Midlife is a great time to review your life and career. Is everything going in the direction you want or is it time to review, revise and revitalise?
It’s so easy to settle and to think you are doing fine, but is everything fine?
We can start working on the small stuff and then move into bigger areas. For me, I’ve started with shoes – I have pretty shoes I can’t walk in, shoes I just don’t like and far too many to wear. So, for me, sorting my shoes is step 1.
I’m following the advice in Marie Kondos book The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up. Following her advice, I’m asking myself as I look at each item Does it spark joy?
I’m starting with clothes as this is the easy place to start first do they fit well, if they hurt, they clearly don’t give me joy. This was a good way to narrow the number of shoes I have any that were tight or rubbed went straight into the charity shop pile.
Step 2 was to look at the shoes that were left and check on the joy factor. I was surprised at how few pairs I had left as I went through this.
I was miffed at the shoes Id bought and never worn! But this is sunk cost expenditure. Yes, I could try and sell them but the thought of getting them listed on eBay doesn’t give me joy, whereas taking them to the charity shop is a good way of making a charitable donation.
and then I chickened out. I’ve kept more shoes than feel me with joy as there may be times, I need short boats with jeans, or black bar shoes with some of my 50s dresses. My concern is that if I get rid of them Ill end up replacing them in a few months’ time.
I have set up a 9-month reminder and all shoe boxes have a postcard in them. If the postcard is still there on 15 February, the shoes will go!