241: Jumpstart Challenge Day 3 - Roll With It

Happy Wednesday. We are in day three of our jumpstart challenge.

I have not been calling that that name from the beginning, so I might have to go back and fix my titles because I actually like it. We're in a jumpstart. It is September. I chose now to do a jumpstart because a lot of times we have this feeling of a fresh start because we're all on new routines thanks to school starting up And it just feels like the right time. But sincerely, this little five-day jumpstart challenge, kind of commit to memory where it is.

And I started at such a random time in episode 239. But you could literally use it any time you just need to get yourself going again. So, hoping that you're not arriving on this in the middle, but if you are, don't worry. Every single day's challenge is independent of the other days. So, you could start right now with me and then explore what the others are, or you can zip back to 239 and do them in the order I happen to record these.

But there truly is no rhyme nor reason. I could have recorded them in any particular order. they are all standalone, very quick hit challenges. The goal here is just to get us moving. For whatever reason, our ADHD brains can have big dreams and very little action. And the cure for inaction is, to, well, I was going to say, in order to get motivation, you actually need to start moving. That's where my head was going. But in the middle of that sentence,

I got lost. I would love to know the cure for inaction. We're trying to get ourselves to act. And so for whatever reason, sometimes challenges will kick us into gear. And that's what we're looking for here. If I leave this in, it's just because welcome to the Joy Loving Home podcast. It is a series of chaos here. Hopefully it fits your brain and suits you. And if it's driving you crazy, then I'm probably not the person for you.

There are very organized professional organizers who would suit you better. And that's okay because there's somebody for everybody. But if you are into this rambling and I am your person, then proceed forward because we are here to help each other out and to get into motion.

So what I want to do is dig into our third day, which I am calling roll with it and I'll explain it right after this. A wise person once said, everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it's stupid. Well, fish, quit trying to climb trees while getting advice from well-intentioned monkeys. It's time to jump in the water and learn how to swim with the current of your

life. I'm Joy, a professional organizer, mom of four, and fellow Fishbrain. If you're looking for a place to get understanding, encouragement, and ideas for your home that actually fit how your brain thinks, then I'm glad you're here. Let's ditch the type A advice and embrace what makes our brains and our homes unique. Together, we could have a joy-loving home. Okay, after that chaotic intro, I feel like I need to give you some quick qualifications here.

I have been doing this Joy Loving Home podcast for three years, and to save you the effort of going back to the beginning, I call it Joy Loving Home because most importantly, I feel like having happiness in our home is what we're all striving for, and it has nothing to do with the aesthetic of our home. And I sympathize, empathize with folks who struggle keeping their home in some kind of order and feeling like they're broken. And I have done three, four different certifications now.

I have been a mom of four for 25 years. I have been in all stages of absolute chaos. I know what it's like to be exactly wherever it is you're sitting right now, even if it's not my current reality. And I was deep diving into trying to figure out how to quote-unquote fix myself and my home when it hit me that a lot of the organizing advice that I was reading and searching for were, it was all coming from people who had just been naturally organized.

And because you're naturally organized, you can tell other people how to get organized. It's not entirely wrong. I'm not saying they're wrong. I'm just saying we're not their audience. That should be type A people for type A people, which is what most of the organizing industry does. It caters to people like us who are chaotic, but it is meant for people who are not. And that's, I discovered that along the way when I was getting my certifications.

I did not intend to become a professional organizer. I was just so close to a certification by the time I quit trying to like deep dive for myself that I was like, hey, why not? And then I discovered when I was with clients, because I was like, I have the certification, let me go try and use it, that I had a particular type of empathy that some of my clients who had tried other organizers were not getting because their organizer didn't get it.

And if you don't get it, then it's really hard to help somebody with anything other than a, here's what you need. You need a strict system. You need to stay on a routine. You need to be consistent. Those things will help. I'm not saying they're wrong. I just know our brains don't work that way. And I was just tired of seeing women beat themselves up because I'd felt it, because I'd beat myself up enough to be like, it's got to be something else. It's got to be a different way to approach this.

And that's where this whole podcast was born. I, by the way, am Joy. Actually, I am Joy Loving. That is my middle name, sincerely. And it just felt like a fun little play on words. So. Introduction to me. Hello. I'm really glad you're here. And if this sounds like a place that just suits you, please stick around. Share it with a friend who also needs some love and encouragement and grace and kindness to ourselves to find a new way.

And one of the new ways is that I am never going to prescribe a one-size-fits-all approach. I am going to give you the novelty that your brain is seeking by treating your home like some grand experiment. And in experiments, you try things that could work for a little bit, then quit working. They could not work at all. They could work quite well, but you have life happen and it's time to shift gears. Those are not failures. Those are discoveries.

And our home is about a series of discovering things along the way that delight you and you continue with until you don't. And I will argue and argue and argue till the cows come home that we have been conditioned to believe when we can't keep our house up that life got in the way.

