How to Beat Overwhelm with Your Home Renovation

I listen to a lot of podcasts and this week I noticed that there is a nutritionist promoting her new book that's all about protein and muscles in our body and how great it is for our health, and I definitely subscribe to this line of thinking and have seen and continue to see the positive results of getting more protein in my diet and lifting weights, so this content caught my attention.

One instagram reel promoting this particular podcast episode which was promoting this book was quite controversial and therefore had A LOT of comments and so of course I got sucked in as a way to procrastinate on brushing my teeth. Many of the comments supported what this lady had said, and many of the comments called her a nut bar for many different reasons, and one of the comments that stood out to me, out of the 700…was something like, “yah protein's good, but what about fibre? That's important too!”

And my immediate reaction was, “Ok, Yes that's important, along with water, and healthy fats and all the vitamins and minerals, and the right carbs, and reducing salt and sugar, and the list goes on. This 30-second reel is about making sure we eat enough protein. It's not saying that protein is the single only thing you need to be concerned about, or that it's the most important thing, or that you don't need fibre. This lady saying one thing about protein does not mean that she's also somehow communicating her views on fibre too. Silence on the topic of fibre is not a message about fibre not being important. Come on lady, these are the comments that don't offer any value.

But then as I finally brushed my teeth, my mind wandered, and I had this insight.

The World is So Overwhelmed With Actionable Information

THIS is why people, and especially women, are SO overwhelmed today. We know more and more about more topics than people ever did in the past. Just this one topic of the macros we're supposed to be eating, with so many vastly different viewpoints, based on different research, is mind-blowing. Here's this doctor with a PHD, who has done all this research, and is sharing that people need to eat protein and lift weights to build muscle, and that this is the foundation for longevity, brain function, and all sorts of other beneficial things. She's saying one thing, and then you get other doctors with PHDs spouting the benefits of a plant-based diet without any animal-based proteins… and then you have the keto diet that promotes a lot of fat intake and doesn't seem to mention too much about protein at all from what I've seen…

And the point is not that one of these types of eating styles is better or correct, it's that we're so well informed, and we care SO MUCH about these things, and no matter which line of thinking we adhere to, it is always, constantly, swirling around in our heads. How will I get the right amount of protein today? How will I eat the right amount of fibre today? How will I do the right exercise today? How will I fit all my necesary macros into my calorie count?

Receivng this type of content on social media and in podcasts and in books is fantastic because we are getting healthier and learning more about important topics, but in order to apply it to our lives, we need to be constantly thinking about it, and assessing how to implement and judging ourselves on how well we implemented it…every single day.

And it's not just food. It's our kids. We now know all the elements that go into a child's healthy development, so as a parent, we need to manage their diet, sleep, education, exercise, inner healthy, hygiene, socialization, screen time, emotions, regulation, exposure, even their poop. The more we learn about each of these individual items, the more we need to implement healthy practices and review how well we're doing.

And the more we learn about our kids development, the more we learn that 100% of it comes down to managing our own selves, as parents, because if we're impatient with them, or we get so frustrated by repeating ourselves 78 times asking them patiently to put their shoes on or eat their dinner, which are perfectly reasonable things to do in life, and then on the 79th time we lose our minds and raise our voices, we clearly know that we are not regulating ourselves sufficiently… so we should learn more about our own mental health, and anxiety and meditation and how to relieve stress, and overall be better models for our children.

But don't for a second let any of those things take you away from your job. You must take care of yourself as a top priority but also your job and your kids and you should probably clean your house and spend some time with your husband or partner, and see your friends and read more, and make sure you have a hobby so that you can be interesting in conversations cause of course you can't talk about a controversial topic like world events or politics or any of the other current movements, without being cancelled online and being fired from your job and losing everything you've built in life...so have that hobby so that you aren't forced to only talk about your kids and your job that take up 90% of your focus in life…oh and also the fact that your parents are getting old… and the planet's a disaster… and there's no groceries in the fridge… But we need to comment on that Instagram reel because Fibre was not included in this 30-second message and it's also important.

I mean…no wonder we're all friggin exhausted and overwhelmed. We are so inundated with information and things to think about and decisions to make for ourselves and other people, it's hard to imagine we have capacity for anything else.

But Would You Want To Change It?

AND YET…given ALL this, that I'm willing to bet most of you can relate to and feel in life right now… IF you had the choice, would you choose to un-know it all?

Would you choose to not know so much about the macros we need to consume to optimize our health?

Would you choose to not know so much about our kids' development and how to raise happy, confident, resilient children?

Would you choose to not know what we know about mental health and manageing stress and exercise and how to have healtheri relationships and more fulfilling lives?

Not knowing would relieve the overwhelm we feel, because we wouldn't be thinking about it and trying to make good decisions at all times related to these topics, but would we actually BE better off?

Would our lives improve if we put our heads in the sand or just covered our ears like my 3-yr old when I'm trying to explain why she shouldn't touch the stove just to see if it's hot.

I don't think our lives would be better if we didn't know what we know. Is it overwhelming to continually act on all this knowledge and always try to be great at ALL of the things…Ya totally. Is the real issue, not that we know too much but that we're perhaps being too hard on ourselves, striving for perfection, and not asking for the help we need to get there?

That's what I think the problem is. More knowledge and active involvement to design our lives a certain way may But it's better than not knowing anything about eating healthy and just being upset later about being sick or overweight or generally unhealthy.

I believe in the old adage that knowledge is power. Not power over other people but power to be ourselves and live our own lives according to our own values and beliefs. Knowledge empowers us to make the decisions that are right for us and be in control over the outcomes in our lives.

