KIM MECKLER
Our boss, Andrew just came back from three weeks of intensive study as he works on his master’s degree.
We truly missed his face around here and it is so good to see him back full of new ideas and energy. When I asked him about his studies he admitted that they were a challenge and that it was tiring but in the end it has given him new perspective and I’m sure a cranium full of ideas.
When we challenge ourselves it is at first frightening, then we consider how much work is involved and after the challenge is over we are very tired.
After we have rested our brains we then feel the new ideas taking hold and it energizes us. Only the last phase is really exciting, the rest are quite a bit of work!
I think this is the reason why most people stop just short of challenging themselves.
It’s like travelling to Edmonton and not taking the QE2, it’s a new route and the roads are not smooth and we are not as comfortable driving this new path.
The temptation to go back to the QE2 is overwhelming even if it is not the best route to take.
If we stop short and reroute the challenge we may find similar results but we fail to enjoy the energy and new ideas that can come from our bravery.
Try to move yourself in a new direction, even in the simple things in life. Try a new restaurant or coffee shop or even order off the other side of the menu if you dare.
Are you renovating or decorating? Forget everything you are tearing out of your house and forage a new path. You wouldn’t believe how many people reference back to, ‘I used to have this colour paint’ or ‘My carpet is that ugly shade of beige, I hate it,’ yet they keep choosing the SAME colours over and over again! It astonishes me.
I often wonder how I would decorate if I was able to build a new home with no restrictions, nothing in the house that I have to keep as I have done with so many renovations.
What would I do and how would I challenge myself?
I think that if the opportunity presented itself I would go hog wild and indulge in my colour desires of red, orange and of course green which I seem to have in every house.
People would gasp, stare and judge but I think they would be secretly envious of my bold and daring palette.
The challenge wouldn’t be in merely choosing the colours but in resisting the slings and arrows of others’ opinions. It would lie in the worry that would keep me up at night when I consider re-selling a house with an orange kitchen and the exhaustion would lie in trying to find contractors brave and bold enough to source materials to satisfy my every whim.
The triumph would be in successfully pulling off my unique vision and presenting it to the world, hearing the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ of my friends as they wander through my home.
I would revel in the love affair I was having with my beautiful new home and be proud of the fact that I took the road less travelled and yet wound up at a brighter destination.
Kim Meckler is an interior designer in Red Deer with Carpet Colour Centre.