Want to Organize Your Life? Figure Out – Which Monkey Is On Your Back and Remove the Monkey Now!

We all have a monkey on our back. The question is how big is it?

You may be a person who is somewhat organized. Or conversely, you may be a person with a significant degree of chaos. Even if you want to organize your life, it can be hard.

Regardless of how adept we are at taming life’s clutter, the reality is that, from time to time, there can be a monkey on our backs. Your monkey may be quite large.

Time to remove the monkey. Start by asking yourself these questions when you want to organize your life now:

Have you filed taxes in five years?

Do you have the report completed?

Are the kids set for school or camps?

Does your closet need to be purged?

It doesn’t matter the size, if there is something that is causing us a high degree of stress and demands that it get dealt with, then there is a monkey on our back.  It will only get heavier as we procrastinate, so addressing it head on is the only course of action.

How does the monkey differ from the top goal when you want to get organized?

If there is a monkey, and there often is, it may align with the goal to a certain degree. In the case of my tax negligent student, she came to the course wanting to create more income. She hadn’t filed taxes because she thought the bill would be too high.

Interestingly enough, once she decided to dig in and address the taxes, she found that not only was she able to consolidate the debt, but money began to pour in.

Imagine that you have a monkey on your back, and it is causing you a great degree of stress.

This monkey is blocking every good thing that could possibly come your way in many areas of your life. I had a friend who was in a job that she couldn’t stand.

She worked in a dark basement and had a boss who was unappreciative and demanding. Her co-workers talked about her behind her back; she was miserable.

In another area of her life, she really wanted to lose weight. She tried everything including acupuncture, detoxification, meditation and more. Nothing worked. In fact, she continued to gain weight.

On the side, she had started a business which was bringing in enough money to cover her expenses. She also had contract work which was quite lucrative, and the contractor wanted her to do more.

These two sources of revenue were enough to replace her employment income and would allow her to be at home with her children and have much less stress.

Her monkey, the job, was something she just couldn’t let go of. She thought it was her security blanket; however, it was more like a python strangling her slowly, suffocating her.

To many, the monkey in this story is obvious. However, depending on the size, it can take a significant degree of courage to deal with such a substantial foe.

You may be like my friend, facing a monkey that seems like a five thousand pound gorilla, and for this, I wish you the strength to deal with it.

The thing that I have observed time and again is that we make these monkeys out to be much larger than they actually are. When we procrastinate, we give these situations greater power, which like kryptonite to Superman, only serves to drain us of our energy.

In the Bible, David conquered Goliath with a slingshot. You may be surprised at how easily you can take your monkey down,using much less force than you had previously thought.

The reality is that, much like Goliath, who was dangerous, your monkey needs to be dealt with because until it is – it will cost your health, perhaps your relationships and, in most cases, a significant amount of money. If you do indeed have a large monkey, start there first. The messy closet can wait – the back taxes can’t.

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Susan Sly is a best selling author, work life balance expert, speaker and entrepreneur. She has appeared on CNN, CNBC, Fox, Lifetime Television and the CBN. Susan is the mother of five children and resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.