Spring is a great time for growth and new beginnings.

(How original, right?)

Okay, so it’s not a very original way to plunge back into the stream of daily blogging… but it’s true. Spring is a time for growth, and you can feel it in the air. It fairly shimmers with energy, the sun is a little warmer, the days a little brighter, and there’s a sense of optimism and hope that you don’t notice so much during the winter. I was out walking along the river on Friday and people smiled a little more, and were a little quicker to say hello than they were during the winter months.

The optimism and hope that come with spring also bring with them a chance for new beginnings. Just like the plants and trees grow new leaves and flowers in the spring, we can use this time to create new growth and change for ourselves.

Spring cleaning is a perfect example of that. In a physical sense it’s all about clearing out the old to make room for the new. And if you’re anything like me, most years spring cleaning is nothing more than a chore to be gotten through as quickly as possible.

But spring cleaning this year is taking on a whole new meaning for me as I find ways to use it to help me clear my mind and focus on the next steps in my own personal growth.

Here’s what I mean…

If you really focus on the task, on what you’ve collected, and what you’re getting rid of, and WHY, you’ll be amazed at how much mental clutter you clear along with the physical junk. I did this on the weekend, and the energy shift in my apartment was so noticeable that I was actually sick for two days.

Out of about eight boxes of stored up papers, books, and other stuff I tossed everything but a dozen antique cookbooks (I’ve got plans for these), a few old books that belonged to my dad, and some photos and writings from my university days. With each piece of the past that went into the recycling bin, my vision of what I want my future to look like became just a little more clear.

Over the course of my weekend cleaning spree, I opened up enough mental room to set some clear goals for the next three months, as well as to map out a writing plan that will enable me to achieve them. You’ll be the beneficiary of that plan, and I”ll tell you more about it tomorrow.

First, a bit of an intro…

I started this post a week ago, but it obviously wasn’t the time to share it because the words just wouldn’t flow. That happens sometimes when I’m too emotionally invested in the content that I’m trying to produce, or when I’m trying to write something that would really make me look like a fool. (Much thanks to @denyseduhaime for pointing that one out.) So after letting it percolate for a few days here’s the revised version sans emotion and the bits that would make me look silly. Please do leave me a comment after you’ve read it. I’d really appreciate the feedback.

As you no doubt know (and are probably sick of hearing) if you’ve been hangin’ out here for any length of time, one of my major goals this year is to come out of my self-inflicted hibernation of the past several years and learn how to live again. I’m on a quest to find myself, to stretch beyond my boundaries, and truly let myself be myself.

I’d tried before this year, but never had much luck really coming out of my shell. I blamed it all on the fact that I’m a walking poster for introverts, and a few other things but never did I really admit that I had made a choice to shut myself off from the world. The walls started coming down a bit when I attended Ross Goldberg’s virtual seminar just before Christmas. That’s when I rediscovered Twitter as a tool for communicating. Prior to that I’d used it a bit for talking with friends, but never got into using it for meeting new people or talking about anything really important.

Here’s the thing… Ever since I started hangin’ out with Shileen Nixon and the Wonder Woman Challenge gang, I’ve been spending a lot more time on Twitter. I’m slowly becoming more confident in my ability to talk to people and to jump into a conversation here and there instead of being the traditional wallflower that I’ve always been. It’s all part of reaching my goal of figuring out who I am at this stage of my life and just where this fork in the road is gonna take me.

The self-improvement experts say that if you want to improve upon your self, then you should surround yourself with people who can do whatever it is that you want to do better than you can do it. (Say that one ten times fast!) I never quite figured out how to do that because I’m normally way too shy to talk to people. However, it occurred to me that for the past few weeks I have been doing exactly that — mostly without even trying. And I have to say that although I’m standin’ so far out of my comfort zone right now that I’m literally shakin’ in my boots, I’m also having a great time doing it.

I have met so many awesome people on Twitter in the last few weeks and every single one has helped me to move a little further away from the wall. It really hit me one morning as I was reading tweets and feeling all the amazing energy flowing around and through me, just how far out of my comfort zone I’ve come in the last month. There are moments when the energy is high and I feel really confident in communicating with people, and then there are moments of total panic where I feel so freakin’ inadequate and just want to crawl into a cave and hide for a few days. Those days are becoming more rare, however, as the wonderful friends I’ve made on Twitter just won’t let me hide any longer. When I really feel like going back into hibernation they commiserate, encourage, and challenge me to take one more step into the the unknown beyond my comfort zone. And I am so very thankful for them for doing it.

Anyways, the point I’m tryin’ to make here is that the Twitter community is amazing, and that using Twitter as a tool in your personal growth journey is one of the best things you can do. There are so many wonderful people out there, and if you open yourself up and allow them to find you, then the people who are supposed to be in your life at any given minute will surely find a way to be there. The amazing new connections I have made have helped me to move beyond my comfort zone and get ready to take the next step — to stop staring at the closed doors and start wondering just what lies beyond the new doors that are opening for me.

If you need proof, three months ago I would never have been able to write a post like the one I did last night. I may have thought it, but actually expressing feelings of love and gratitude out loud would have sent me racing for the nearest cave.

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reading over the last few weeks, and have come to the conclusion that a lot of personal development work comes down to pure common sense. Even the Law of Attraction at its most elemental – you get what you think about – is pretty straightforward.

For whatever reason, human nature seems to always want to make things a lot harder than they have to be.

So in the interests of simplifying things just a little bit, here are my favorite four common sense rules to live by.

1. Keep your word.

2. Treat other people the way you want to be treated.

3. Don’t procrastinate.

4. Make a plan and follow it.

I’m sure I could, and probably will, write more in depth articles on all of these at some point. But for tonight, brevity rules!

What’s your favorite life rule (in 10 words or less)?