Are you sinking or swimming?

Are your hopes and dreams dragging you down or adding buoyancy?

Have you ever cleaned out your home of old belongings? Sorted out clothing, books and dishes for donation and some for the trash? There is an undeniable feeling of lightness that follows you for days to come. That feeling is not a placebo, there is research to back it.

On a subconscious level, we are aware of all our belongings — they take up space in our minds as tools to deploy or goods to protect. There is a point where our belongings become too cognitively expensive; they begin to own us and not the other way around. This is why decluttering has the undeniable side-effect of clarity and the feeling of lightness.

The same lessons can be applied to goals; when we have no goals we're often left feeling rudderless but when we have too many there's a great sense of anxiety. When we fail to cull this list of commitments we end up with a mind overloaded with hopes unattained.

It is better to follow through with our goals and have them meet their end out in the wild, as this increases our surface area and thus our chances to meet with opportunity. Allowing our hopes to die inside us leaves us heavy; weighed down by possibilities unrealised.

It's impossible to go through life meeting every goal with determination and fruiting success. Some goals will die. How many of these goals do you still carry? Are they leaving you heavy and forced to swim with greater force than necessary?

Which hopes and dreams can you rid of?