really help to get out of chaos, right, but by experiencing it first hand, by acting as if. So let's break this down what I mean, because I could imagine you're now a bit confused.

Conny Graf: 3:44

So, anyways, I used this concept in dealing with this new monitor, which brought some chaos into my workspace, and I had to act as if there was no chaos. So let's break this down. I've kind of five steps or five phases that I went through, and that concept came actually from several books that I read, and I just tweaked it to my situation, and now I want to share it with you and see what you think. So the first step is no surprise start small. I always tell you to start small, right? So this is no difference. So you can start acting as if you were organized just for a few minutes a day, as if you lived clutter-free, just for a few minutes a day, as if you were not overwhelmed or surrounded by chaos. Just a few minutes a day. So the next time you find your desk cluttered, your inbox overflowing, feeling frustrated or overwhelmed, think about what acting as if would look like, and try it for just a few minutes you could just think about. Okay, so if I would be an organized person and I would come across my overflowing inbox, what would I do and then act as if you were already that person? Me with my new computer monitor? Right?

Conny Graf: 5:16

So it started this way. I just put the monitor into my already existing setup. That meant I had to move quite a few things and they had somewhere to go, on a shelf, and then everything was in this array. But I had to act as if it wasn't in a disarray. I wanted to experience first how it was where the monitor was right now, how this setup was right now, and not give up and not feel overwhelmed, just act as if this was ideal now. But you know, that's where a lot of people stop, right? They don't even ask themselves that. They just place the new thing they just got wherever they want to have it and move everything else that was there before somewhere else for now. And that for now is the dangerous part, right, because the for now turns into weeks and months and maybe even years, and this leads, of course, to more chaos and more clutter, so we can't stay at this stage.

Conny Graf: 6:25

So, anyways, the first step was to get you back on this track. Start small. So by starting small, I meant I did put this new monitor where I wanted it, like in front of me, obviously, because that's where I need to work on, and I moved away whatever was in the way. But that was only the first step and I was acting as if this was now the setup and I started to notice how I feel. Now we get to the second phase or, like I said, to the second step. I'm not quite sure whether it's steps or phases, but anyways. So, instead of just not doing anything, which I said, most people would probably just do this and say I have no time to go further.

Conny Graf: 7:15

But we need to actually go further. We need to act as if and not in response to the situation, but as a proactive way and a way of taking initiative and providing leadership, or if it's just a situation that just is for you, then self-leadership meaning leading ourselves to becoming our best selves. So here is where we're asking ourselves how do I want to feel in my life, in my business, in my work environment, and how would that look like? How do I want to feel living in my home, working in my work environment, working in my business? How would I want to be able to do my work, to handle my appointments, to deal with my overwhelming and overflowing inbox and the challenging situations with my team or my team or my clients, or my supplier or whoever? So we need to become proactive, and then this proactively creating the behaviors and activities by asking ourselves how would I behave in a responsible way as a business owner and then go do that even for just a few minutes, literally, even if just for a few minutes, because we have other things to do, right, but we can pick something and act as if just for a few minutes.

Conny Graf: 8:43

So one of the ways to be proactive is and that's a hurdle we all have to overcome, and I sure had to do that is, when we feel something isn't ideal we need to get clear on is it just not ideal because it's unfamiliar, because I have to adjust to a different routine, or is it really not ideal? We're such creatures of habit, so sometimes we dismiss something that would actually benefit us very much just because it's unfamiliar. So that's what I did here with my workspace dilemma. I didn't want to rearrange everything. It seemed so daunting, but I knew doing nothing didn't help either, so I became my own client. So what we need to do is sticking with it and being proactive.

Conny Graf: 9:33

And that leads me to step three, or phase three, where we can't be discouraged. We can't be discouraged if our feelings or our actions or the situation, the workspace or even other people's responses don't change quickly and dramatically when we're changing, when we're wanting them to change, when we have taken already some small steps and we were proactive. We're often so impatient oh, I know I am, I'm such an impatient person sometimes, and so I'm often ready to throw my hands in the air and proclaiming I can't do it, it's not working, and so are my clients sometimes. But here is where we can't be discouraged. There is so much power in patiently proceeding, in making little tweaks, in acting as if Acting as if this is the right way to proceed, even if it's just for a few minutes a day, even if we don't see direct results or changes just yet. Here is a little side note to this, because we always have to aware that we cannot just easily change our feelings. They are just there and if we feel overwhelmed, anxious, frazzled, we can't make these feelings go away willingly or change a situation right away, or even less change another person right away to feel better. But we do have control over how we act and respond to the situation despite these challenging feelings, and we have control over our behavior too. We can make an intentional choice to act as, if and when we do, more positive will come out of it. We sure will make steps forward, and maybe it will not be visible in that instant, but over time we will see the change.

