There are messes and then there are “messes” – SCN Encourager

And school communicators know the difference.

Today I’m talking about the first kind of mess.

The messes that are “all ours;” those evident in our personal spaces – home, office, and desktops, for example.

We control these areas.

Somewhat.

But whatever mess we create in our own space,

we can leave them,

and come back to them hours later,

without ever seeing any noticeable change.

Everything is right where we left them.

Even when we eventually clean up or “straighten out” one of our messes, they’ll stay that way for awhile.

Apparently, we all like that.

We enjoy a manageable individualized sense of order when it comes to our space and our things.

Our messes of the second kind… er, I’ll call them “people triggered”… are not so easily managed.

They’re chaotic and unpredictable.

They bring us great joy.

They cause us aggravation.

And they keep the makers of “life happens” t-shirts in business.

Unlike our spaces and our things, the people in our lives at home and school are not as easily managed.

(Cindy yelled “Amen!” right here when she was proofreading this for me. I don’t think this was “triggered” by years of living with me, though. This was written on Sunday, remember, so that’s what caused it, I’m sure.)

Leading progress, growing trust and respect, mutual problem-solving, managing change, and resolving conflict require considerable wisdom and instinct.

That’s what make these second type of messes so difficult for us to wrestle with.

But did you know that how you deal with your first kind of messes (your own spaces and things) affects how successfully you influence of your “life happens” kind of messes?

I didn’t know this, but dang, there’s research to back it up.

So, I’ve got to believe it now, right.

The research concludes that within each one of us, there’s an ever-present personal “tipping point,” where there’s a unique inspirational balance between “messy” and “ordered” that energizes or dampens our creativity and mindset.

No two of us are the same.

Hardly a stunner, but it’s true.

Within a weird continuum connected to the arrangement of our spaces and things, we’re not able to perform at our optimal best whenever we’re in the midst of either too much mess or too much order.

Like I said, I’m glad this dynamic between “messy and orderly” is based on independent research.

I can’t back it up from my own experience.

I actually don’t think cleaning out my garage this weekend boosted my creativity one bit!

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