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Are you the kind of person who can easily get rid of things? Or do you tend to hold onto things?

I know we’re all Marie Kondo-ing our stuff, but have you ever really thought about the reason you’re holding onto stuff? I think once you figure that out it becomes a LOT easier to let it go!

I want to tell you about this shirt, but I also want to talk to you about the psyche that surrounded unnecessarily holding onto things… I JUST had an epiphany about this a couple weeks ago.

I’ve had this shirt for a lot of years, but the truth is, it doesn’t fit right anymore, it’s stretched out, but also super short from being washed so many times. It happens with clothes. So why did I still have it?

It had an emotional tie for me. My gramma took me to Kohls and I fell in love with this shirt… Like I REALLY wanted it. We looked through the rack and they didn’t have my size. My gramma told me to check the mannequin, and, wouldn’t you know it.. it was my size!

She told me to take that shirt off the mannequin so we could buy it… but I didn’t think you “could do that”, you know? But she called over an employee and had them pull the shirt right off the mannequin so I could have it.

I wore it a lot, I loved it, but it’s been in the closet at my parent’s house for years. I finally brought it up to Seattle, I tried it with a camisole underneath, I tired everything… but it just doesn’t fit anymore. It was time for it to go.

In fact, I just got rid of 3/4 of my closet… it was full of clothes that I had had for SO many years… they were all stretched out, or not my style any more, or they didn’t fit my body anymore because I have more muscle now than I used to. You can see the hanger graveyard here.

I had to accept that my body has changed, for one thing, and I had totally been in denial about it. Am I upset that I have muscles? NO! Not at all! I LOVE my muscles and how strong I am, but I was still grasping to “skinny” there for a minute, and I needed to let it go and embrace the new, empowered me!

But, why do we hold onto things we don’t need?

Well, here’s my epiphany and I’m going to tie it to fitness because that makes the most sense to me, and I bet it will to you too!

So, after you lose weight, you get new clothes that fit your new body, but… what happens to the old, bigger clothes? A lot of times, we hold onto them? Why? Because we have them “just in case” we gain the weight back, right?

But, what that really means is that we don’t have full belief in ourselves to keep up our new healthy lifestyle, and we don’t have full belief in ourselves to keep the weight off, AND, by holding onto those clothes, we’re putting that lack of belief into our minds and bodies.

Our mind is SO powerful that every time it sees that clothing, it’s like “Yep, I have a fall back. Why work at it today?” It’s comfortable, it’s a safety net, but it ALSO keeps us from moving forward and feeling empowered.

So, that wasn’t what I was doing, but it’s in a VERY similar vein.

I’m in a GOOD place in my life, a great one, and I have been for a while. We are VERY blessed. I have worked hard, but build an amazing business that has FAR exceeded my expectations. I 100% can go out and buy new clothes.

But, I was holding onto all these older clothes that didn’t fit, that were stretched out, that were too short, that weren’t ME anymore because I wasn’t FULLY believing in myself to keep up my business and to continue to have enough money to buy new clothes when I need them.

I was living in fear, in scarcity, and in lack of belief instead of abundance, and trust, and BELIEF in myself, my business, my work ethic, my business skills, and my GRIT.

I haven’t always been in this place, I’ve been in places of struggle… but, I’m so blessed these days, that I need to recognize that and give thanks for that!

So, a few weeks ago, when we stopped at the outlets, I was able to reward my inner, personal work by getting some new clothes. And, you know what, I picked out stuff, I didn’t freak out about what I was spending, and it was REALLY great and empowering! You can see one of my new sweaters above!

I don’t know if you can relate to any of this, but I sure hope so! Believe in yourself- whether it’s with your fitness journey, life journey, business journey… you are capable of SO MUCH MORE than you are currently giving yourself credit for!