Buy the Materials, Not the House

You can buy someone else’s home or build your own. Your life is the same way; you can choose to follow someone else’s life or you can build your own.

The problem that many of us run into is not that we are not capable, smart or driven. It is that we spend our whole lives trying to live in someone else’s “house” and we never feel at home. Think about the first time you were at a friend’s house. You had no idea where anything was. They tell you to make yourself at home, but you never really feel at home.

We live our lives the same way. We look up to the people that we admire, and we try to live their life, the problem, we never really feel like we are living. The harder we try to be like them the more it feels not right.

The world does not need a replica of your hero, what they need is you. Here are some tips on how to make that happen.

Build the foundation: You can have the best looking home but without a solid foundation a storm can come along and destroy it. Your life is the same way. There will be challenging times during your life and without a solid foundation you will collapse.

Not sure about your foundation, that is fine, everyone has to figure it out. What are the core beliefs for your life? What drives you? What sets your soul on fire? Do not over think it, write a list of your top 5-7 beliefs and this is your foundation.

Create the blueprint: Use your blueprint and your foundation together. A blueprint for a home creates the layout. The blueprint for your life helps you determine what you will focus on.  It is how you want to grow in your beliefs. Just like you can choose the size of your living room when you build your home, you can choose if your work life is bigger than your social life. The square footage is the amount of time, patience and drive you have to make it all happen.

Renovations:  People renovate their houses all the time. The same applies to your life. You are going to realize that some things need to be updated, removed or added. Stop worrying about the changes and just make them to improve your life.

Steal Inspiration: Just because you are building your own house, does not mean it has to be completely original. No one is truly original, we are all working off one another. What you need to remember is to make it your own. To be original for the sake of being original without it aligning with your foundation and your blueprint, will never work. It may look “neat” but it will not mean anything to you.

Move:  People move into bigger houses and smaller houses all the time. My Grandparents moved into a smaller house a few years ago because it was less work and less room. Stop worrying about the house or life you spent so much time building if it does not work for you. Build something that will serve you the best.

Your life just like a house is subject to disaster. There will be an event in your life that will make you question everything; it may even destroy everything you created. I guarantee it will happen to you at least once in your life. Do not let that scare you. It is an opportunity to