Do you have a long-forgotten dream that’s begging to be resurrected?
Back in my days as a property developer, I built dozens of houses for other people but never designed and built one for myself.
My ex-husband and I got really close to it once.
We spent a huge chunk of money on a run-down waterside bungalow in the Sandbanks area of Poole with the intention of replacing it with a house we’d designed ourselves.
We had plans drawn up - a gorgeous 3 story place with a swimming pool in the basement.
Heaven!
It sailed through the planning process and we were ready to build.
Throughout the process, we spent several days at the old bungalow making plans and dreaming about what it would be like to live there.
However, as the weeks went by, a disconcerting feeling was rising up inside me.
Every time I went out into the garden, the retired lady in the house next door wanted to talk to me.
I don’t mean every so often.
I mean Every. Bl**dy. Time.
At first it felt good to have a warm welcome to the neighbourhood, but after a while I got fed up with hearing about the last people who lived in our house, the many projects she’d done in her own place, her annoyance at local cats pooping on her petunias, her niece's wedding-planning catastrophes, and her husband’s hip replacement.
She also wanted to know the ins and outs of a duck's arse about who we were and what we were going to build, her neck craning over the fence, begging for an invitation to look around the place with me.
Needless to say, if she was a vampire I’d have invested in a truckload of garlic to hang over my door.
In the end, I decided I couldn’t live there.
I wasn’t going to spend what felt like umpteen billion pounds on a property that was suffocatingly close to a very nosey neighbour.
We ended up moving to a lovely old place in the New Forest, but the dream of designing and building my own home has never gone away.
I’m currently in the process of taking one step closer to that dream.
We have an old barn in our field that we once had permission on to convert to offices, but after changing the model of our business away from building a big team, we let the permission lapse.
However, we’re talking to an architect and a town planner about converting it into our home.
It’s a long shot, but I love a challenge!
If you’ve ever seen the film Dumb and Dumber, you’ll know there’s a scene in which the hapless hero says to the gorgeous leading lady, "What do you think the chances are of a guy like you and a girl like me ending up together?"
She awkwardly responded, “About a million to one…”
Most people would give up at this point, but he looked really chuffed and said, “So, you’re telling me there’s a chance!”
That’s pretty much the attitude I have towards long shots.
Even if things don’t work out quite as you imagine, if you keep making an effort and don’t give up on a dream, even if you take a break from it for a while, you’ll eventually make it happen.
I have no doubts we’ll do it one day, even if we’re moving in on my 90th birthday!
So, what’s that dream you’ve always wanted to make happen?
Is today the day you dust it off and give it another go?
Getting a coach on board can be really helpful, especially seeing you through the times when it all feels like a bridge too far.
I’ll be there to remind you there is a chance!
Catch me before I have to reduce my coaching hours to put my project manager’s hat on!