What Do You Want?

You’ve seen them everywhere. Storage units. Places to store our stuff. The stuff we aren’t using. The stuff we are afraid to throw away. The stuff we have no idea what to do with, so we keep it.

We pay for it to sit there. Perhaps never to be seen again.

But Life Storage is also the place where our dreams are stored never to be seen again. A place where we put a life we think we aren’t worthy of having.

Or the life we can’t have because of the price that we think we would have to pay to live it.

Or the life that others have said we are not good enough to live.

Or we are too old, or too young, too short, or too tall.

Or it would move us away from family and friends who have expectations of how we should live our life.

Maybe we have put part of our life in storage because of all these reasons.

But life is a gift. To be used and lived, not stored away.

The French author Fran Mauriac said, “Most men resemble great deserted palaces: the owner occupies only a few rooms and has closed off wings where he never ventures.”

Let’s not be that person.

There may be times we need to store our life dreams away temporarily while we deal with situations that require our full attention. But life storage should never, ever, be permanent.

I have used physical storage units four times. Each time it was when I was moving somewhere, and not sure if I would stay. I put the “stuff” I knew I wouldn’t need in the unit and took off. But when I knew where I was going, I came back and took everything out of storage.

I moved what I thought I still needed to where I had gone, and sold or threw away the rest.

So that we don’t store our life away permanently, it’s essential to know what to keep and what to let go of.

This might help.

Make two lists. Add to these lists as you go about your days for the next week or so.

• The first list involves what you would do with your life if you took it out of storage.

Making this list may—no will—take some imagination.

Years ago, while my life was turning upside down, my friends gave me a graphic art piece by Brian Andreas that said:” If we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination.”

I hung that picture on my wall, and I took what it said to heart. It took a while, and a lot of imagination, and clear choices, but today, I don’t think I have any of my life in storage anymore.

Still, I periodically check to make sure that I don’t. I ask myself, am I using the talents and life gifts to the best of my ability? Can I hone them and use them better? Am I sharing them?

Yes, I have learned to say no to many things I thought I might want to do or see because I wanted something else more. That’s not life storage. That’s a clear choice.

• The other list is what you don’t want.

This list is just as important. You are allowed to want things, and equally, you are allowed not to want some things.

We can’t be everything or do everything. We have specific gifts to share with the world.

When we keep things we don’t want or need, they drain us of energy, hope, time, and life essence. Author Brian Thompson said, “You don’t possess your possessions, they possess you.”

This is not just about things, it’s also about ideas.

Clearing out the storage units in our lives will release us from what we don’t want. And releasing our lives from storage will allow our lives to expand into what they are meant to be.

Sometimes we need help taking our lives, and our stuff, out of storage. Reach out and ask for help. And reach out and give help. Those two actions can make all the difference.

Let me know if I can help.

Watch for the upcoming Imagination Mastery book!