How many bricks are there in your wall?

Imagine every problem you face is a brick in your very own brick wall.

For some of you, your brick wall is easy enough to step over, there aren't many bricks, so you don't need to worry about it, or do you?. Or you may feel that the brick wall is too high, too wide and too insurmountable to ever get rid of.

But I'd like to challenge both sets of thinking.

• If your "bricks" are not dealt with, they will always be there.
• Once you add more "bricks" to your wall, you will have trouble dealing with the ones at the bottom. These early "bricks" are your foundation stones, and I'm sure most of you will agree that if your life is built on firm foundations it will survive ANYTHING. The problems occur when those firm foundations are actually problems and issues we have never dealt with or faced? 
• You can avoid your brick wall of course - just turn away and voila - you can't see the bricks so therefore the problems have "gone". A lot of people do live their lives like that, it gives them a good excuse as to why they can't move one. Have you seen the size of my "bricks"? It's too much I can't cope. If I continue to do what I've always done, sure the "bricks" will always be there - but hey I can live a small life, it's where I'm the most comfortable.
• You can also use your brick wall as a support - you can lean on it, you can revel in the fact that your brick wall is sooo much bigger than everyone else's. We call them the "it's all right for you brigade...." 
• You can of course climb over your brick wall. You may think that by climbing over the problem the problem will disappear. Actually people who have been given a clean slate rarely master the art of not-creating brick walls and sooner rather than later they are facing yet another one, and usually a much higher one than before.

So how do you deal with your brick wall?

First you need to acknowledge you have one. That sounds rather obvious, but as you will realise, most people rarely admit they have "problem" bricks in their foundations.

Once you have determined that you have "problem" bricks you need to label them.

Once they have been labelled you can decide if you a) can remove them or b) want to remove them. The lower down the brick wall you go, the deeper and the more problematic it will be to deal with.  They've been  there for a long time, so as you can imagine they are going to take some time to get rid of.

Of course you can take the sledgehammer approach to any problem bricks you may have, but that depends whether or not you have the power and determination to wield the hammer. But anyone who has given up smoking "cold turkey", quit their job to pursue a dream career, left an abusive partner, moved state or country will understand that it is possible to do.

But lets assume you don't have a spare sledgehammer available. I would recommend taking a chisel and a small hammer and taking one of your problem bricks - chip away at the mortar that is holding it in and deal with it. Whilst you can start with the lower bricks I would actually recommend you start with the ones that you have just put there, the mortar is less solid and will take less chipping away.

So, a visual piece of homework I would recommend you do - draw your brick wall and start labelling your problem bricks. Which are your foundation bricks? Which can you deal with first? Which is the key brick? And believe me there is always a key brick in any wall. Once you have discovered your key brick you hold the "key" to removing your brick wall completely.

Good luck with the demolition, and I look forward to hearing about your triumphs.

Comments

[mick]

All in all it's just a brick in the wall -