Next year, I’ve decided, is NOT about starting over. It’s about expansion and remodeling. Taking the bones of what we’ve built and pushing out the walls to find new ways of helping people live life bigger and better.

The dictionary says a renovation is a revamping, restoration, modernization, rehabilitation, upgrade, update, reconstruction….

I say a renovation is…in order…now.

What happens when you renovate a home? Often, you keep the foundation, preserve the details of the home you hold dear, and then scrap the rest, bit by bit or in one fell swoop. Boom. Then, you build around what remains; until the new details, the new condition of your updated home is to your liking.

But, what’s missing between what exists now and what you want to create? The plan! 

If you (who are reading this) would hire a team to renovate your home without a plan for where to land, a detailed vision of the end result to propose and present to you, don’t waste your time reading on. Everyone else: I invite you to put on your hard hat and join me in this exercise, wouldya?

1. Consider that you are the architect, designer *and* contractor of your own, renovated life.

2. Imagine the emotional rendering of what renovation brings to you.

• What does your life look like from outside the front door that is as true from outside as it is when you enter?
  
• What does it feel like to stand inside your bedroom or to be at home in your living room with no shoes on?
  
• What does it smell like in your kitchen?
  
• Who is at home, comfortable and happy, with you?

• Then…

• 3. Review your existing blueprint: the elements of your life that you love, as well as elements you actually have to work around to make sure the roof does not cave IN (but beware that you don’t say you have to keep something when really it is possible to lose, but tossing it out scares the sh*t out of you). Answer these:

  • What stays as-is?
    
  • What gets torn down or stripped?
    

• In other words, what are you working around before you create something out of nothing (which is also a possibility but maybe does not need to be a full demolition-rebuild when a renovation does the trick!).

This is where we start: at the understanding that the foundation we have underneath our home (our life!) serves us.

Our past has a solid shell to which we can add on our present and future. 

Before we make big self-promises or resolutions that we “should” make or that are delusionally far off from where we are right now…inspired by where we were yesterday…

Remember that tomorrow can simply be an upgraded version of what you started building long ago.

With that, the renovation may not have to feel so damn daunting.  

When you’re ready, here’s your final step before you can begin the renovation: 

4. Review both the changes you want to make to the existing blueprint (what you’re working around) and the emotional renderings of your finished reno

5. Map each dreamy end result to an action or set of actions you can take, starting now, to bring them to life. Take one at a time.

So, if you want that updated life (that, disclaimer: you’ll have to constantly maintain and renovate in small ways every day…forever…in order for it to stay current, modern and fitting for an ever-evolving YOU), let’s get playing. 

I hope this exercise and the communal conversation that surrounds it can help provide your refreshed mindset a refreshed place to dwell.  Renovation. Join that conversation here.

As for me? I’ll be reminding myself of the foundation I built, for it’s served me well, although I recognize it’s finally time to update it.

There is so much power in yesterday that I can use to upgrade my tomorrow…or better yet: my today!

And I’m as excited to bring much of that past into the future as I design, redesign and rebuild my dream with a fresh plan and new design for expansion I never knew I wanted…until right now. 

From the campfire & beyond,
Tammi