This is true in life and with our home. Every successful story, every successful doctor, every college graduate started out with a purpose in mind and set goals to achieve that purpose.
Sometimes people have big dreams for their homes and they fall short of these and this is upsetting and expensive to fix. They have big dreams however are unable to reach them in some way shape or form.
Hopefully in this blog I will be able to give you some key tips on how to make realistic Goals and how to Reach them.
The biggest mistake I see in in new builds, and renovations and even in everyday life, is that we as humans tend to dream big but fail to plan for those big dreams. For example, A small child when asked: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” May respond ” I want to be a doctor”.
However, this child will not be able to complete that dream without first completing high school, an undergraduate degree, and then a medical degree (or his/her Ph.D.) first. In order to be able to fulfill your goals, you want to have a plan and set miniature but obtainable goals over a period of time.
For example, set the whole big picture plan and the mini plans with realistic timeframes off the big picture . Setting these mini-goals along the way will help plan out your overall steps and will show you the progress that you are making over time. This is very important, as we as humans tend to want to quit if we are not seeing results. Having a plan and setting these miniature goals will help you stay on track and will reduce the risk of over spending, losing focus of your overall design and making bad expensive mistakes.
When you walk through a display home and fall in love with the ambience know that they had a designer keeping to the path of the plan, focused on the outcome and has held everyone accountable for seeing the end vision come to fruition. Your plan and a good friend may be what keeps you accountable. This has been proven to create a better outcome for building homes because that friend/interior designer/spouse can help you find the right products and people for the job rather than settling for something else just because it becomes too hard to find or accomplish.
Teddy Roosevelt once stated in his Strenuous Life Speech,
”It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.”
With failure always comes a learning opportunity. If you fall short of a goal, don’t quit! Take the lesson(s) you learned and use it to readjust your goals or readjust your final outcome. In design and building we often find people struggling to stick to their big beautiful vision when its too hard to find the right trades, or products.
Inevitably in building things don’t go to timeframes and mistakes can be made and people need to make quick decisions and become very decisive and this can be hard if you don’t have a person there with industry knowledge to guide you; referring back to my previous point don’t try to do it alone ask for help from a designer, friends, family and industry knowledgeable people. Stick at it as you will be one step closer and one step wiser to achieving what you desire.”
Having a great attitude sometimes can be tough when dealing with stressed trades people and products not arriving on time. Whatever it takes keep the vibe beautiful and if you are not feeling like you are going to have the right attitude when talking to trades call on your accountability partner that may be able to deal with the situation with less emotion and more knowledge.
Be sure that whatever your goal is and whatever the steps to it may be, that you are taking time to appreciate the progress as well as to appreciate the hard work. Keep referring back to the original concept / plan and ticking off your list. You’ll be amazed at what you’ve accomplished and often that realization of how far you have come will push you to finish whatever it is that you have your heart set on. Don’t cut corners just to get the job done stick to your goal and vision.
Celebrate along the way on meeting the mini goals and invite friends to come and see your progress so you can all enjoy the journey.
Not every day is promised, but I guarantee at the end of it all you’re not going to remember the frustrations – You will remember the good times spent finding the perfect wash basin, the laughs, the people you’ve met, and the goals you achieved and that my friend, makes it all worth it. Especially when you know your home is your soul space and you didn’t cut corners you did it exactly how you wanted to.
Liliana Madigan
