Dear FlyLady,

I’m so glad somebody who really cares sent me your link. I had no idea a place as wonderful as this even existed. I admit, I tend to live under a rock. Anyway, thank you for your wonderful website. I’ve been flying now for about a month. There are hitches now and then, but they don’t get me down like before. I can do anything in the world for 15 minutes!

I had to share an “AHA” moment my sister and I shared. I had been sending her hints and suggestions from you via email. And yesterday, something in her finally clicked.

She told me she had been saving items in her closet that she didn’t necessarily use, not because she was attached to them, but because of the money she invested in them when she purchased them on a whim. There were old summer hats, belts, purses, etc. that she couldn’t part with because something told her if she still had the item, then she still had the money she’d invested. Then, she realized even though she still had the items, the money had already been spent. The items no longer contain the value of whatever was spent on them. If she tried to take them back to the store or sell them herself, she might get a tenth of what she had spent.

The money’s already gone. Don’t keep things just because you spent your hard earned money on them and now you regret it. Find another person to bless with that stuff. Get rid of it. Don’t hold onto regret in your closet. It’s doing you no good, and it is a reminder of what you spent, but don’t have anymore.

That reminds me of another thing we do with ourselves and our body clutter. We pay a certain amount for a meal, then we think since we spent so much we need to get our “money’s worth” and we overeat. The money isn’t going to come back to us by eating more. What we’ve spent is over and done with. I don’t know how many times I’ve picked up a box of something new at the store, went home and tried it and absolutely hated it. Now I’m stuck with a box of cereal or whatever with plenty of other servings left and I don’t even like it. So I make myself eat it because I paid for it.

We’ve got to stop punishing ourselves for our past choices. Time to move beyond our cheap-minded, misery ways and free ourselves to live and learn. We are successful by our good choices. Good choices are made from our experience. And experience sometimes comes from making poor choices and learning from them.

Time to free ourselves from the past. Give it away. Sell it. Throw it out if it won’t bless anyone else. Drop that albatross from around our necks and FLY!

And next time, we will shop wiser and with more in mind. We can ask ourselves “Do I really want to end up vacuuming around this new item for the rest of my life?” “Do I love it enough to last me longer than a month or two?” and, “If I had to eat that stuff every day for a week, would I really like it?” Better choices.

Thanks for giving us the knowledge that we have the ability to FLY ourselves.

You’re amazing!
Aviating in TX