Never ever ever believe that life is getting in the way of a pristine home because then you have it incredibly backwards life is the point life is why you're doing this you your job is to fit managing your home into the margins of choosing life first so I just emphasize that our goal is the joy in our home. It is the being present. It is the choosing moments over things. I hope that's hitting home because I did not mean to go on this tangent.

My podcasts are a series of quickly jotted notes that I can barely read and then hitting record and rolling with whatever flies out of my mouth.

But you are here for the Roll With It Challenge and we're going to zip it up and we're going to get back to what this means. Okay, so super quick. None of these challenges, are a new invention. They are all just restating things you have probably heard, but maybe you haven't done them in a while. And it's time to go, you know what, I'm going to do this with her. This is what this challenge is about. I am going to commit to the next 15 minutes to doing whatever this challenge is.

And I'm just going to get into motion, which is the whole point. So what the roll with it challenge is, is you grab a sheet of paper or open the notes app on your phone, get a list ready to number one through six, and jot down six locations in your home that tend to need. Tidied up over and over and over again. And so for me, I wrote down bathroom, bedroom, kitchen, laundry, entry, family room.

And what you do in your six can be any, any six you want. Those were just the first six that came to mind when I was jotting notes. You grab a die, if you can find one. Go raid the games cabinet. Grab out a die. When you roll it, you will see a number one through six. Whatever number that lands on, set your timer for 15 minutes and commit to just spending time tidying up in that space for 15 minutes. You're not looking for a finish.

You're not looking for perfection. You're improving it by 15 minutes. That's it. If you absolutely cannot stomach walking into the space you just rolled, you get one roll again. One. You don't get to sit here and roll until you get the five because you really wanted it to land on a five. And if you're like, Joy, you do not understand the state of my house, there's no chance I'll know where to find the dice out of some game.

What I want you to do is push the little button on your phone or if you happen to have one of those Alexas or whatever, and just say, Siri or Alexa, give me a random number between one and six, and she will do that for you. There's ways around all of it. So why will this work? Why is doing this something that will get you up and get you into motion? One, because it takes away the decision.

Sometimes we sit in our paralysis because we can argue inside of our head why any one of these six is more important than the other. And we can sit there in a loop overthinking it. This is just, I've got six things down. I'm going to roll. I'm going to let my, my die be the brain right now, and I'm just going to move my feet into the direction it told me to go when I rolled.

That's one reason. The other reason is it adds a slight little gamification to this activity, which for whatever reason, spikes a little dopamine in our brains. And that little extra nudge of dopamine by holding that die and rolling that die or giving the, you know, the talk of give me a random number between one and six, it allows us to get that spike of dopamine that will get us going.

And that's, that's what we need. The whole point is to overcome inertia here. We're just getting ourselves into motion. Once that 15 minute timer goes off, full permission to stop. If you're like, I'm on a roll now, why would I stop? I'm on a roll. Hit start over and see if you can push yourself for another 15. If that's still going well and you can find yourself humming through things now, take it as long as you have the time to take. I hate it when people stop a roll.

Like you've finally gotten yourself into motion. You're like, well, timer went off. I got to stop now. Give yourself permission to hit repeat on that timer as many times as you have the time to. It's wonderful. Lean into that action. That's how things get done. But if you're like, I really, really, really want to work on this other project, then commit yourself to 15 minutes of this and then go get busy on the other because the motion will cause action on your project as well, which is,

part of what this whole challenge is about. So the final cool thing about this is you can hold on to this six days. Sorry, my dog is doing a low growl. You can do this six days in a row if you wanted to, because you just tell yourself, if I roll a five again, I can't, I got to roll again. Any task you've already done, just promise yourself you won't repeat until you've gone through all six numbers on your list.

You can use it when you have a task list of to-dos that aren't about cleaning and you're like, I have to call and make a dentist appointment. I have to return this thing to the store. I have to, you know, whatever your to-do tasks are, you can put those on a numbered list and do it randomly as well. There's lots of uses for the roll with it type of challenge.

So hopefully that's helpful. You can enjoy it. I have rambled far too long. I'm actually almost at the 15-minute mark, so you could literally re-listen to this if you want and just work the whole time because it's 15 minutes long. But anyway, I hope you are enjoying this. Please, please share and tell a friend. Rate and review the podcast on Apple Podcasts if that's where you listen.

It means the world to me so that other moms like you who might be struggling a little bit with their homes can find somebody who understands. And that would just mean the world to me. If you want to reach out to me in any other capacity, I love to hear from my listeners. I love any suggestions and things you'd love for me to talk about. And you can reach me by just emailing joy at joylovinghome.com. And if you go to joylovinghome.com, you can find all the ways to join my community,

my membership. Work with me. All the things are there. Until next time, which is tomorrow, continue to choose joy.