One Brick At A Time

I live in a very old village called Old.
It’s origins can be traced back to the Doomsday Book and it only became known as Old in the 1930s, previously to that, and since the 14th century,  it had been referred to as Wolde.
Old is quite big by village standards, even though you can drive through it in two minutes, and has a population of about 400 people and 200 houses.
Actually, make that 200 and a bit houses!   There’s a ‘new’ one being built just a few hundred yards down the road and it’s fascinating watching it grow from nothing into something that resembles a house.
I say it’s ‘new’ because although it is, it’s being built to look like it’s always been there and it won’t be long before everyone forgets what things looked before it was built.
I drive past the construction work every time I leave the village, and today the roof trusses were going on. I do a lot of thinking when I’m driving and watching that house being created from nothing sparked a rather nice analogy in my head.
Work on that house actually started way back in March or April, when whatever building was there before (I’ve already forgotten!) was knocked down.
Then, although there always a fair bit of activity going on on site, nothing much seemed to be happening.
They were underpinning a huge wall that runs along the side of the lane and that the entire long external side of the building will sit on – you don’t get anything to show for underpinning, but it’s VERY important!
After a while the solid footprint of the house appeared; the foundations on which everything else will sit. Again, when the house is finished you won’t see them but we all know what happens when you build something on shaky foundations! So they’re pretty fundamental too.
Then the interior walls went up – a double-skin of ugly grey concrete blocks with layers of polystyrene insulation in between them. DEFINITELY not the sort of look you’d want for a house, but these walls are the skeleton of the house and everything else will ‘hang’ from them.
Without these ugly walls, there’d still only be foundations waiting to be built upon.
The house really started to look good when the external walls were added; big blocks of local yellow Ironstone that look fantastic and will be what people see when they look at the house.
All of the hard work that went into the underpinning of the wall, the foundations and the internal structure that’s hidden behind the cosmetic ‘niceness’, inside and out, is now invisible.  But it’s what holds everything together, without it all having been done first the house would collapse.
If you’re struggling just now, then design your ‘house’.
It could be a physique ‘house’ or a stronger emotional one; design it like an architect, draw up plans that go into the tiniest of detail.
Then get to work:
1) Clear the existing site – you can’t build something new on top of something old.
2) Underpin anything that is going to take the strain – if you have medical issues, get them checked out by a doctor. If you want support, find the people who can give it to you.
3) Build your foundations – you’ve got your design, the underpinning is done, now you need to make sure your foundations are strong.
Be VERY clear and focused on why, and what, you’re doing.  Make sure you have everything you need – the correct eating plan and clean food in the house, the right training programme for you and everything you need to be able to complete it; or whatever it is that you need to make sure what you’re going to build on is solid.
4) NOW you can start building your walls – but don’t expect your ‘house’ to appear overnight, it won’t. But progress towards it can begin overnight…right now in fact.
All houses are built laying one brick at a time; if your design is good and your foundations strong, then with vision, a close eye on your design, consistency and patience your new ‘house’ will be looking marvellous in no time.
YOU are the architect and builder of your life. If you don’t like it, draw up a new design, clear your site and build one you DO like 😀