Zen Life in London

After spending 12 weeks on assignment in a serviced apartment in London, I got used to seeing empty shelves and drawers. It was a Zen experience to wander into my flat each night .. and not be distracted by hubs of clutter on every conceivable surface.

No stacks of discarded books from an aspirational reading list; no towers of forgotten subscription magazines; no stacks of unopened mail waiting to be processed; no piles of shoes by the door waiting to trip me up! And no exercise bike with an identity crisis … is it a towel rail, or is it a clothes horse?

Space to Create

Now I have to admit, the dining table in my London flat was choc-full of activity. My 2nd laptop was always standing by, ready to jump into action, and the draft version of my book “The Bodrum Peninsula Travel Guide: Turkey’s Aegean Gem” was organized by subject matter and strewn across the 6-person dining table.

But it was a self-contained hive of activity and didn’t stray further than the table, and because of my self-imposed deadline, I had a goal in mind and knew that this clutter would be resolved by May 31st when I became an Author!

Back in LA-LA land

Why is it that if you settle in one place for an extended period of time … the nomad’s survival instinct fades and the nesting instinct takes over? The accumulation of belongings after spending so many expat years here in LA-LA land, has finally hit breaking point. It’s time to clean house and get rid of the distractions and adding no value to day to day life.

What’s the Plan? 

There’s two things standing in the way … being overwhelmed by the task ahead:

And drumming up enough enthusiasm to overcome my apathy:

So once I’d spent a full two weeks decompressing from the trip, and the novelty of navigating my oversize suitcase began to feel like an Olympic hurdles try-out; I solved my dilemma.

I asked myself two questions:

• What do I want to achieve?
• When do I want to finish it?

…. this blog post has been a long time in the making … it’s been sitting in my drafts folder for a while (18 months to be exact!) – But a New Year has arrived, choc-full of new resolutions. Let’s see how this mystery unfolds!