Erica: Hey, girl. By now, you know I have Her Collective, my online community for ambitious women who are done doing it alone. Her Collective is for the women who are smart, capable, and driven, but they find themselves stuck on the sticky floors like self doubt, burnout, and waiting for permission that quite honestly never comes. Inside HER, you get more than motivation. You get real support, real strategies, and real momentum.

Erica: We work on things like clarifying what you want now and what's coming next, building confidence without burning yourself out, navigating hard conversations, career moves, and leadership moments with clarity, and surrounding yourself with women who actually get it. This isn't about hustling harder. It's about moving intentionally with the right tools and the right people in your corner. If you're ready to stop spinning, start choosing yourself, and build a career in life that actually feels aligned, I'd love to welcome you inside HER Collective. You can learn more and join us at www.joinhercollective.com.

Erica: Because honestly, girl, you were never meant to do this alone. Happy New Year. I can't believe that we are already four days into 2023 already. Having a Monday off totally throws me off. It's actually got me out of whack on my posting schedule for this podcast.

Erica: I completely missed our Monday drop. But as soon as I realized it, I jumped on it because I know exactly what I wanna share with you today. I'm kicking off the new year with a no excess challenge. I can't wait to tell you about it. So let's talk about excess. You know, the holiday season is all about the excess. Excess presents, excess treats, laziness, booze, parties, decadent goodies.

Erica: If you're like me, you have been indulging and enjoying every minute of it. Personally, my favorite is the peppermint bark. I may or may not have accidentally eaten the whole tin by myself. So the no excess challenge is a challenge to get you to really focus on what you need to do and what you want to do in 2023. It will help you eliminate the excess and make room for all the amazing things that you are looking to bring into your life in 2023.

Erica: Now only you can determine what you should or should not include in your no excess challenge, but there are two main topics, categories that you need to do to complete this challenge. The first, it's talking about no excess shopping. Yes. As it pains me, that means Amazon. Amazon is my kryptonite.

Erica: Right? It makes it so easy. You just open up your app. All your payment information is saved, and you can click that one click purchase and, bam, it's at your door really before you even close down that app. Now, of course, I want I feel like I want and need everything.

Erica: Yeah. Yeah. We know it's not true. But the no excess challenge means that you only buy what you need. What is a necessity?

Erica: Right? Food, kids' school supplies, etcetera. But no extra shopping. No extra spending. Again, only you can decide what is a necessity.

Erica: Right? For one person, getting their hair done may be a necessity because they're a TV news anchor. For another person, that may be a nice to have. So it is really up to you what that no excess means. Now the second piece of the no excess challenge is about making space for what you want in 2023 and giving the rest of that the boot.

Erica: So your physical space is so important to your mental clarity. Every single day, you are challenged in the no excess challenge to clear out one space in your life. This can be big like an entire room like your kitchen, or you can break it down into much smaller chunks like the junk drawer in your kitchen. So you can do rooms, you can do cabinets, you can do a drawer, you could even do a file folder. Maybe you have a folder filled with past receipts from ten years ago that has just been sitting there that you need to clear out because you don't need it anymore.

Erica: It doesn't have to be big. That's the point. It can be as small as you need it, but make space for what you need and get rid of the rest. The no excess challenge is also just about you. Nobody else.

Erica: It's personal. What do you know that you need to cut out the excess from? Is it social media time? Is it watching too much TV at night? Maybe it's alcohol, sweets.

Erica: For me, caffeine is on my list. The choice is yours. But I challenge you to fully participate in this challenge. Make space for your goals. This is the perfect time.

Erica: It is a new year. Make space for clarity. Make space for the dreams that you wanna accomplish this year. You cannot do that with a cluttered life and a cluttered mind. This is the perfect opportunity for you to really take a minute and look at your excessive spending habits, reevaluate your relationship with Amazon, god knows I need to, and clear out the clutter.

Erica: So, again, the two pieces of this challenge, the first is no excess shopping. It has amazing benefits that seem very straightforward, but I'm gonna dive in. First one, super obvious. It helps you save money. Right?

Erica: We're all coming off of December, which is when we all go overboard on gifts and decadent foods. So it will help us rope in our spending, but it's also gonna give us a minute to really examine, do I really want this? Do I need it? Which is it? Is it a want or is it a need?

