The Garage You’ll Clean Out Someday

At the edges of your understanding and mastery of your business, your systems, and your depth is a realm of total chaos. This realm feels unordered and confusing, but it’s nothing to be afraid of.

Of course you won’t want to spend time there. Who does? Who wants to go into their garage and be reminded of all the order they’ve neglected. Who wants to open up the junk drawer and stare deep into the abyss of chaos and uncategorizable items.

You want the world to bend to your system. You want the world to fit nicely into its category. And yet it’s at the edges of understanding. In the junk drawers of your business, the uncomfortable parts of your relationships—that’s where gold lives.

Unearthed opportunities. Hidden wisdom. Game-changing possibility.

The hard part isn’t finding it. The hard part is being willing to sit and look into the abyss and be comfortable with the groundlessness that exists inside. This is the edge of mastery and the beginning of endless potential.

To do this, close your eyes. Feel into one place in your life or your business that feels out of order. The taxes that are undone. The disorganized filing system. For a moment breathe into what it feels like to be with that chaos. Breathe into the guilt you feel. The shame. The desire to hide it. The fear that someone might stumble over this part of your business and expose you for the fraud you are. For one moment just be with this disorder.

Maybe you decide to clean it today, maybe not. Either way take a moment to be with it. Learn to love the chaos you see. And ask yourself: where’s the opportunity, right here, hidden underneath the pile of forgotten work, ideas, and misplaced things? You don’t have to see it. Just see if you can feel it underneath it all.

This alone—this willingness to be with the disorder—is all you need to bring it into focus. And it’s the first step to changing your relationship with yourself and the world in a surprisingly delightful way.