What begins? Transformation. You cannot solve everything in a day, there is no magic that will fix it all in a fortnight. It may be only one room or a large house, a studio apartment or a penthouse – sort out your space! Make it serve you and your life, and don’t allow yourself to serve it. No matter what that space you call your own is – do your best to arrange it the way that it fits you. If you might be living in a shared space, find a piece that is only your own.

As the marines say in their strict discipline – “Make your bed!”. The second you get up, make your bed. This will set up the tone for the day by successfully fulfilling the first thing on the agenda. It is not meaningless or trivial -it shows respect for your time, discouraging you to crawl back into bed when you don’t feel like doing what you need to do in order to be who you want to be and build what you want to build. It shows respect to the environment you call your own and restores immediate order from the first moments of the morning. Just as well, cleaning out and cleaning up your space seemed like such an unwanted and remedial task when you were a teenager – it was almost humanly impossible to make yourself do it. Do you know why? Because you were still trying to figure out who you are. How can you arrange the space to fit you if you still don’t know who that you is? But as we mature, we understand ourselves better, even if not ever completely clearly – and at this point you can do it. Your bed will fit the type of rest you need to get to tackle everything tomorrow, your wardrobe will fit the “where” and “what” of the life you’ve built, the spaces and activities you spend your time at or on, and the practicality will lessen the time wasting because now you know what you want that time to be focused on.

You know that things you keep at the back of you closet, throw them out, give them away – this is not you any more, It serves no purpose anymore to keep it. If you haven’t worn it in two years, you aren’t going to. Keep the books that inspire you and the photos of loved ones that make it all worth it clearly visible, keep the idea notepads at hand. Declutter the remnants of old stories or find a place for them, like hidden dioramas – to be remembered but not lived in, there is no need to clutch the past any more. Cleaning up your immediate environment will teach you humility when you realize how much effort is actually needed to control only this small part of your world, and it will make you fully appreciate and understand what needs to be done in other areas of life and what vigor it will entail. Once you know you can be prepared, and start to transform your life, Clean your room, make your bed!