TGIF: Jaime Willis

TGIF:

This Goal Is Finished

Good morning achievers! Hope you've had a wonderful week!

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This week we're doing something a little different -- I (Jaime) am going to talk about one of my most recent accomplishments.

The Achiever

Jaime Willis and her first love, Starbucks.
Photo by Jeff of Drongo Photo. 

My name is Jaime Willis, and I am the cofounder of Velocity with my business partner, Matt Leedham.  In many ways, my life is analogous to Batman.  In my "Bruce Wayne" role, I lead a team of employees at DC Public Schools focused on federal grants compliance.  As "Batman," I help people find and live their passions through my work teaching, training, and coaching for Velocity.  Unlike Batman, however, I don't have a wonderful butler named Alfred to organize my life (and house), which brings me to my goal.  

The Goal

My ultimate goal is to simplify my life.  

The first mini-goal of this meta-goal was to eliminate 90% of my book collection. 

Why This Goal?

I have accumulated a lot of stuff over the years.  A lot of it is stuff that I find a lot of value in, like my book collection, so I am really reluctant to get rid of it.  However, my life is busy and it's getting busier.  If I didn't have so much "stuff," I would be spending much less of my precious free time doing the byproduct of having a lot of stuff -- dreaded housework!

Before I started this mission to simplify my life, for example, I had collected over 3,000 books.  If you are curious what that looks like, imagine a stack of books three feet wide.  My book collection would be stacked 21 feet high -- over two stories of books!  That's a lot of dusting, and I really hate dusting.  I am also really allergic to dust.  A bad combo all the way around.

The First Step

My inclination when I first got the idea to downsize my book collection was to start sorting and pack my books up.  When I was walking through this goal with my personal coach, though, I realized that the better first step was coming up with a plan.  If I just sorted and packed up books, I would end up with an even bigger mess in my apartment -- stacks of ugly boxes likely to stay there indefinitely while I "figured out" how and where to donate or sell my books.

This is a picture of the current book collection at Woodson.
Look at all of the shelves that are completely empty!

My first step then, was to answer those questions -- where would my books go, how would they get there, and by when?  Luckily, I had a great resource right at my work -- Pat Brown, the DCPS Director of Media Services.  She told me that although H.D. Woodson Senior High School is moving into a brand new building next school year, they have less than 1,500 books to shelve in the new digs.  And even those books may not be worth keeping as they are out of date -- twenty or more years old.

If I donated my books there, I'd over double their entire collection!  That was pretty motivating!

Challenges

I had three main challenges with this goal -- finding the time, choosing which of my beloved books were leaving me forever, and handling the logistics of donating what was ultimately 18 boxes and 700 pounds of books.

To keep myself accountable, I called the school librarian and scheduled a day that I would deliver my donation.  That way, I would feel more positive pressure to stay on track with getting the books ready for donation.

When I was sorting through my books, there were lots of times I really didn't want to donate the books.  Two thoughts really helped me get past that -- knowing that if I didn't donate the book I loved, other kids wouldn't have the chance to read that story and knowing that I could always re-buy or even go visit my books if I ever wanted to!

A picture of all the books loaded into the minivan.

The logistics were initially easy, but became more difficult over time.  I rented a minivan to drop the books off and went to Home Depot and bought a bunch of packing boxes and tape.  The problem came when it was time to load the books -- the first set of boxes I bought were too big, resulting in boxes too heavy for me to lift, much less carry out to the car!  I went back to Home Depot, bought smaller boxes, repacked the books and was able to get everything loaded.

Staying Motivated

Because I kept to my initial timeline of having this project completed within a month, I didn't have any problems staying motivated to complete the task.

Who Helped?

My personal coach, Lindsay Alexander, was a huge help on this project.  She helped me better define and develop this goal, made sure that I was keeping to my timeline, and provided me with lots of positive feedback and praise that kept me really wanting to finish.

Pat Brown, Woodson's librarian Kim Wright, and many of the students and staff at Woodson were all helpful.  Pat was instrumental in giving me the tip that Woodson could use the books.  Kim helped me organize the donation and let me know which books would be more useful for donation.  Finally, Woodson staff and students all helped unload the 700 pounds of books I had lugged to their school last week.

TGIF – Celebrate!

Once I dropped off my donation, I called up my mom.  She knows how big of a bibliophile I am, and was initially shocked to hear I was willing to donate that much of my collection.  It was nice to have her congratulate me on my big first step in 'simplifying my life.'  I am also excited to visit the school next year and see my donation in action.

Advice

With the popularity of cleaning shows like Clean Sweep (love Peter Walsh!), Clean House (Niecy Nash hosted this!) , and Hoarders, it is clear that accumulating stuff is a growing (literally) problem in the United States.  I am not immune to the desire to own "stuff."

I think the best advice I can give someone, especially someone who, like me, has tried and failed to "organize" or "de-clutter" for years, is to HAVE A PLAN before you even pick up one single thing.  For me, knowing exactly where my stuff was going, how it was getting there, and by when, was HUGE in terms of accountability.  (I still have a bag of clothes set aside to donate to good will from a closet clean out last year, so the power of plan is very real to me).

Second, I have to say, was having my coach as a resource.  Lindsay made sure that my plan was realistic. Initially, I wanted to have everything done over one week, which is completely unrealistic, given my schedule & commitments.  If I had set that as my goal, I would have missed my deadline and considered the project a failure.  By having a coach, I was able to set a realistic goal and she helped keep me on track to my ultimate success!

What’s Next?

Ultimately, I am planning on living in a very 'zen' apartment that is not filled with stuff, but just the things I need to live comfortably.  Lindsay and I will be working on putting my next mini-goal together, which I think will be tackling the mountains of clothing I own.  :) I am really excited to making strides on living in a way that honors my time and values.  If I can't have Alfred, I'll make sure I have a home that I don't need an Alfred to clean up!