Is Marie Kondo Assertive?

She has clear boundaries.

Marie Kondo knows how to set her boundaries. Here are 3 examples of her boundaries.

Earlier in her career, Marie Kondo was a decluttering consultant. She visited people‘s homes and helped them through the process of decluttering their own homes. However, she never decluttered other people’s homes for them. She was always clear on that boundary.

When asked if she had ever not been able to help a client, she described that when a client insisted Marie Kondo clean for her, then Marie Kondo dismissed that client.

Even though Marie Kondo is a celebrity, she keeps her privacy. She does not allow reporters into her house. She is in charge of her privacy boundaries and communicates them clearly.

Marie Kondo wrote her book in only 3 months. To accomplish that, she had to say no to anything else that would distract her from that goal.

She speaks her mind without shame.

Even though Marie Kondo is an introvert, she still speaks her mind often. Here are some examples.

She has delivered presentations about her KonMari method at Google, Good Morning America, and several other places even though she had to rely on a translator.

As a sociology major, she didn’t allow anyone to decide her thesis topic for her. She wrote her thesis on what she was passionate about and sparked joy for her, which was on how to declutter her apartment at the time.

Earlier in her career, she didn’t start to write her book without any direction or validation. She pitched her book idea, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, at a publishing contest and won. Not only did she get the publisher to sign a deal for her book, she also got feedback on her book before writing it.

When clients deviate from her method, she is clear about the importance of following her specific steps to declutter instead of doing it their way. She speaks up but doesn’t force them.

When she speaks, interacts with others, and even on camera, she is not shy about expressing her emotions with animated facial expressions and body motion.

She doesn’t worry about what others think.

She doesn’t worry about appearing silly to others. When Marie Kondo speaks at events, she demonstrates her “spark joy” concept with her signature gesture. She brings an item close to her and then raises up on one leg, lifts the opposite hand and finger, and says “Kin.” Then she says, “you may be thinking I’m a crazy lady,” and further explains her point.

She is also comfortable with her language limitations. Despite being the star of a US Netflix reality show on tidying up even though she did not speak English, she was still comfortable. One of her clients said, “She seemed comfortable; I was comfortable; I did have to stop and laugh at the way we’re smiling at each other over organizing.”

When another lady accused her of stealing her vertical folding method, Marie Kondo didn’t worry about the accusation since it was only a small part of her method.

Her worry-free approach must also bring her joy.

She is clear on what matters to her.

Marie Kondo is aware of what she likes, dislikes, and wants. The foundation of her decluttering philosophy foundation is to hone your ability to recognize your values and what brings you joy and what doesn’t, which is about raising self-awareness, and to eliminate what doesn’t make you happy.

Marie Kondo thinks for herself. Instead of following mainstream thinking, she has chosen to live her life in a way that sparks joy to her.

Even though Marie Kondo is on TV and social media a lot, she hardly spends any time-consuming TV or social media. She is intentional about how she uses her time.

She had 2 daughters shortly after her career took off. At that point she was clear her priority was to spend time with her family. A few years later she was intentional again about refocusing on career.

Marie Kondo is passionate about tidying up, and that is how she uses a lot of her time. She truly embodies what sparks joy for her.

She stays poised in disagreement.

The KonMari method talks about thanking items for their service to you before you discard them which is normal in the Japanese culture where she is from. However, when she consulted in the United States, many American clients didn’t want to thank an inanimate object.

When in disagreement, instead of backing off or of forcing them to follow her method, she realized she had to communicate better. She said “This was a revelation. I know now that I must explain some aspects of my work more clearly.”

When there was a tsunami of social media attacks on one of her comments about decluttering books, she responded in a calm and factual way to clarify the misunderstanding.

She is authentic.

Marie Kondo has her own personal style that brings her joy. She always wears white because she associates it with cleanness, and she doesn’t like to wear pants.

Her enthusiastic and cheerful personality shines through. She is also kind, supportive of others, empathetic, understanding, and she loves to praise others for their great job.