There’s a big stigma going on in these turbulent times about the concept of change. How change is unsafe and dismantling. Whether it’s political, social, economical, grammatical, or perhaps you want your spice rack to be alphabetical… whatever is changing, I personally think change is freaking awesome. Change represents an opportunity! Take quarantine for example. What wonderful exhaustion that was. We were given this golden snitch of an opportunity to finally stop and smell the racism, voter suppression, exes we shouldn’t be texting at all hours of the night, that diet that ‘never’ worked and the concept of belts. Out of every inner morality lesson I have learned since March the most profound was my discovery of what I wanted versus what was provided.
I spent the majority of the quarantine lockdown out on Shelter Island, NY far removed from the expensive storage unit called my apartment I continued to pay for.. I indelibly exchanged all of my past purchases and currency clutter for clear skies, good company, silk beaches, gardening by the pool, volunteering at the local mom and pop grocery store, sunset cocktails and conversation, kayaking in the rain, birds singing while sipping morning coffee.
It was a pastoral awakening every single day that I never took for granted. It provided me with change I never thought I needed. It gifted me space. I woke up happier, healthier, my third eye was open, everything was in alignment, all because I had less. My materials had shrunk. Something in the stars had given me the user manual on how to simplify my bandwidth. And in return, what I had was community — the exuberant feeling that I was engaging, participating and giving back to the actual people and places around me. I wasn’t buried in my phone like a gnome wishing I had other people’s lives, scrolling to my inevitable doom, adding to cart every little tchotchke on Etsy.. I rediscovered past goals I had tucked away, relationships I had forgotten about, and even started running! I felt like Julia Roberts in Eat, Pray, Love.
Now being back to the ol’ New York City grind attempting to navigate through some new semblance of normal, I am discovering the true power that is change. Having lived for nearly 6-months out of a suitcase I now have a deeply personal understanding of what I actually need. What a concept! #woke
I am sure I will still go through seasonal periods of wanting to accumulate and hibernate, but what this time has taught me having hit the big red reset button is that I finally am able to confidently say, ‘No!’ No..’ I don’t need that in my life. ‘No..’ That won’t make me feel whole. ‘No..’ I don’t want to supersize my order for another dollar-fifty. What I need to do is volunteer, I need to garden and watch things grow, I need to practice patience, I need to vote, I need to call my mother! That’s growth. That’s how you simplify your life, through gratitude. When you shift your perspective and percolate on what you’re grateful for, you invent your own joy. That spark of happiness becomes a mental health tool that you can in turn pass onto other humans. Your presence becomes the present and when linked like that through community, when you make others happy through that joy and gratitude it can be harnessed as a force for good. And that’s when you will experience mountains of space open up in your life. Gratitude is the golden ticket.
Make space for life friends. Make space for possibilities. Make space for proactive, productive, applied change. I like to think of it like a cross country train ride, each stop is progress.
P.S. be sure to laugh at some point today. Laughter is so necessary and important. It’s vital. We all need the life affirming laughs, now more than ever. It really is the best medicine, next to actual medicine.
Jonathan Cobrda is a Life Management and Social Media Consultant at In Order To Succeed
Ho! Ho! Holy smokes is it that time of year again?! We’ve been planning our days between peppermint coffee time and frasier fir blitzen cocktail time. Did another year that felt like a strange 10 finally get to the most magical and busiest of times? Since it’s started getting dark at 2 PM, Santas Outlook has maxed out its storage from all the Black Friday sales and my alarm clock has been set to Mele Kalikimaka I think … “Oh by gosh, by golly” it is! (try not to picture Santa in a Speedo).
If this year has taught you anything it’s what you need versus what you want. You don’t need anything on Etsy Kelsey. So please for the love of schnitzel with noodles and all things gingerbread do not add to cart that electric scooter. Come January 1st you will solely regret it. You have everything you already need right in front of you; however, sadly there are still so many people that are in real need this Christmas — that have undergone profound loss, hardship and are struggling to stay jolly this time of year. So, Santa says, “Pay it forward when no one is watching.” Friends, a little kindness goes a long way. Buy the person in line behind you at Starbucks their grande mocha frappe wanna hippopotamus for Christmas with 17 pumps of caramel and an extra shot of sugar. It will make their day more than you know. Christmas, is more about giving than receiving.
Remember that warm winter coat or hand stitched sweater your Auntie made you that you know you will never wear? Santa says, “donate” it to a nearby coat drive at your neighborhood congregation. Or donate $1 to 10 different organizations that are truly making a difference in our world everyday. Ones that are the nearest and dearest to your hearts. Folks, those people and places are where real magic have occured. The real heroes of 2021 should be celebrated. Even better donate your time to a local homeless shelter or elderly community. We all need to be reminded of humanity this Christmas and give the gift of laughter, love, and community. The theme of 2021 was coming together, apart. We learned and experienced how powerful every little bit can count when we all act and do our part. It takes each of us to be the change we want to see.
