In just a couple of days, we have gone from "it would be nice if someday..." mode to actually seeing one of our dreams as being realistic. I recently talked about the change in our dreams for our house.
So here's the crazy thing. The house down the street is for sale. It's identical to ours, and currently priced at below appraisal value. Which has had me nervous for a while. If it sells at asking price, that drops the value of MY house by $35K. Yeah, you can go vomit now. That's how I've been feeling since it went on the market a few months ago.
Anyway, my weird obsessive thing that I do is occasionally check the online listing to see what it's priced at and if it's been reduced. I also scrutinize every vehicle driving by in hopes that someone is looking at that house. So far, no one has even gone to SEE it!
The other day, when I was looking at the listings, trying to find it, I saw an ad for another house for sale. Remember the whole, buy a house where we can have a horse deal? Well... not only does this house fit the bill, but it's in a location hubby and I have always dreamed of living. We just never could afford it. This particular house, along with 2 or 3 others, are actually listed at the same price as our house would be.
The dream? Not so impossible as it would seem.
Hubby was ready to list our house and make an offer on that one. I'm slightly more conservative, so I told hubby that we should make a plan. And we did. The plan is that we're going to spend the spring fixing up our house and making it look really nice. The last time we did this whole moving thing, we put a lot of time and money into fixing up the old house, and it sold in five days. An identical model was on the market, and had been for months, but ours sold faster and for more money because our house looked nicer. So that's our plan of attack for this house.
Will it work? I don't know. But like I told hubby, even if we get this place fixed up and we decide not to sell or the timing isn't yet right or whatever, we'll still be living in a nice house.
And then, as I was sitting here, thinking about how this whole plan is seeming to come together, I realized that what we're doing now is no different than what we should have been doing all along. We have so many dreams and goals for our family- not just the house thing. But what are we doing to get it? Just saying, "Someday..."
I've read so many books that tell you that you're supposed to set a goal, give it a date, and make a plan. No wonder we haven't gotten anywhere- we've been in someday mode the whole time.
So today, I'm thinking in goal mode. We want a new house. We want to go on a nice family vacation. Instead of putting it in terms of someday, I'm going to take the time, sit down with hubby, and put down real dates, and make real plans.
What are your dreams? Do you have a plan to make them a reality? How are you going about making them come true?
7 comments:
Some of my dreams are things that I, we can't really do. They are so far out of our reach.
But I've realized that there are still small things I can do to get ready for when God puts all the pieces together.
It's a new concept for me. Actually working for it and making plans instead of just sitting around waiting.
Kay, that's the exact conclusion I've come to.
I think with writing, and really not being able to say, "okay, I'll have a contract by this date," it's hard to quantify that as a goal. But you're right, we can do small things to put pieces together so that when the contract does come, we're ready!
Well, I wasn't thinking about writing. But it's similar in that I can't even put a date on it.
I think this is the best thing I have heard all day!!! Seriously!! I need to make lists and plan and make goals!!!
Thanks for sharing!
Kay, I can't wait to hear what your plans are!
Kathy, I'm glad it was helpful! Good luck with your goals!
For the last three years, my husband and I have gone to a coffeehouse for an afternoon in January to spend time goal-making together. Separately, we each write down 5 goals for the next year and 5 goals for the next 5 years (not the most important five goals, just five goals, period). Then we exchange and discuss. Then we pull out a calendar (yes, I lug my "planning" box to the coffeehouse) and pick dates either for the goal to occur on or by.
We also spend time looking at last year's goals to see how well we did. There's always a few that we didn't make, because life throws curve balls like a new baby and an unexpected move across the country, but it's really nice to know what is important to each of us and to be able to encourage and support each other towards specific goals.
Best of luck with your house goal! I think it's a great idea to pretend you're moving every two years, so you can enjoy the upgrades! :)
Megan, those are some great ideas! I love the idea of sitting down with hubby and making plans.
And I really like the idea of pretending we're moving every two years even if we aren't!
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