It had nothing to do with the end result.

I approached my husband about making our guest bedroom more functional. It has been a traditional guest bedroom used 2–3 times a year when our son or my mom comes to visit.

Otherwise, it sits dormant getting vacuumed an dusted on a weekly basis. 

I still wanted to have some sort of bed, but I also wanted it to function as additional play space for our grandkids, an exercise area, and an area for meditation, reading, and journaling.

While I’m not completely done with the space, the biggest component is built (the daybed).

However, the end result wasn’t what gave me such a sense of accomplishment. 

It was the process itself and completing it by myself.

The Process.

As we all know, the process can be quite messy. When I originally unboxed the daybed, it didn’t look like this. I had the boxes neatly stacked and placed off to the side. 

The parts were all laid out, and I found a video to take me through the build.

Early on, I had a panic moment. I couldn’t find one part.

What was once a tidy stack of boxes for recycling, became the chaos you see above.

Come to find out, after watching that particular step of the video once more, I discovered the mistake I made. A part wasn’t missing after all. I simply panicked.

I think that happens often when we’re in the thick of things. The process can be moving along quite nicely, and then suddenly an obstacle pops up and we derail ourselves. Or, maybe that’s just me.

Once I realized what I had done, I vowed that I wouldn’t have any more freak outs.

And I didn’t.

Why I didn’t freak out anymore.

The main reason is that I started to see progress. While the piece above took nearly two hours for me to complete, I could see things coming together.

When I couldn’t wrap my head around what I was supposed to do next, I rewatched that section of the step by step video.

And when I still couldn’t quite comprehend what I was supposed to do next, I took a break. I grabbed a snack, scrolled Instagram, checked my email, etc. 

In other words, I needed a palate cleanse. 

Once I had a short break, I came back to the next step with a cleared vision and carried on.

After nearly four hours, I was tapped out but excited with the progress I made. I knew the following day would only take 1–2 hours to finish.

I could have probably pushed through, but I elected not to. I didn’t want to make a silly mistake when I had done so well thus far.

Sometimes pushing through works, and sometimes you just need to trust your gut if it’s telling you to stop.

I’m glad I listened to myself, because day two took exactly the amount of time I thought it would. 

What I learned.

I learned once again how important it is to listen to my body — physically, intellectually, and emotionally.

I freaked out once (emotional), and then I didn’t the rest of the time. I applied deep breathing from my meditation practice when I started to feel overwhelmed.

When I watched a section of the video three times and couldn’t wrap my head (intellectual) around what I was supposed to do next, I took a break. When it happened multiple times at around the four-hour mark of the project, I knew it was time to call it a day.

It was also around that four-hour mark, that I took stock of how my body was feeling physically. I was sore. Even periodic breaks to stretch throughout the day stopped being as effective. Plus, I needed to honor the fact that I’m not used to long stints of manual labor.

Conclusion.

This was a great project for me, because it reminded me that it’s good to challenge my brain to do something different. 

My husband was out of town when I started the project on day one. On day two he offered to help, but he also knew that I wanted to do this on my own. He was so supportive and celebrated the accomplishment with me when I finished. Oh, and he also snapped this picture.

While it’s going to be a long time before I take on a project of this magnitude by myself, I’m proud of myself for doing it. I learned a lot about myself along the way.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to take a nap.

Until next time, Cheers!