you can change your life

You can totally change the way your house or job or life looks. You can start today.

It is remarkable what can happen in a relatively short period of time (maybe a year) if you put concerted effort towards it.

My own life is an example of this. I've been able to do things that are far greater than my own expertise should allow. I am a restless, highly creative & easily distracted person.

The view from lot 3 at Arrington Woods

But I try things. And sometimes I am able to quiet all the noise and persist and finish them.

Anything you want to do in life takes persistent focus.

And that focus is for the benefit of a single priority at the detriment of almost everything else.

For my design projects, that's going to mean focusing on a specific area ONLY for today. I'm not going to get sucked into lights when I need to pick tile.

For your life, that might mean you ignore phone calls and emails so that you can set up meetings with potential clients.

Or you let your gym routine slide for a month while you get good at making short videos about your online business.

When I talk to people about building a new house or a renovation, I often tell them "it will take over your life." Joking but also seriously.

The reality is, when you do a renovation or build a new house you are pushing a boulder up a hill and it requires your constant focus to get it to the other side. It's actually stupid if it doesn't take over your life because then you would never finish it.

I know several people who have never finished renovations. They just live in the project forever.

SO, there are probably things you want to do. I imagine if you are reading this you are probably 1) a designer who wants to grow their business 2) someone who wants to make their home look better 3) someone who is creating a hospitality project or 4) write me back if I didn't mention you

You can do these things! I promise!

But it requires you to say no to other things, and that's painful. Overwhelm in projects is so common, especially if you are new to it. It's easy to start, it's hard to persist, and it's REALLY hard to finish.

But finish you should. Because then you have completed a project! And you will learn a lot, photograph and share the best parts, and move on to the next.

I have recommended Steven Pressfield's The War of Art before, but it is an extremely valuable book for anyone making something from nothing. It personifies and defines "resistance" in your creative projects so you can finish them.

You really can do amazing things. Give yourself permission.

Do you want to meet someone you admire? At least 25% of the time, you can probably get a hold of them. And maybe 25% of the time, they'll respond. So email 8 people you admire.

Do you want to build a house? Call someone who builds houses and ask them how. They might even help you.

Do you want to do a development project? Find somebody that's a developer and tell them about your exciting idea. It might actually happen.

Do you want to be a designer? Find and share cool exciting stuff online every day. Develop your taste. It will take 30-60 min a day. People will eventually notice and ask you for help.

Here's the thing - with all of this, you need to persist. You need to do it more frequently than you want to. And you need to do it longer than you want to.

You will feel like an idiot a bunch of times.

When I first started tweeting, I would get zero likes.

Then I would get 1 or 2 likes.

Then one day, Sean Sweeney, a developer I really admired, retweeted me. And it gave me a small win that kept me going.

Whether in life or creative projects, you must persist until the next small win. Once you get it, that can sustain you to climb the next hill.

You can do it. Figure out what it is, and focus.