Action & Implementation – Liam

We all have things to do that we put off forever and ever because we really don’t want to do them. This could be due to the boring nature of the task, the difficulty or the anxiety associated with it. For me, this task was fixing up the landscaping in my back yard.

 
Now the original plan was to get someone else to do it but after getting quotes for $20,000 I thought I would save myself some money and just do it myself. How hard could it be? I was just doing some paving (about 50 sqm) some new grass (about 40 sqm) and a raised garden bed made out of those landscaping bricks.

 
In November of 2015, I started with this.

A couple of weeks later, all the crap was gone, and we had laid a concrete slab for the paving and the shed to go down.

 
2017 started and I still hadn’t finished. More disappointing however is that there was still so much to do. I kept finding excuses not to do any work, it was too hot, it was too cold and wet, there was other stuff that needed doing. I finally had enough. It was time to actually knuckle down and do some work.

 
The first thing I did was the paving, I’ve never paved before  and after looking up every paving video on youtube I decided to give it a crack. Sure there was issues like getting the slopes right, finding ways to cut around the drains etc, but I did manage to get it done. It’s not perfect but it’s good enough for me. This was around Christmas and, by the end of January I had also finished paving under the clothesline.

 
Problem was my yard (if you could call it that) still looked like crap, I wasn’t happy with it, the kids had nowhere to play and it was here that I decided to take action. No more excuses, just get out and do it.

 
I set myself a goal. Get it presentable for my son’s first birthday. That way we could have a bbq outside with the family. This left myself about 4 weeks.

 
I drew up a timetable to see what needed to be done by when, what I had to order and when (soil, grass etc) and set my plan in to action.

 
After spending pretty much every weekend and most nights after work, I’ve got to the stage where I am no longer ashamed of it. Sure it’s not finished and more action is required, but now I can see the finish line, everything is that much easier. I’m finding myself more motivated to get things done rather than constantly finding excuses. Hopefully it won’t be too much longer until it’s all done.