Is that control daunting and scary? Sometimes! But IS that autonomy and control actually what makes most people the happiest? In most cases, YES! They've done these studies at workplaces. People with autonomy in their jobs are happier than others doing the same job without the autonomy. No I didn't do that research myself and no I am not citing a specific article, but I've certainly read enough about project management, emotional intelligence and corporate culture to take this one as a fact now. Autonomy in life is what people want. Freedom to make our own decisions, even if they are bad decisions. We can justify our own bad situations because we were the ones in control.

When we are in control, we can have hope. When we are in control, we can have vision. When we are in control, we can be accountable to ourselves.

And knowledge is the key to achieving this desired outcome. IT's the key to getting what we want because it's the only way we can actually know what we want.

We have to learn how to identify our goals first, so that we can then identify a path for achieving them, so that we can then implement the steps in that path.

Without that knowledge up in step one, we would have no direction or vision for being better and achieving more.

This same principle exists with our homes, and yet most people choose to put their heads in the sand and say no to the knowledge that will give them power over how they live in their most important and expensive asset.

Most people decide to renovate their homes, and hand over all of their savings (and probably some debt too) to architects, designers and contractors without having any real knowledge of their home, what they want, their own constraints, their own priorities, what they can realistically achieve with their budget, and what it takes to get all that. Then at the end of the project, they are left with something that doesn't actually meet their needs. They are left with renovation regret because the project was more expensive than they imagined, took longer, and didn't give them the home they really wanted.

And people are quick to blame the designer or contractor or architect…yet homeowners are often the ones to blame, because they kept their heads in the sand.

It would be the same as never learning about how to be a better parent, and then when they turn 47 and are still living in your basement, you finally think…welll…maybe I didn't do the best job there.

So yes, when I tell homeowners that they need to plan their own renovations, they get scared and they feel intimidated, and they say they are already overwhelmed, but I challenge you to think about the results you'll get if you don't know what it will take to meet your needs. Thinking it through and planning it yourself is THE Way to make sure you get what you want in the end. It's the only way to guarantee that you'll be happy in the end.

Because nobody can make decisions for you and your home better than YOU. Take the opportunity to be autonomous and own the knowledge. Give yourself the power to make better decisions and live in a home that you've designed for yourself.

And here's the thing. I'm not at all saying that architects, interior designers, and contractors are not valuable members of the team. I'm not saying that you shouldn't use them. That would be like me saying that you should never ask a nutritionist to help you design a monthly meal plan if you're really struggling. It's ok to know what you want and struggle with the implementation so you need to reach out to a professional. That's very reasonable.

What I am saying is that you need to go through the process of learning and identifying what you want so that you can be in a position to reach out to that expert with specific problems. That's how you're going to get the best results and make it the most affordable. Because never forget that the most expensive parts of any renovation are the services that you pay for. It's not the labour or materials or finishes. It will always be the services that you could do yourself.

So if money is the constraint for you, then you need to do your own renovation or new build planning, and my online course Renovation Planning Academy is the ultimate step-by-step implementation program to guide you along on that journey. Renovation Planning Academy is made up of 6 modules, where I walk you through the steps of identifying your requirements, auditing your existing home, creating your “as-built” floorplans, defining your scope and budget, nailing your new ideal layouts, making plans for your structure, hvac, electrical and plumbing, all before you pick all your finishes and specify their implementation. Finally, you'll get your permits, choose your team, use my super detailed contract template, and get ready to start construction.

All the steps that are required to be completed before you even think about picking up a hammer are there inside the course, carefully crafted with a video and instructional worksheet that outlines exactly what tasks to complete, one at a time.

The program holds your hand through each step so that you can progress quickly and make all the decisions at the right time with confidence because you're learning the key strategic considerations along the way. It means that there is no overwhelm because you're not overloaded with information and chaos, picking up tidbits about flooring at the same time as youre figuring out how to vet contactors while you're identifying what you can actually afford.. Renovation planning academy is perfectly linear and it's the right process to follow. There is no other program out there with this specific process, which is based on a Project Management framework I”ve been developing for 16 years.

If you want your dream home affordably, then Renovation Planning Academy is the vehicle to deliver that. Please don't put your head in the sand and rely on other people to hopefully figure out your home for you. If you want the best results, then you need to start with knowledge and planning, and that's what I give you inside RPA, all for a flat fee. And of course it comes with loads of bonuses and extra value. I have so much more to share.

Can You Change Your Mindset About The Overwhelm?

Thanks for joining me in this conversation. It really hit me so hard this week about why we feel so overwhelmed with life these days, and how it's tied to all the amount of information we now know… but then that insight I had about not wanting to change it was really powerful, and I felt strongly that i needed to share it.

I wouldn't want to cover my ears and erase my knowledge. So even though I feel overwhelmed somtimes…or a lot of the time, it's actually my choice, and there is peace in that.

In fact, just acknowledging the fact that the overwhelm is a result of my ability to choose and be autonomous in life, has given me a fresh perspective just in the past 24 hours since planing this video, and believe it or not it's taken some of the overwhelm out of the overwhelm. It seems crazy and countertinutiivt but when I had the mindset before about being overwhelmed, it was ith this feeling of negativity… like it shouldn't be that way…like it was something I had to change.

And now, knowing that it's my choice because I actually love having all this knowledge and all this power to choose my story, it no longer feels like something I need to change. I have changed my expectations of myself, instead of trying to change my circumstances, and that feels freeing. Already. In the past 24 hours, this mindset shift has totally changed how I feel about the overwhelm. I welcome it. Because I believe in the power of knowledge and autonomy.

So if you're feeling like planning your owne renovation is going to be too overwhelming, and something you can't take on because you don't have the time or the capacity for anything else in your brain, I see you and I feel that too. But it will give you a better result and save you thousands of dollars…just like eating the right foods will make you healthier and feel better.

Knowledge is power… that will enable you to live in the home you want.