Defining what bigg success means to you – what it means to live your life on your own terms – is a critical component of building a reserve. It’s also a part of the third step which we’ll discuss today. Step 3 is …

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Conquer Clutter

There are two kinds of clutter – physical (the one we most often think about) and mental. As long as you have clutter, you won't feel abundance in your life.

Physical clutter
There are three levels of physical clutter, according to Julie Morgenstern, author of Organizing from the Inside Out: 

• Level 1 clutter means simple mistakes that are relatively easy to fix. Have a place for everything that’s easily accessible. If you don’t have a place, get it out of your space!

• Level 2 clutter is about outside forces. You may simply have too much responsibility. You may be going through a transition. Maybe you don’t have the space you need. It could even be the person with whom you live!

• Level 3 physical clutter stems from deeper issues. Some people fulfill their need for abundance by having an abundance of “stuff”. Others like the thrill of the hunt. It may symbolize a lack of goals. Maybe there’s some sentimental attachment to the “stuff”. It can even indicate a perfectionist, believe it or not.

Mental clutter
It's also important to clear out the clutter in our minds. We get bogged down in the past.

• Holding grudges holds us back. Forgiveness frees up our minds and spirits to press forward.

  Not only do we need to forgive others, we need to forgive ourselves. In fact, if you can’t truly forgive yourself, how can you possibly forgive others?

  Cut yourself some slack, for crying out loud! You deserve a break today!

• We also need to learn the right lessons from the past. As kids, we put our hands on a hot stove and got burned. So we didn’t put our hand on a hot stove again.

  As adults, we’ve put our hand on a symbolic hot stove and gotten burned. How did we respond? We don’t turn on the stove anymore!

  Life is full of risk. Try as you might, you can’t avoid it. More importantly, you shouldn’t avoid it!

  Bigg success comes to those who take calculated risks. Sometimes it works out; sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, learn from it and then turn that stove on again and cook up some bigg success for yourself!

• Finally, it's important to understand our strengths and weaknesses. But we clutter our mind with our weaknesses.

  Then we reinforce those thoughts by telling ourselves all of the reasons why we can't do something. Stop telling yourself what you can’t do. Focus on what you can, and will, do!

  We need to believe that we can do it so we will find a way to get it done. Then we will find abundance. That’s bigg success!

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Thanks so much for the gift of your time today. Please join us next time when we’ll take the fourth step to abundant living. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00506-102109.mp3

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Step 1-Find Abundance in a World of Scarcity

Step 2-Find Abundance in a World of Scarcity

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In our corner of the world, it’s finally starting to feel like spring. And here we are almost at the beginning of summer!

We’ve been busy cleaning up outdoors. Washing the windows. Cleaning out the gutters. Trimming the bushes. Picking up sticks in the yard.

Sometimes homeownership feels like work!

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Picking up sticks has its own reward because we bought a fire pit last year. I just love sitting around a fire and smelling the burning wood! It’s fantastic on those cool nights.

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We had a lot of great evenings last year relaxing around the fire. I’d say it’s already paid for itself. Plus it keeps your fire burning in a contained area, Mary-Lynn!

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Planning for a rainy day

We know what we’re going to do the next time we have a rainy day on the weekend. We’re going to have a Clutter Contest!

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You win, George. You have the most clutter!

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The idea is to get rid of the clutter, Mary-Lynn. But thank you for pointing out my clutter!

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We’re going have a contest between the two of us – the person who clears out the most clutter wins. Can you tell that we’re competitive?

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The prize

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Since it’s just the two of us, we can cater the prize however we want. So, if you win Mary-Lynn, I’ll give you a back massage.

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Ooh, I love massages. That will be great. I’ll tell you what, George, since you do most of the cooking … if you win, I’ll cook you dinner!

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I’m not sure that’s such a good prize!

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We’re really trying to highlight that you don’t have to spend money (hey there’s another one of the elements of bigg success) on prizes. They can be personal.

For your family, the prize could be the winner’s favorite home-cooked meal. He or she could choose the next movie to watch or game you all play. It’s completely customizable.

