As I grew older, I cleaned my room by sorting. I sorted my stuff into stacks and piles and lined them up on my desk or around a dark corner near the dresser. These stacks would get so tall, they’d shake. I’d have to lean them against the wall. Sometimes they’d fall, but not all the time.

There was one certainty to my strategy of cleaning my room: mom would get so mad she’d go in my room and clean it all up herself. Then I couldn’t find anything.

So here is my thought: What if the way we cleaned our rooms when we were little says something about the way we handle our dreams. They’re both about goals: Cleaning a room vs. chasing a dream. Strategies for one could easily define the strategies in the other.

So how do we reach our goals? How do I figure out how to clean my room? The first step is to slow down and decide if I want to be marginal, or do I want to make this goal really worth something.

I decide I’m sick of marginal. So I take a good look around the room. I compartmentalize—sort –and I get rid of the things I don’t use or need. I decide what amount of time I have and I focus. I might listen to a few favorite tunes as I go, but that’s what I call motivation.

In any case, the main idea here is this: I have to want to really clean up my room; I can’t push it under the bed like I used to. Sounds a lot like chasing dreams to me…