Dream Changer-Featuring Lisa Sharp from Clear Calm Space Organizing

***This week I am honored to share with you the funny and inspiring Dream Changer post from an incredibly creative and passionate dreamer, business woman, and professional organizer extraordinaire, Lisa Sharp.  When asked about her ‘Dream Changer’, this is what she shared with me.
Enjoy!***

Ever since I was a kid, I have tended to do things in my own way. If you tell me I have to do something in a particular way, there’s a pretty good chance that I’m going to do it, well, differently. So I guess it’s no big surprise that I am where I am today, running my own business doing what I love to do as a Professional Organizer, on my own terms. But it wasn’t easy to get to that point, and I certainly don’t have everything figured out. I don’t think you ever really do.

One of my first jobs as a teenager was as a project manager in a psychologist’s office. I organized things, inventoried them, deleted redundancies and made things pretty. That’s sort of what I do now and I enjoyed (some of) the work but I disliked working for someone else and I really hated wearing panty hose and having an hour commute to work every day. I have a vivid memory of sitting in rush hour traffic, sweating up a storm (it was May in Phoenix, Arizona so that’s like a zillion degrees), feeling myself getting more and more pissed off at being so uncomfortable both physically and mentally. I took off my panty hose and threw them out the window while sitting at a red light (I can only imagine what the guy sitting next to me thought) and I vowed to never put myself in that sort of situation again. I put in my two weeks notice the next day. Turns out, that experience dictated most of my career.

Since that time, I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Social Work and a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science and have carefully and strategically avoided wearing panty hose and driving long commutes.  I am never more lit up and heart centered than when I am of service to others, helping to remove emotional blocks and finding resources that can help them. So being a librarian and a social worker felt like I was in the ballpark. But, working for other people? Not being able to call my own shots? I wasn’t too crazy about that. There was always this little voice saying, “Wouldn’t it be great to run our own business? Make our own decisions? Come on, try it!” Hearing that voice would do two things:  get me sweaty palmed, lit up and super excited and then, so uncomfortable it felt like someone dumped ice water down my back. Ugh, that Ego sure doesn’t like to be uncomfortable. So I listened to my Ego for years and year, a near constant diatribe of negativity.

Has your Ego told you any of these lies too?

-It’s too hard.

-You don’t have enough education, experience, money or time. (All of the above? Uh huh. Me too.)

-Most businesses fail. Yours will too.

-Look at those other things you did and they didn’t work. Why should this one succeed?

-This couch is super comfortable. Let’s stay here. We’ll do that other stuff tomorrow.

Eventually, I started realizing that was a bunch of crap and that people succeed doing amazing stuff every single day. And then one day, last August, I saw this little sign and everything changed for me.I realized that I was playing it safe, researching business practices, marketing, you know, getting a plan. Because that’s smart, right? But I realized that I had been making a plan to strike out on my own for years. I had already read dozens of books, spent hours on YouTube and walked miles in my neighborhood listening to business podcasts. I had done the research, I had the experience helping people and I had the intuitive understanding of what my business should look like and who my clients were going to be. So I stepped out on faith, typed up a Facebook update that said I was taking new clients starting that day and I pushed “Post.”

Holy crap was that a big moment for me. I was sort of shocked that I finally did it. That I had started this thing that I had dreamed about for over twenty years. It felt amazing. Like AMAZING, AMAZING. I started booking clients that day and within a month I saw 10 clients. I learned and earned (not much, but more than I had not doing anything) and it was, and still continues to be, a total blast.

So I encourage you, my new friend, to just start. Start small, start huge, it doesn’t matter. Take a step. Make a call, put yourself out there, be vulnerable. Today is the day and remember, you are building something beautiful with each step you take. What can YOU do today to start making your dream a reality? I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. You can do it, you are ready.

Namaste

xo-

Lisa

Lisa Sharp gets excited setting up household paperwork systems, cleaning out closets and downsizing households. You’d think she’d be a tad Type A and super anal retentive to do that, but you’d be wrong. She loves connecting with clients, carefully and compassionately listening to their issues with their stuff, their time, and their energy. She loves to find the blocks. Then she helps them to find more space, time, energy and JOY by de-cluttering their excess stuff, organizing their schedules and helping them to get clear on their life’s priorities. Lisa’s clients always say they breathe easier after working with her and often tell her that all kinds of good stuff started happening after their work together.

Lisa lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her hilarious husband and (mostly) delightful two kids. She works both hands on and virtually with her clients.

If you need help creating a clear, calm space to invite more joy and peace into your life you can find Lisa at Clear Calm Space, on Facebook, Twitter, or by emailing her at lisa@clearcalmspace.com.