Tips To Help You Successfully Renovate Your Life

My husband and I have had the opportunity to renovate multiple homes. While the end result is abundantly satisfying, the process is quite messy – literally.

On HGTV, the home renovations are wrapped up in a mere 30-60 minutes. That’s rarely the case with your own home renovation projects!

What makes those shows entertaining is the significant transformation and the challenges that must be overcome along the way.

Somehow when renovating your own home, those problems aren’t quite so entertaining!

Renovate

According to Merriam-Webster, renovate means…

• To restore to a former better state as by cleaning, repairing, or rebuilding.
• To restore to life, vigor, or activity (revive)

Why Renovate?

Some of the most common reasons for renovating a home include…

• Improving the function of a space
• Updating or modernizing the space
• Eliminating clutter
• Addressing issues – mold, leaks, water damage, storm damage, or bad wiring
• Increasing the resale value and/or curb appeal
• Adding space and/or storage
• Boosting energy efficiency
• Enhancing the aesthetics
• Desiring a new decorating style

After the renovations are complete, that’s when you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor even if you hired someone else to complete the job!

In fact, a freshly renovated space not only makes a difference in how you use the space, but how you feel in it too! Eliminating troublesome issues or delighting in the increased worth of your home are sweet perks too!

Why Renovate Your Life?

Most of the time we don’t refer to life changes or life improvements as life renovations, but they are!

Just like there are valid reasons for renovating your home, there are also some great reasons for renovating your life.

Perhaps you would like to…

• Improve how your life is functioning.
• Streamline your activities or obligations; let go of what’s no longer serving you.
• Address issues – communication, anger, fear, procrastination – there are all sorts of possible issues!
• Prepare yourself for attracting the right person.
• Advancing your career.
• Become more disciplined or get more organized.
• Do life in a more life-giving way.
• Get healthier physically and/or emotionally.
• Improve your mindsets, habits, or boundaries.
• Revamp your routines to better serve you.
• Upgrade your skills.
• Make adjustments to align your life with your values.

Life renovations improve your life by cleaning it up, fixing what might be broken, or adding structure or habits that serve you. In essence, those efforts revive your life!

While renovations of any kind are hard work, don’t let that keep you from making positive changes. Ultimately the benefits outweigh the efforts. In the end you’ll be glad you did!

Once you identify an area of your life that is in need of a makeover, here are some tips to ensure that process is successful:

1. Make A Plan

A home renovation plan should include…

• • • The design, scope, and timeline for demo, rebuilding, and completion.
    • Your budget.
    • Who is responsible for what.

Life renovations have a way of feeling nebulous and as a result, the planning process often gets overlooked. Yet a plan provides the structure needed to make personal changes.

So before you move forward consider…

♦ What is your vision…
For the change you have in mind? Your goal? Clarity around what you want to be different in your life increases the chances of successfully getting there.

♦ What is your anticipated completion date and timeline?

Setting a deadline and creating milestone on your timeline keeps you on track.

♦ Identify what exactly needs to be eliminated (demo time!).

First I want to highlight the concept of “putting off” and “putting on” which comes from Colossians 3:9-10:

Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds. Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. (NLT)

When attempting to eliminate something in your life – put something off, you must also intentionally put something on. If you don’t, you are more likely to revert back to your old ways of doing things.

Second, the temptation is to add to your life and keep adding, but in order to do that you need to subtract first! IN some ways, it is another invitation to “put off” before “putting on.”

For example, if you want to add a positive habit, then what bad habits might need to go to make space for the new habit?

♦When thinking budget, ask yourself…

• • • Financially, what is the cost of making or not making this life change?
    • Are there resources that would be helpful that you might need to invest in?
    • What professional support (a coach, accountant, personal trainer, etc.) would be beneficial?
    • In anticipation of the unexpected, what do I need? (a mindset, self-compassion, ways to calm yourself, etc.)
      Remember to factor in the time and energy required to see your desired life renovation through.

♦ The Who

It’s your life, so when it comes to renovating your life you it’s your responsibility. However, it never hurts to have support along the way.

Would it be helpful to have family or friends check in on you? Would a mentor, support group, or coach be helpful? How will you include and depend on God?

2. Anticipate the Mess

Messy is not where I thrive. Perhaps you don’t either. If that’s the case, it’s important to know in advance that the process of making happy life renovations won’t be a neat and tidy process.

There are delightful and positive strides forward. And there are moments where you might revert.

When my husband and I renovated our master bathroom, we had a problem. The bathroom walls had multiples layers of wallpaper on them. We tried to remove them, but it was nearly impossible to even get through the first layer!

What could we do to our bathroom walls that would be aesthetically pleasing AND overcome the wallpaper obstacle?

We decided to install bead board on the lower two-thirds of the wall leaving only one-third to contend with.

For the upper third of the wall we found self-stick wallpaper that we loved. The only problem was that in the process of hanging it, the wallpaper stretched making it nearly impossible to match the pattern at the seams. We spent an entire day trying to do one small wall and get around the corner.

It was a hot mess!

We gave up, regrouped, and decided to paint the wallpaper covered wall and stencil it in a similar pattern to the wallpaper we loved so much.

In the end, it turned out amazing, but it took weeks longer than we anticipated along with some creativity and patience!

Life renovations also require you to be flexible, persistent, creative, and patient.

3. Give Yourself Permission To Practice

Most homeowners setting out to renovate their home don’t have the same level of experience or skill that a professional would. That’s expected! That’s why sometimes tackling those projects takes practice. Assuming they are doing the task as it should be done, the more practice, the better the outcome!

For example, if you’ve tried to hang drywall, you know it’s a job that truly takes practice to get right. At one point, my son and I hung drywall in our basement, and it was obvious amateurs had done the job.

My husband, on the other hand, has done quite a bit of drywall, including in the bathroom I previously mentioned. And as a result, he’s gotten quite good at it!

The same principle applies to making life renovations. It takes practice. Sometimes a new skill requires a little experimenting and lots of practice before you excel at it.

4. Manage Your Mindset

It’s common to get discouraged in the midst of a renovation project. It’s chaotic; it often takes longer than anticipated, and costs more than you budgeted. While you may have started out with an amazing vision, sometimes you have to make compromises along the way. And it feels like the project will take forever (like our bathroom)!

Those very same feelings crop up in life renovations too, so actively taking steps to guard your mind is key! To help you proactively manage your mindset, remember to…

• • • Keep your why before you – the reason you embarked on making this change in the first place.
    • Trust the process – learn and grow each step of the way. There’s as much to be discovered in the failures and disappointments as there are in successes.
    • Keep yourself rooted in the Word and connecting with God –  take your cares and concerns to Him.
    • Surround yourself with “Life-Givers” – people who will encourage you along the way.

While the bulk of the renovations to our current home were completed a few years back, in truth, a home requires ongoing maintenance to keep it in good repair, functioning well, and aesthetically pleasing in this changing world.

Similarly, your life requires upkeep too – circumstances change, what worked in the past may no longer be serving you, and you are a dynamic and growing person!

So, in light of that, what life renovation project would best serve you right now?

Happy renovating!