Embracing Disorder: The Art of Purposeful Mess for Personal Growth

Explore the power of welcoming messiness in routines, spaces, and relationships to foster innovation and resilience.

Introduction:

At first glance, intentionally creating messes seems counterproductive for personal development. Self-help gurus and productivity experts often tell us that being organized, and tidy is the path to productivity and self-improvement. However, with an open mind, controlled messiness can be leveraged creatively to help us grow and flourish, especially in our inner lives.

Embrace Flexibility

One way is to embrace ambiguity and looseness in our routines. Most of us seek structure in calendars and to-do lists to reduce anxiety and feel accomplished. However, allowing some flexibility in schedules can enhance cognitive function. If we tightly control every day, our brains go on autopilot. We stimulate new neural connections by injecting variety and uncertainty into our habits. This injection of variety and uncertainty leads to innovative solutions as we adapt to small daily changes and find order in the mess. Intentionally varying our workout routines, social activities, and household chores frees us from the rut of rigidity.

Stimulate Creativity

Similarly, permitting clutter in our spaces can nourish creativity. Clean lines and bare surfaces are refreshing, but a touch of disarray introduces randomness that inspires the imagination. Research shows that levels of ambient noise enhance abstract thinking. Background chaos nudges the mind to make unexpected connections by competing with linear thought patterns. Soft background music or keeping a slightly cluttered workspace can have this effect by introducing welcome disorder.

Make Time for Incubation

Allowing reflective time for our minds to wander also unlocks innovation. Constant productivity can impair incubation the mental processing underlying creativity. Build in unstructured time to shower, take walks, or even do household chores. Letting our brains meander freely without an agenda often yields solutions as pieces fall into place amid the mental mess.

Welcome Diverse Relationships

Creating uncertainty in relationships provides growth opportunities. Nurturing only friendships that are predictable and comfortable may starve emotional intelligence. Seek messiness by befriending people very different from yourself. Tolerating disagreements and differing perspectives builds empathy and character. You emerge with a nuanced worldview from navigating these disorganized relationships.

Embrace Spontaneity

Similarly, resisting the urge to hyper-optimize and over-plan aspects of life leaves room for the spontaneity and uncertainty that make life joyful. Perfectly curated vacations, social media feeds, and family photos convey a misleading sense of control.

Allow some messiness here as well leave room for uncertainty and go with the flow when things veer off-script. The disorder makes the adventure.

Accept Inner Conflicts

Internal emotional conflict is part of the human experience. Accepting this mental messiness helps us become more self-aware and resilient. Challenging emotions like anger, fear, and grief don’t necessarily need quick fixes. Making space for them to run their course often leads to new understandings and personal breakthroughs. Be patient, sitting with the psychological mess within.

Lean Into Discomfort

Trying new things always involves operating outside our comfort zone in a space of awkwardness and uncertainty; rather than avoiding activities where you lack skills and feel out of control, lean into them mindfully. Allowing yourself to make beginner’s mistakes in sports, hobbies, and classes without harsh self-judgment will create a messy process but engender self-confidence.

Embrace Paradoxes

On a spiritual level, embracing paradoxes and conflicts allows for personal growth. Ancient wisdom traditions from Buddhism to Christianity emphasize the limits of human rationality and the need for faith when confronted with life’s inherent chaos. Healthy uncertainty creates openness. Asking big, unanswerable questions can be transformative, even if it leads to messier existential conclusions.

Conclusion

With the right mindset, injecting controlled messiness into our lives can catalyze creativity, strengthen character, foster wisdom, and expand perspective. The disorder forces us to find new possibilities and meaning. Of course, chaos is destructive. The key is embracing just enough messiness to remain agile and innovative and liberate randomness from monotony. By learning to cultivate and operate within fruitful disorganization, we open doors to understanding ourselves and the world around us in more profound ways. With this mental agility, we can turn uncertainties into opportunities for personal growth.

IMAGE SOURCE: ‘Experience’ by Studio 365 TH | The Noun Project

Sources of Inspiration:

Abrahamson, Eric. “Disorganization Theory and Disorganizational Behavior: Towards an Etiology of Messes.” Research in Organizational Behavior. vol. 24, (January 01, 2002): 139 -80.

Abrahamson, Eric, and David H. Freedman. A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder - How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and on-the Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place. Little, Brown, 2007.

A graduate of the University of Rochester and the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon, Robert Merlo is employed in the Ed Tech Industry. He lives in Rochester, New York with his wife, a 3rd-grade teacher, and their 13-year-old daughter.

Find out more about Robert on LinkedIn.

IMAGE SOURCE: ‘Experience’ by Studio 365 TH The Noun Project