You can have more the one prize. For example, you might have a prize for the person who donates the most. You get stuff out of the house and a favorite charity gets goods they can sell. How’s that for win/win?

Even if you’re not a clutter bug, there may be someone in your house whose clutter drives you crazy. They’ll be more likely to clean it out if they can win a prize they really want. And think about it … they should be the odds-on favorite to win because they have the most stuff!

Household chores aren’t the most exciting way to spend our time off. However, this is one thing that can really ramp up your productivity. Studies show that the average American could save about an hour a day if they cleared out their clutter!

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When I heard that statistic, it really made me think about how to get more organized.

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It made me realize that it was time to clear out my clutter. Now I need to go get the ladder so I can start looking through that pile on my desk!

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Thanks so much for the gift of your time today!

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Please join us next time when we’ll discuss saving for (and allowing yourself to spend on) bigg ticket items. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00400-052209.mp3

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What Causes Your Clutter?

Get Rid Of Clutter And Save An Hour A Day With These Simple Tips

(Image by sindesign,CC 2.0)

As the song says, “Girls just want to have fun.” So do bigg girls and bigg boys.

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Spending time without spending money

One of the greatest joys in life is spending time with close friends. These days we’re being careful with our money which can sometimes create a challenge in spending time with friends.

For example, do you stay in or go out? If you go out, are you excluding some friends by going to a certain restaurant or choosing a specific activity? One or more of your friends may not be able to afford it.

The great thing about spending time with friends is that you don’t have to spend any money at all if you don’t want. It’s about spending time together.

A pantry potluck

One of our friends had a great idea. You can have some fun with friends and clean out clutter – in your cabinets and freezer – without spending any money. How’s that for a killer combination?

Organize a “pantry potluck.” Here’s how it works – Plan a date to get together. For your meal, everyone prepares at least one dish from ingredients they already have in their kitchen.

Get creative. Dig deep in your freezer. Check the back of your cabinets.

It’s essentially a free meal for everyone because the money’s already been spent!

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I think it would be hard not to spend money on something new.

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I’m not surprised to hear you say that, Mary-Lynn!

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Well, off the top of my head, I’m just thinking about what we have. Fritos but not even a full bag. Cake mix but no frosting.

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Boy, Mary-Lynn, I can tell I do most of the cooking around here. I think we have a lot of things that would be perfect for a pantry potluck.

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So we checked out our freezer. We have a bag of French fries but, just as I suspected, there was only about a third left.

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Yeah, but we also have a full bag of meatballs. They would be great for a potluck. And there’s a lot of chicken. In our cabinets, there’s a cream of mushroom soup can – that would be good with the meatballs. Oh, and cream of chicken and herb soup – I’m thinking chicken casserole of some sort. There’s marinara sauce so we could do the meatballs two ways.

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I also see a can of tuna and some tuna helper. I guess you were right, George. We do have a lot of options for the pantry potluck.

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Since Mary-Lynn was worried about frosting for the cake, I remembered that we had cream cheese in the refrigerator. So we looked up a recipe for cream cheese frosting; it turns out that we have everything we need – butter, vanilla, and powdered sugar.

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I’ve never made cream cheese frosting before. I sure hope our friends don’t mind being the guinea pigs!

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Ramp it up

Now here’s the bigg idea. If you want to ramp up the fun even more, have a contest. You may vote on the most original dish, the tastiest, the most home-made or any other category you might like.

You can even up the ante by choosing a theme and asking everyone to bring a dish that goes along with that theme. Now your creativity will get pushed even more but it might make it more fun.

That’s the whole reason we’re talking about this. You can have fun with your friends, clear out clutter and not spend any money all while improving creativity skills. That’s a lot of synergy. That’s bigg success!

What’s in your pantry now that you could take to a potluck?

Thank you so much for reading our post today.

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Please join us next time when we discuss a bigg question from one of our listeners. He wants to know if he should pay down his mortgage or make some home improvements.

Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

Subscribe to The Bigg Success Show in iTunes. 

Subscribe to the Bigg Success feed.

Direct link to The Bigg Success Show audio file:
http://media.libsyn.com/media/biggsuccess/00390-050809.mp3

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(Image in today's post by gozdeo)