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Most of us would like to be a better person. We have areas where we're weak, or areas we would like to develop. We have attributes that we may be ashamed of, or ones we may want to acquire. We have personality quirks that irritate others, or ones that we might want to develop.

Recently, a family member toured a house that appeared to have been built somewhat haphazardly. It was built at a time where building code enforcement wasn't as strict or developed as it is now, and the house suffered from defects in the roof design. It also had sort of a schizophrenic quality -- it tried to be a high-end house, but the cabinets, hardware and furnishings were all pretty much lower end.

The house had been developed over time, as a harried family had the resources, but without a clear plan or direction. As a result, the home was a lot like many of us -- it has areas that need to be fixed, even though it also had many areas where things were better than average.

Many times, we develop our lives without a clear plan or direction, and as a result, what we wind up with is a rather convoluted person -- full of contradictions and mis-starts. We become someone who is rather interesting, but never achieving the high-end results that we would like to have.

In such a case, a little bit of personal remodeling is in order, and fortunately, it doesn't need a contractor or a building inspector. It does, however, need a plan -- a blueprint if you will -- to ensure that the changes go well and incorporate well with who we are.

It's really not as big a deal as it may seem -- we all get this way sooner or later. Life doesn't take a break while we set up a plan, and consequently, after a while, we all are in need of a bit of remodeling.

Start with a blank paper or document on your computer. Call it "Areas that I can improve," and candidly enter the areas where you would like to become better. Keep it to yourself, or share it with someone you care about -- it's your choice -- but be as candid as possible, and set down those areas that require a bit of work. Some of these tasks will be easier than others -- perhaps you'll find that starting with the easier tasks helps you build up momentum for the more difficult ones; maybe you'll find that you can work actively on several tasks at once -- it doesn't matter how you do it; it's your plan after all.

Second, break down each area into a plan of its own. Determine how best to reach your goals, what areas you would need to work on, what education you'd need in order to achieve. Just as an architect will begin with an overall vision for the house, and then break down each successive area into minute details to be followed by the contractor, so you and I need to determine the best plan to follow, and break each down to a workable model which we can then pursue.

Third, continue to work on your list until you achieve success. Just as the builder will start with framing a house, and complete the job with painting and finish work, so in our remodel, we start with the big things, and then polish to a shine as the job gets done. Our plan needs to look at each step, while remembering that the finish work becomes more apparent as the remodeling job gets closer to the end.

We may have a sagging roof (metaphorically speaking, of course) in our life, but we can rebuild it a whole lot easier than we can rebuild a house. And since we are the architect and designer, the builder and finish carpenter, we are in complete control of how our job progresses and what shape it becomes. We can build as simple or as elaborate a self as we wish to become, not just settle for a little bit of Spackle and a throw rug or two in an attempt to cover up the cracks in our life.

Copyright, 2011, by Daryl R. Gibson. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.Weekdaywisdom.com.