Success: It All Starts with the Sock Drawer

Sunday evening is often the best time of the week to get organized for the week ahead.

So, where do you start?

You could sit down and access your favorite hi-tech gadget like a smart phone or laptop. Entering all your commitments into a digital device may make you feel more organized, but you still have to do all the stuff you've entered on that tiny QWERTY keyboard. Organizing the big events in life is relatively easy. All you need is an appointment book or electronic personal organizer and you're good to go. Write down your big dates and prioritize. What's so tough about that?

Being dependent on hi-tech gadgets can actually make you forget about the important basics of getting organized for success. That's why you should ditch the gadgets on Sunday night and organize your sock drawer instead.

All sorts of famously successful people know that that secret to achieving goals at any level is having the "little stuff" in order.

Olympic Gold Medalist Michael Johnson is reportedly a highly organized person who viewed having control of the simple things in life as the key to success. He was able to prepare for a difficult and unprecedented "double" in the 200 and 400 meter races in the Olympics because he knew how to parse out his energy and control every nuance of his efforts to become the fastest man in the world. Johnson not only won the Olympic Gold medal, he set numerous world records in highly competitive situations.

World class cyclist Lance Armstrong is another reputed "organization freak." Armstrong is known by his team mechanics as "Mr. Millimeter" for demanding that his bikes and equipment be "just so" before competition.

Think about what these people have achieved. What made it possible for Lance Armstrong to win a chaotic event such as the Tour de France 7 times?

Armstrong himself says that preparation is the key to winning any race. That means being organized in every facet of preparation. In cycling that means knowing the course, practicing the climbs and understanding how your equipment works so you have what you need in terms of information and tools to take advantages of opportunities as they present themselves.

By contrast, if you get up in the morning to race 110 miles through the mountains of France and are late for the race because your alarm did not go off and you can't find your socks, you will lose before you start. Everything you do in sports--and in life--really does count.

There are other valuable benefits to organizing your sock drawer. Zen masters recognize the value of turning mundane activities into zen exercises where your mind uses the activity at hand to create peace within.

You will also gain peace knowing that when you get up in the morning you don't have to search frantically for socks, underwear, shirt or tie at the last minute. That lets you relax and get a better night's sleep. Eliminating the unknown reduces stress by eradicating mental clutter. A clear mental state allows you to focus more on the challenges to come. You make better use of your time every day by being organized.

Organizing your sock drawer may be the key to your success. And you may find the matching sock to that lone ranger lurking in your sock drawer for weeks.