Expansion and Contraction

I have noticed lately that a lot of my thoughts are about ways to contract instead of expand. For example, I have recently got the de-cluttering bug again. I'm looking at selling, junking or donating my stuff. My focus in my work is more about cleaning up and finishing off projects than working on new ones. Also, I am thinking more about ways to save money than earn it. All of these point toward a general decrease in my lifestyle and finances - and the interesting thing is that I'm not fighting it.

At first I didn't connect the dots but now that I have noticed this pattern I am seeing it in many of my interests and choices right now. This is an interesting phenomenon and there are a few very useful things that I am doing in this process:

• Removing unwanted items including email, clients, projects, items in my house and more
• Evaluating to make sure that I am keeping what is important to me
• Setting priorities and preparing to make next steps and decisions
• Planning and strategizing (to take over the world!!)
• Recovering and enjoying some lovely mini-vacations and downtime

I like to compare it to the stock market. Even during the strongest of bull markets, the chart never goes straight up. Sometimes it will go sideways or even down for quite some time before gaining new strength to push to its next high. Despite the fact that I have clearly lost some momentum from my pace of earlier this year, I am confident that this is not wasted time but a necessary breathing space before I start climbing toward my goals again.

If you have had a setback or resting period and then moved on to great things, I'd love to hear your tips or stories!