Get It Together, Weirdo

Finding Balance in Chaos: Unlocking Inner Calm through Effective Organization

• Sarah Bowser, That Weird Nerdy Mom • Episode 21

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We tend to think of the chaos in our lives as our adversary. It can bring out our deepest fears. It can remind us of all the ways we feel imperfect, not good enough, or like we're failing to make other people happy, let alone ourselves. 

But what if chaos could be your friend? What if chaos could give you the freedom to be your wonderfully weird, nerdy self without fear or shame? What if it could be the spark that lets you explore new ideas, think outside the box, and embrace your individuality? 

In this episode of Get It Together, Weirdo, host and coach Sarah Bowser explores how you can embrace the chaos in your life as a positive force that can serve you, your unique brain, and your unique needs. She emphasizes the importance of letting go of perfectionism, highlights strategies for managing clutter in our minds and physical spaces, and encourages us to use chaos to fuel creativity, experimentation, and personal growth. You can absolutely get your shit together and get organized while still embracing the chaos that makes you who you are. 

Want to stay in the loop on new episodes, posts, and other tidbits that Sarah shares? Go to thatweirdnerdymom.com to hop on her email list, or join her for weekly coworking on Mondays. 

What you’ll learn in this episode: 

  • Embracing the chaos that makes you who you are and managing it effectively gives you freedom and contributes to a life that honours individuality and imperfection. 
  • Perfectionism often leads to paralysis; letting go of it allows for flexibility and adaptability. 
  • Strategies like mindfulness and brain dumping can help you manage mental clutter and organize your thoughts. 
  • Your physical spaces should be organized in a way that suits your needs, not aesthetic perfection. 
  • Chaos can inspire creativity and personal growth, encouraging experimentation and acceptance of failure as part of the learning process. 

Noteworthy quotes from this episode:
“When we let go of perfectionism, we find freedom, flexibility, and adaptability become our new best friends.” 

“Chaos can be a fantastic catalyst for creativity and growth if you let it be that catalyst.” 

“Embracing your imperfections is what makes you relatable, real, and honestly way more fun to be around.” 

“Every failure is a stepping stone to success. It's how we learn, grow, and figure out what truly works for us.” 

 ”Chaos doesn't have to be your enemy. It can be your friend, your spark, your guide. The key is choosing how you engage with it. Are you letting the chaos overwhelm you or are you using it as a tool to embrace your quirks, fuel your creativity, and create a life that works for you?” 

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Welcome to Get It Together, Weirdo, the podcast where we dive into ways to help you tackle your to-dos, keep track of your side quests, and manage your time in a way that works for your brain so you can focus on nerding out on the things that make you do a happy dance. I'm Sarah Bowser, your get-your-shit-together coach and resident weirdo here to guide you on your journey. So let's get it together, weirdo.

Hey there, my wonderfully weird friend. Welcome back to another episode of Get It Together, Weirdo, the podcast where we embrace the chaos, toss out perfectionism, and figure out how to create a life that works for us. Here's my question for you today: What if chaos could be your friend? Just like being calm can be your friend? We often think of chaos and calm as opposites, like they can't coexist. But what if they can? So today, we're going to explore how chaos doesn't have to be the enemy. It can actually be a powerful ally when it's working in your favor.

Sometimes chaos can actually be a good thing. It gives us the freedom to be our wonderfully weird nerdy selves without fear or shame. It's the spark that lets us explore new ideas, think outside the box, and embrace our individuality. But chaos can also bring out our deepest fears. It can remind us of all the ways we feel imperfect, not good enough, or like we're failing to make other people happy, let alone make ourselves happy. It's okay to be chaotic. In fact, it's more than okay. It can be your strength. The key is making sure that the chaos in your life is serving you, your unique brain, and your unique needs.

You can absolutely get your shit together and get organized while still embracing the chaos that makes you who you are. Let's start with embracing chaos, specifically the joy of letting go. A lot of the chaos in our lives stems from perfectionism. We're so worried about getting everything just right that we end up paralyzed, overwhelmed, or stuck in a loop of self-criticism, letting everything pile up around us because we're too afraid or too overwhelmed or both to get anything done. Perfectionism often comes from a deep-rooted need to please others or to feel like we belong. But you do belong. You can belong, be yourself, and be happy with yourself, even if you're not perfect. In fact, embracing your imperfections is what makes you relatable, real, and honestly way more fun to be around.

When we let go of perfectionism, we find freedom, flexibility, and adaptability become our new best friends. We embrace the chaos. Life isn't about following a rigid plan. It's about learning to roll with the punches and finding joy in the unexpected and just, yeah, loving your chaos.

Now let's talk about organizing your mind. Chaos often starts in our thoughts, and if we don't address it there, it spills over into every other area of our lives. This chaos being the bad chaos, where we're kind of pulling our hair out and not necessarily feeling like we have anything, let alone our shit together. We're just talking about mental clutter here. When it comes to chaos, we're not talking about the good chaos.

One way to tame the mental clutter is by identifying and challenging negative thought patterns. When you catch yourself thinking, I'm not good enough or I'll never get this done, take a moment to question it. Is that thought actually true? Or is it just your brain being a little dramatic? Another great tool is mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness helps you stay present and focused even when life feels chaotic. You don't need to meditate for hours. Just take a few deep breaths, notice what's around you, bring yourself back to the present moment. Something you can see, something you can feel, something you can smell. That sort of thing. And of course, there's brain dumping. Grab a notebook, open a blank document, let it all out. Every thought, task, worry, idea swirling around in your head. Don't make it pretty or organized. Get the shit out of your brain so you can start making sense of it.

Then, once you've tackled the mental clutter, you can focus on your external chaos. So what about decluttering your physical space? I'm not saying that you need to go full Marie Kondo, unless that's your thing. But clearing out the stuff you don't need can make a huge difference in how you feel and how productive you are. When it comes to organizing your stuff, though, remember the goal is not for it to look like a Pinterest picture. We're not trying to have a perfectly curated home. We want you to have a system that works for you. Piles that look like chaos, but you know where everything is. Great, cool. You know where it is. Can you find what you need when you need it? Great. That's all that matters.

The same goes for managing your time and tasks. You don't have to schedule every minute of every day. Instead, think about what's been effective for you in the past. Have you had success with to-do lists, time blocking, or just focusing on one thing at a time? Build on what already works for you and tweak it as needed. And let's not forget about experimenting with new ideas. Chaos can be a fantastic catalyst for creativity and growth if you let it be that catalyst. Try exploring a new hobby, philosophy, or interest that sparked your curiosity. Failure is going to be part of the process when you're experimenting. Not everything is going to work out, and that's okay. Every failure is a stepping stone to success. It's how we learn, grow, and figure out what truly works for us.

So here's your big takeaway from today: Chaos doesn't have to be your enemy. It can be your friend, your spark, your guide. The key is choosing how you engage with it. Are you letting the chaos overwhelm you, or are you using it as a tool to embrace your quirks, fuel your creativity, and create a life that works for you? Take some time this week to reflect on the chaos in your life and what parts of it are serving you and what parts aren't. How can you start organizing your mind, your space, and your time in a way that feels good for your brain? And most importantly, how can you embrace your imperfections and let go of the pressure to be perfect?

Thanks so much for listening today. You can find complete show notes, links to resources mentioned, as well as a link to our co-working community on our website at thatweirdnerdymom.com. Be sure to leave a rating or review and check me out on Instagram at that_weirdnerdymom. Feel free to shoot me a DM. I'd love to hear from you. Until next time, my wonderful weirdo, you've got this. Bring out your weird.