I love fixing things around my place. It’s one hobby that I thoroughly enjoy spending time on. I feel that my home, like life, needs to be in a constant state of evolution. It’s not always complex undertakings, but even simple changes in decorations can really refreshen the look & feel of your home. Over time, I’ve learned many different abilities to help me whenever I fix something, but this hobby has made me sharpen other skills that can be useful in other areas of life:
Precision
When you are building something, a millimeter can make a huge difference. You need to be ultra precise in order for the end product to be flawless. The same principle applies to life. You simply can’t afford to just “wing it”. You need to be precise and methodical in your approach in everything that you do. The more accurate you are, the more successful you will be. Always pay attention to the details and watch how your results significantly increase in quality.
Accentuate strengths
Let’s say for example you want to remodel & redecorate your living room, which happens to have a fireplace. You will be best served to put more emphasis on the living room’s biggest asset, which is this very fireplace. In your own life, you need to do the same, as in accentuating what you are good at. We all can’t be good at everything, but we each have a particular set of strengths, and these are the things that you want to project the most to the world. Putting extra focus on what you are good at not only makes you look better, but you feel better, since focusing on what you do well only makes you experience more and more competence.
Hiding weaknesses
In the same manner that you put focus on your strengths, you have to make sure that your weaknesses are unnoticeable. For example, sometimes I set up speakers and sound systems in my home, which is great but it comes with a whole bunch of wires that are just very messy. The best way to deal with it, is to hide these wires via cable covers (preferably the same color as the walls it’s stuck on) and make them pass behind furniture, or make them go seamlessly through the walls. In life, you have to hide what you are not good at in the same manner. Camouflaging your weaknesses is smart. Why broadcast to the world what you are not necessarily great at? The theory “out of sight, out of mind” is true…so make sure that you hide all those “wires” in your life 😉
Patience
Last year I painted my bedroom, and it took a really long time to finish it, as I had to put a base coat, and then multiple layers of the top coat. I had to be patient if I wanted the job to be done properly. I had to wait in between the coats to fully dry before continuing. I couldn’t rush through this job if I wanted a quality result. In life, you have to be patient as well. One of the biggest deterrent I deal with when I coach people is the fact that they are not patient. They want results right away. Isn’t there a saying that says “Rome wasn’t built in a day”? Well, success in any area of life wasn’t built in a day either. Patience will reward you enormously in the end. Take your time, be careful, and make sure that whatever it is that you are doing is done properly.
Thinking outside the box
I tend to be pretty creative when it comes to home improvement. For example, in one of my rooms, I had trouble setting up a television set with a wall unit because of the size of the wall. I then got the idea of setting up a projector on the opposing wall and creating a big screen directly on the wall that will be pretty much like a TV except that it would take no room whatsoever. It was a great decision, and the result looks wonderful. Be a creative, out-of-the-box thinker in your own life. Think of different ways and different methods to accomplish a certain task. Who knows, you may end up on something that is totally revolutionary!
Image enhancement
Putting the finishing touches on a home improvement project can really put it over the top. Something as simple as a picture frame in a certain place and particular drapes on the window can put the exclamation point on an otherwise ordinary look. Don’t be afraid of enhancing your own personal image in the same way. Like it or not, looks matter. Would you be tempted to read this blog if the design was terrible? Of course not, even if the content would be the exact same! That’s normal, we all tend to be a little like that. There is nothing wrong in wanting to project an attractive image. Businesses do it all the time with their logos and their advertising. Of course looks aren’t everything, but first impressions count. You don’t have to go overboard, but just make things attractive enough to entice a deeper look within that initial image projected.
interesting write up!
interesting write up!