Conny Graf: 11:38

So in the beginning the first new setup I had was not going to work and that after I went through quite some rearranging and shoveling around here on my desk, I wasn't happy and the thought of I wish I never bought this monitor or I'm useless, I can't do it. Who am I to think I can help clients to do it then? So you will hear more about those thoughts in the next phase. But I sat in this discomfort for a bit and I stuck it out for a few days just to see whether it was really not ideal for me or whether it was just because it was unfamiliar. So then this brings me to the fourth step, or fourth phase, and that is where I want to warn you and to be prepared for these voices of resistance within you. Be prepared of the mental clutter that comes up, like this doesn't help, this is useless. Maybe even I am useless or I can't do it.

Conny Graf: 12:42

I learned from my spiritual path and from my mentors that it's normal for these voices to be there, but that we can't let them win. We can't live by these voices. So this is something I have to work on on a daily basis my mental clutter, understanding and reminding myself that I'm not my thoughts, that thoughts just come and go on their own, and that I can do what I planned and intended to do, despite what these thoughts are saying. This is where I can take self-leadership, where I can be my own parent, you could call it too. So we might not be able to let go of these thoughts.

Conny Graf: 13:25

Let get rid of this mental clutter, as I would for sure want to get rid of it, but we do have the power to live our life the way we want and have planned, despite of those thoughts and despite of the maybe challenging feelings. So, despite of all that noise, that I wanted my old workspace set up back and that I didn't want this big monitor here messing with my setup. I wanted to get back to where everything was easy and supporting me, just the way I was used to. And also there was some mental noise of I have no time to deal with this rearranging everything. All the time I still stuck with it, I still continued, I moved on and found the right solution for me. Now with this big computer monitor that needed so much space, and instead of not doing anything and keep working in a not ideal environment, I took more action again, rearranged it again, despite the unsupportive thoughts I had and all the negative feelings I had. So this brings me to step five, or phase five, or that's more like a realization and also something we all know but sometimes don't want to really accept in our life.

Conny Graf: 14:54

Let's say like that and that is actions matter when we're trying to create a clutter, free and organized environment in our life or in our business. Actions are the only thing that will make that happen, and this is a given right. No surprise, you will not wake up one day and your workspace, your business, your home and everything is, is and feels decluttered and stays decluttered. It may be one day all decluttered because you hired somebody to declutter it, but it will not stay that way unless you change, unless you take actions. Waiting will not help. Thinking about it will not make a difference. Talking about it or complaining doesn't help either. Blaming yourself or others will also just keep us stuck. So only taking actions, even when we don't feel like it, even when our thoughts are going wild and tell us how stupid we are. Only actions will make changes, and maybe we don't see these changes right away, but we will over time, and so I'm really happy to say that I did act as if and did sit in discomfort and did act, despite all this mental clutter and the negative feelings.

Conny Graf: 16:13

After three times rearranging it all and buying an extension cord for the monitor for $13 on Amazon, I now have a workspace set up that I actually really like and that I'm getting used to, and that starts to feel familiar. It's still a bit new and it still doesn't really flow 100% as easy as the old one did, but I'm at the point where I couldn't imagine working again without this new big, nice monitor. And you know, as I said before, we're all creatures of habit, so I had to start to settle into these new habits and the new flows. While working, you know, like you can't think your way to how would the perfect setup be. You have to actually do it. That's what I mean. You can't look from the outside into a situation. You actually have to take action and do it and put yourself into this new situation. That's what I feel is act as if.

Conny Graf: 17:15

And another thing I wanted to say to is like I got a lot. I get a lot of pushback from people who say, oh, I have no time to get organized, I have no time to rearrange my workspace, I have no time to do this. And yes, I had that thought, of course, because we're all busy, we have a life, we have other things to do. And then I thought, oh, I have no time, I have no time. But in hindsight it actually doesn't really take that much time. As I always say, a few minutes a day is actually enough. And I'm so happy now with the setup now, and my eyes will be happy to work on a bigger and better monitor now than this little tiny laptop monitor. So there is health benefits always to it. We did grow a bit. Or I did grow a bit and I actually experienced how it is to be in my clients shoes. Now for a change again, because it was quite a challenging situation. While challenging, you know, like it's not like a big, huge challenge, it was just like a bit frustrating because I'm used to working in a nice, supportive environment and it wasn't in such an environment for a bit, but now I'm getting back to it.

Conny Graf: 18:31

I want to inspire you to that. You too can take action in your life or in your business and change something in a few minutes a day. Change something by acting as if and using these five phases and just remembering that you are in these phases. But I encourage you to start small. One start small, be proactive. That's the second step.

Conny Graf: 18:58

So, one, you need to start small. Two, you need to be proactive. Three, don't be discouraged or impatient. Be prepared that you might feel discouraged or impatient. Then don't let that mental clutter derail you and always remember only actions matter. That's what I have for you today, my friend. Thanks so much for listening all the way to the end. 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 with on your journey from chaos to peace. You find the links to sign up in the show notes.