Erica: A lot of times, and I'm very guilty of this, if I see a book, I immediately buy it on Amazon at the drop of the hat. I have probably a good five or six books right now that I need to work through. I don't need to buy another book right now. So it will help you really kind of examine if it's a want or if it's a need. It will also bring you more in touch with how much you're actually spending.

Erica: So one of the ways that I'm going through this challenge is if I see it and I want it in Amazon, I am still adding it to my cart. And when I get to the end of this challenge, I'm gonna go through again and be like, is this a want or is it a need? Do I even still want this? I mean, I'm sure you've all been there. I know I have where I have seen something.

Erica: I have done an impulse purchase. And then it gets to my house, and it sits somewhere in a drawer unused. Right? One of the things that I actually decluttered from my life was a rice ball maker. You could take your rice, you put it in this little plastic gizmos, shake it back and forth, and voila, you would have three beautiful round balls of rice.

Erica: Now why the hell do I need that? I absolutely do not. I think I bought it thinking that I would make rice balls for my children that they would eat, but I don't even make rice for my kids. So, again, people, why did I do that? But this is a great opportunity for you to add something like that to your Amazon cart and then check yourself at the end of the month.

Erica: It's really going to require you to also use some of those items in your house that maybe aren't your favorite, but could do the job just as well. For example, hand soap. I don't know about you, but I've got a drawer or a cabinet filled with different kind of hand soaps. Some for Halloween, some for Christmas. I don't need all that.

Erica: So for this entire month, we're gonna start using up all of those products that are in my house that aren't necessarily my favorite, but do the job. Now the second piece of this challenge, the decluttering piece, this is probably one of the most impactful things that we can do. When you declutter, you are taking control over an aspect of your life that gives you a sense of ownership. You're taking control of your space instead of letting your space control you. When you declutter, you are creating this feeling of achievement.

Erica: And so far, I have focused on my own closet, areas in my kitchen, my workspace, got rid of all the holiday decorations. But that simple act of organizing, decluttering, and creating space gives me this feeling of achievement. I am doing stuff. Now decluttering also has the benefit that it reduces anxiety. It helps end this air of procrastination.

Erica: It even releases you from your past. So these are things physical things that we are holding on to that we don't need to have this space for anymore. Now, as you go through some of the spaces in your home, you may find yourself emotionally attached to things that you don't need to be attached to anymore. Allow yourself the chance to grieve if you need to. You know, this is the chance to physically remove something that may also be emotionally holding you back from your goals this year.

Erica: And it can be emotionally draining because you're ridding yourself of not only the physical object, but often that stale or toxic or sad energy from your past that you've just been festering with. My best advice is to allow yourself to feel all the feelings, sit through them, and just recognize that when you physically remove these objects, you are making room for these emotions to come out and making room for you to sift through them. Just let it happen. Now my biggest reason for this challenge is because I wanna create the space for new things. Without the clutter around me and in my life, I now have this choice of where I wanna focus my energy, where I wanna focus my goals.

Erica: I'm not defined by the past or past objects, and I am excited because it helps me focus on my purpose purpose and what I wanna do in 2023, which is a lot. There is less to hold me back. There is space, and there is this freedom to invite in the things that truly matter to me. Now if you are like, this is awesome. I love this idea of the no excess challenge.

Erica: I created a free tracker for the month of January and an accountability group. All you need to do is go to Facebook, join the from now to next tribe, and I'll let you in. We have a 150 people and counting who have joined, and they are posting what they are decluttering and what they are doing, and it is so great to watch. Now if you missed the first, right, I'm I'm not even posting this until the fourth, don't worry about it. Start today.

Erica: Start now. You don't need anything to get started. Literally nothing. So hop on over to the Facebook group. Now I do need to tell you it is a women's only group by design.

Erica: So if you're a man and you wanna participate, give me a holler. I will get you the template. But by design, this is a space that I hold for women, and I'm keeping that way at this time. So if this no excess challenge speaks to you and you wanna join, head over to the Facebook group, the Now to Next tribe, and join me and a 150 of my closest friends in this challenge to get rid of the things that no longer serve us and make room for all of the things that we want in 2023. I'll see you there.