We all have things we’ve held on to for far too long. Whether it’s money you’ve borrowed but never paid back, a mess that’s piling up in your basement, sorrow stuffed away in your heart, or impurities clogging your body . . . until you clean up the mess you’ve been collecting, consciously or unconsciously, you can never build something strong, safe, solid, and sustainable. You’ll have a hard time trusting anyone because you can’t even trust yourself! Just look at how many times you’ve let yourself down. Look at how often you’ve let others down.

Facing yourself is the most important first step you must take to be empowered. When your mind, heart, body, and/or home are filled with self-defeating, self-limiting, toxic baggage, there isn’t room for magic to manifest. It’s like trying to plant a garden with the most magnificent flowers in a bed of weeds, rocks, and depleted soil. No matter how gorgeous the blooms are or how much you want them to flourish, if you don’t clean up the mess that’s already there, you can’t (no matter how much you wish, want, or visualize a great garden) create it.

It reminds me of the Disney movie The Lion King. Do you remember the popular song that the two little drifters taught Simba, the lion king? It was called “Hakuna Matata,” meaning “no worries.” For a while, the three friends try to put the past behind them, but eventually, Simba’s Great Spirit (the voice of his father) urges him to remember who he is. He realizes his destiny and knows that he must go home, face the mess he left behind, and take his rightful place in the world.

We are all Simba. We all have a destiny, a rightful place in this world.

Maybe you’ve felt scared and even ashamed, unsure, and unworthy of your destiny. And now you too are just trying to move on and put the past behind you. But don’t the worries always follow you? Doesn’t the shame eventually wrap around your ankles, whispering into your ear that your life will never be better because you aren’t? Hasn’t the pressure of trying to do enough so that you’ll feel like you’re enough exhausted you? Don’t you often find yourself feeling stuck, unsure of where to go or what to do, replaying the past, wishing things had gone differently?

Of course you do . . . if you haven’t cleaned things up.

Hakuna Matata!