It’s been a very tricky last couple of years since we went into lock down because of the Covid 19 Pandemic in March 2020. All of us went into our places of abode with our families for several weeks during a national curfew while international travel came to an almost complete standstill.
Taking stock
This dramatic and unexpected pause in our everyday lives has resulted in most of us taking stock of our professional and personal lives. It’s caused us to ask ourselves some very important questions such as:
· Do I enjoy what I do for a living?
· Am I making the best use of my time at work and at home with my family?
· What can or should I do to improve my quality of life?
While some of these tough questions could not easily be answered, or put another way, even though we knew what the answer was we were not, or have not yet been, in a position to take the required action to change our circumstances and hence our perceived quality of life, others linger on, and we continue to try to answer them.
One of the biggest steps we could or can take to improve our day-to-day environment however, is to improve our work/life balance and the surroundings where we spend most of our time effectively living out that balance.
Spending valuable time commuting or buying groceries that could be delivered or getting stuck in traffic running errands that may not be necessary, have all been exposed by the work from home or work remotely option that was fast forwarded into our lives because of the travel and movement restrictions that resulted from Covid 19.
This has led us to look very closely at our place of abode (where we live).
· Does it meet our new requirements?
· Is there a dedicated workspace that I can use without being disturbed?
· Is it big enough for the number of people who live here?
· Do the kids have room to learn and play?
· Is there enough outside space?
· Is the environment comfortable and pleasing to use?
· Am I happy in this neighbourhood or area?
While the answers to these questions may require a complete overhaul to the way we have been living or to where and what we live in, many of us can address at least some of them by simply making a few changes or renovations to the place where we already live.
For others it may require a better use of the space we have. Some of this space could be used to generate income if it’s more than we need.
For some of us however, we have outgrown or the changes we need to make just cannot fit with where we currently reside, and we need to sell or rent or move on.
Answering these important questions in the best way possible will require:
· a level of honesty with ourselves
· a willingness to make changes
· a vision of what we want and where we want it to be (that suits how we want to live)
We believe that doing this on your own may be possible, but we also believe that having an expert or someone who knows a bit about how and where people live is very important and could not only help you to realize what the possibilities realistically are for achieving your lifestyle balance goals, but also help you to avoid making some common, elementary, or even some very important mistakes.
I’m sure there are space experts who can help you plan out your space, psychologists who can help you with life goal changes and contractors who can help you with renovations and building plans. However, they all charge quite high fees and while they are all experts in their specific fields, none of them have a good overall understanding of the whole picture that you are aiming to paint.
I firmly believe that having someone who works with people, lifestyles and spaces for a living is the best option you can find to help you on this journey and in this exercise, and best of all, you only have to pay them when they have successfully helped you to achieve your goals.
So, who are these people who can:
· Give advice on what type of property can or should be used for what kind of purpose
· Match people’s living (real estate) aspirations with their budgets
· Guide you though the buying, selling, renting process
· Help you understand what is good and what is not about a particular home or area?
It may not have dawned on you previously because you didn’t really know what these people did, you thought they just made a lot of money selling properties.
If you’re starting to see that there may be a way that you can benefit by having a chat, then give one of them a call and see where it leads. It’s a free consultation and it might just result in helping you to make some important decisions in an environment that seems to have more questions than answers!
Oh, and if you’re not sure who these people are, just give us a call and we’ll point you in the right direction.
Over the coming weeks and months we will be writing about and helping you to tackle many of these difficult questions offering advice such as:
“Which parish should I look at and why?”
“My house is bigger than I need, what are my options?”
“I love working from home but I need to have my own workspace away from home, where do I look?”