Listen, Santa knows that this was going to be your year. 2021 was going to be the year you got everything you wanted — success in your job, your relationships, your emotions, health, finances, everything was going to align and be coming up roses, but this is the year you were given where you ended up knowing what you were truly grateful for. What really matters. Santa says, “Sometimes limitations can set you free.” 2021 taught us to do less than obsess. This Christmas, whether you are with family, friends, or your roommate remember that their presence their gifts of life that you so freely borrow are the best presents that don’t come with a gift receipt. Show how much you appreciate them by giving those gifts back and raising a glass in their honor.
I have 
Now if you’re like me and finished watching ALL of 
Just as Marie Kondo captured our attention last year with her magical “Tidying Up,” so too are the ladies from The Home Edit capitalizing on our collective desire to be more intentional with our space. We’re spending more time than ever at home these days, and find ourselves craving a surrounding that is orderly, easy, and functional. As professional organizers, we’re delighted to see our work and our mission becoming more mainstream and gathering massive attention. At In Order To Succeed, we’ve known for years that our work helping clients pare down, build the muscles of discernment and decision-making, and setting up effective systems in their home is transformational; watching it catch on in such a massive way is validating and much appreciated. As a professional organizer, I watch The Home Edit episodes craving behind-the-scenes moments, because I know from years of experience that the polished half hour they air doesn’t begin to reflect all of the time, expertise, and problem-solving that’s really involved in these before and afters. Even so, I watch their process and grand reveals with the same awe and sense of wonder I experience every time I walk into the Container Store, thinking “these are my people!”
So as 2020 comes to a very welcomed close, take a break from your screens and to-do lists — go out and LIVE! Then come back inside and color-code your sock drawer… or even better, let In Order To Succeed handle it all for you.
There’s no doubt about it: moving is one of life’s most stressful undertakings. Whether you’re heading three miles down the street or three thousand miles across the country, a move of any size can cause more than its share of sleepless nights. And while a move has always been an anxiety-producing event, it has never been more so than in the era of COVID-19.
The 
As a 
In addition to the basics—questions like “What sort of insurance coverage do you have?” and “How can you ensure that my family’s possessions will get to our new home in one piece?”—you might consider asking some questions that center around these organizations’ responses to COVID-19:
Here at 
Back in April, Denise Caron-Quinn, Founder and Director of 
For children (particularly for members of the Class of 2020), the cancellation of school activities and the loss of the soothing balm of their daily routine has upended their lives. As a middle school teacher, I have seen their sadness first-hand, as yawning faces fill up my Zoom calls each day and as students, who have ostensibly reached out for video extra-help sessions, talk to me instead about how much they miss their friends and teachers.
Create your own summer routines and rituals: My brother, Joe, and his partner, Ashley, are raising four unbelievable kids up in Maine. They have engaged in some incredible routine-building over the course of the last few weeks. One of my favorites involves good ol’ backyard camping: they pitched a tent in a newly-cleared space, and the kids have been sleeping outside under the stars. The kids love it, the parents love it…and it’s such a simple way to switch things up.
Rearrange and reconfigure: A few weeks into quarantine, one of my advisees excitedly announced to our Zoom that she and her dad were redecorating the “room under the stairs.” It wasn’t a huge room, but they were going to make it into a small nook for playing and reading. They painted, collected some furniture from around the house, and voilà: a brand-new (actually, a newly-repurposed) space!
Finally: Leave school out of the equation and let your children be: I recently interviewed Judith Warner, author of 
When I was in high school, I learned how to drive a car with a manual transmission. We drove our ’85 Land Cruiser halfway up the biggest hill in town, put the truck in neutral, and set the emergency brake. Then it was my turn to drive.
I spent the first six years of my teaching career working at a boarding school. One winter evening, I got a call from the mother of a boy named Anthony, one of the eighth-graders on my dormitory. Anthony’s mom told me that he had called her again that evening to ask her to send him some more clothes—even though she was sure he had more than enough to get him through until at least April!
Enhance Employee Satisfaction
As the end of the school year approaches we know to anticipate end of term projects and final exams. As parents and former students ourselves we understand that along with these increased demands comes stress and the disruption to normal routines. These changes can be particularly unsettling for your student and your family. While it is ultimately up to your child to figure out which practices work best for them to keep up with the current situation of things, you too can contribute your quota to their drive for success.
A nutritious and balanced diet is the body’s own octane booster to heightened performance. More importantly, however, unhealthy diets especially those saturated with fats, the type you get from over consumption of things like fast foods, snacks, cakes and processed pork or chicken products