National Clean Off Your Desk Day

National Clean Off Your Desk Day

January 13, 2015 Uncategorized 0

 

Monday, January 12 was National Clean Off Your Desk Day. Um, okay, I guess. Sounds to me like someone had a far too much spare time on their hands because seriously: shut up. Who cares about your clean desk? I’m writing this, in my home office, sitting at a desk that is a sea of notes, books, classic MAD Magazines, business cards: you get the point. There’s a cat snoring sweetly in one of my desk drawers. This desk ain’t gonna win any awards for cleanliness, but my boss is still able to use it to transact a ton of business, so she’s not complaining. On a related note, have I mentioned that I’m my own boss?

I’m irritated by meaningless events such as National Clean Off Your Desk Day, because they encourage us to worry about all the wrong things. Who cares if your desk is pristine if your professional life is in shambles? Who cares if your desk is spotless, if you wake up every morning crying about having to go to a job that leaves you empty inside? I’m irritated by a fey, shallow success-obsessed society that puts deadly emphasis on surfaces, on achievements, while simultaneously giving no credence whatsoever to all the true, demanding interior work that must be done to figure out and create one’s passion.

Also, if you’re working hard, trying to create something important, you can’t waste your time and energy, worrying about keeping your desk tidy. To get in the zone of creativity, you have to relax and allow yourself to focus on what matters. Your messy desk does not matter! Your messy, unfocused, out-of-control life, on the other hand…

People are making themselves feel guilty for having a messy desk, even as they, shamelessly, perform unbelievable emotional contortions to avoid committing to their dreams.  That drives me insane. If you can get all bent out of shape about your messy desk, even as you invest years of your life telling yourself all the reasons why you have to continue at a job you loathe…nope. That does not compute. And yet millions of people do it. Meanwhile, advertisers use terms like “integrity” and “passion” and “commitment” to sell eye-shadow and cars and cat toys, but when someone is engaged in the chaotic, disorganized process of re-creating their life, they’re told to behave and be neat. (Grrrr…..)

Some of you are thinking that I’m naïve. You’re wrong, but whatever, knock yourself out. Actually I’m someone who identified, to myself, my deepest fears about changing my life, and went ahead anyway. There really was no choice and I found it so tedious to make excuses. Also, each time I rationalized to myself all the reasons I couldn’t start a business, and did something else, the “something else” wouldn’t work because I had zero interest in it. However, once I started using all my energy for my business, instead of making excuses…bingo. Listen, you’re gonna work hard, so why not work hard at something that matters to you, instead of chasing other people’s fears? You tell me you’re not certain you’ll succeed. Ya think? You are very observant. The only things certain in this life are death and taxes. But you can be certain that if you continue to make excuses about doing what you love, you will end up wishing you were dead.

Listen, living your dreams is TERRIFYING, and can make you sick to your stomach…but how is committing to your fears a serious alternative? The best example I can give you, of the corrosive nature of sticking to your fears, is the woman I used to know who had been a call girl for the past 14 years. Now, at 47, she was flat broke, had never had a loving relationship with a man, woke up weeping, went to bed weeping: you get the picture. Lots of weeping. If you suggested that hey, this is crazy but maybe being a sex worker isn’t doing it for you, why not try something else, she’d get all defensive, and tell you in detail why she HAD to be a sex worker. She’d tell you that one day she was planning to write her novel, start a small business, fall in love, and generally change the world, but right now, she had to go have sex with a stranger for money. Right now she was busy. Later on, she’d be busy weeping, and spending her ill-gotten gains on Botox and crying some more. Busy, busy, busy.

I’m just saying…imagine if we all spent all of our energies being busy doing what sustains and affirms us? Imagine. Some people say they have to live on the edge…if you can call that “living.” I don’t know, maybe I am naïve, but I don’t think much of a life wherein any day you don’t cry is a successful day…but I know quite a few people who do. As Americans we get SO much emotional and societal “value” from our work, so if we toil away at something that doesn’t emotionally sustain us, it’s truly devastating. Even working at something you love, you’re going to have good days and bad, but when you’re working to achieve other people’s dreams and actively stepping on the throat of your own…yipes.

Terrifying as it is to fight for your dreams—and it is a fight, don’t delude yourself—giving up is much, much worse. Giving up never ends.

Anyhoo, January 12 is National Clean Off Your Desk Day. Mark your calendar. If that matters to you, go for it. But if you’re miserable in your life, don’t worry about your desk, start cleaning up your life. A messy desk never got in the way of anyone’s joy.

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