As we get older and life gets busier, reading quickly moves down on the priority list. Then as more and more forms of entertainment pop up, daily reading nearly falls off the list altogether.

If you’re like me, you just hate it when someone comes to you and asks, “Do you want the good news or the bad news first?” Well, what if I don’t want to hear the bad news at all? Ever?

Everyone strives to be productive on a daily basis, at least to some degree, yet very few are actually doing it to their own satisfaction (or the satisfaction of others, such as their supervisors or spouse).

While the Merriam-Webster Dictionary indicates the definition of success to be “the fact of getting or achieving wealth, respect, or fame”, I believe the true definition of success is in the eye of the beholder.

Priorities, beliefs, values, and our own varied histories all color the unique meaning we associate with such a word. Consider the following:

At one point or another we have all walked into a room that has been completely overrun by stuff. Pictures covering walls, objects spread across the floor, and some type of item to be found at every turn. We may feel anxious, uneasy, guilty, overwhelmed, exhausted, or frustrated without fully recognizing why. When we are bombarded with excessive stimuli our senses are forced to work in overdrive to compensate for the chaos. Our mind will not allow our body to fully relax because in the back of our head there is work left undone, and it doesn’t take long for someone to either remove themselves from the situation or change their surroundings to bring some serenity back into their lives (i.e. declutter).