Happy New Year! Ever get sick of hearing “New year, new me?” I do.

It’s great in theory, right? However, none of us are magically transformed at the stoke of midnight…unless maybe we have spent the previous year working towards that moment of change.

Social media has served us this unfortunate message, that somehow became “truth,” what with all the cut videos of people only showing the before, and magically, the after. At first, I really loved watching these reels. I thought, man, who wouldn’t want to snap their fingers and transform? Or snap their fingers and skip straight to the “after?” Besides that, some people are super clever and it’s entertaining to watch.

However, there are SO many times we just don’t get to skip to the good parts. We don’t get to magically have things work out for us.

If we want things to change…we have to change.

And change is hard work. It’s exhausting, it’s slow, it’s really messy, and it’s something you have to really want, or it just won’t happen.

Because if you don’t REALLY want it, you won’t be able to find your grit and persist when things get difficult.

I think back on my life and can see so many pivotal moments when I could have thrown in the towel because things got hard. Unfortunately, we don’t have editing software to skip the work part, or even to speed it up.

We sometimes just have to sit in it until we can find a solution.

I have a perfect example for you, and I decided to write about it now…while in the middle…sitting directly in the middle of the hard part…instead of writing with the relief of the after.

I had a particularly difficult series of events over the last month, and in the middle, I heard a loud crash in my house. Come to find out, my walk-in closet wire shelf had ripped out of the wall and everything had cascaded to the floor like an avalanche.

I instantly uttered, “That’s a January problem,” and shut the door.

Well, as you all know, it is now January.

So, two days ago, took a little trip to The Home Depot. I had a vision (nothing new there).

I figured that if I was going to have to repair the closet, why not put in the work to remodel it to suit my taste, right?

Ok. Youtube to the rescue. I scoured all the videos. I tried to feel confident that I could pull this off.

I took all the shelving out (there was even a helpful Youtube video for that to save me from having more gaping holes in the drywall). I patched all of the holes, I ripped out the carpet, tack strips, and staples, I vacuumed, I painted the walls, and then I took the giant leap of faith and started with LVP flooring around 6am yesterday.

I’d watched all the videos, seemed very straightforward, and thankfully, it’s basically a square—–except for ONE spot in the doorway.

Want to talk about the urge to skip a part? Let’s just say that this was one of those times where my brain made something WAY harder than it needed to be.

I spent most of the day staring at it, to be honest. I finally gave it a shot. I failed. So, I waved my white flag and reached out to a couple of people. One offered encouragement and humor (always appreciated) and the other drew on my photo I sent and offered a different solution than whatever that was I’d tried.

I went back to The Home Depot and got a much better utility knife so I wasn’t killing myself to cut the planks, and then took a deep breath and tried again. There were tears of frustration, thoughts of just calling it and putting the carpet back, but then there was the core of who I am, shining brightly.

My grit had returned. Oh, what a welcomed feeling.

It may have been 8:07pm (yes, you read that correctly–6am to 8:07pm), but I got that stupid plank to fit in that space.

I cried tears of joy and called my friends to tell them I finally did it. I’m sure they thought I was crazy, but I can assure you, I was just relieved.

I spent the next hour or so finishing up the flooring, until I finally had to call it.

So, as I’m sitting here, finishing my second cup of coffee, I still have a few hurdles to go, but I am so grateful God made me a visionary. I saw that finished closet before I ever started, and I can still see it now. That’s why I’m about to finish that floor and install my IKEA closet system.

Will there be more crying? Maybe.

Will there be a completed closet, that hopefully will not fall out of the wall? You bet.

And when it is done, I will have the feeling of accomplishing yet another thing I had my doubts I could ever do.

That’s why, as much as while we are in the thick of things, we want to just skip that part, we can’t.

We can’t because there will always be another hard thing we must do, and I think it helps to look back at all the things we thought we couldn’t do, but did. That’s what helps us keep moving forward to get to the “after.”

Whatever you’re sitting in right now, make the choice of wanting to get to the after or just calling it and going back to the beginning. It’s your choice to make.

No clever before/after. However, here are a few photos to prove I’m not Bob the Builder, but I’m so grateful. I’m also glad I never threw away my T-Square from college, and my dog’s face resembled mine the whole day. Needless to say, I would like to never attempt to lay flooring ever again. But I know me, and I probably will someday.

This closet may seem like a silly example if you are going through something truly difficult, but it’s just to show that we can all get the urge to quit when things seem impossible.

Just know that you absolutely can do hard things.

You will find a way to navigate it to the end.

~Alisha