My wife and I recently did a small renovation to our home. We even brought in a couple of designer guys to help us out.

It was surprising how emotional it was.

As the old furniture, travel trinkets and cheap art on the walls got given away to family or sold to strangers, I couldn’t help but look at most of it with some degree of affection. Weird, I know. It's only stuff.

But they were items we had bought together when we got our first house. Some items were even from the apartments we lived in before becoming homeowners.

As attached to that stuff as we were, we knew it was time for a change. 

It was time a couple years earlier but we couldn’t see it yet. My thanks go out to our friends and family for not mentioning that.

As time went on, we began feeling that much of what we had accumulated didn’t fit who we were and how we wanted to live.

At that point, changing it became a big priority. We spent every spare moment surfing furniture sites on-line. We looked at catalogues and gathered ideas. I know - we really know how to live!

As each new item entered our home, the older pieces still around became much less attractive. Once we had made all our furniture choices, we couldn’t wait for the new stuff to arrive.

But here’s the thing... Even though we orchestrated this change, we weren’t completely sure we were going to love the new as much as the old.

Well, guess what? This doesn’t only happen with furniture. It happens in many other aspects of our lives.

Why? Because change is fraught with fear, but, as experience has taught me, you just have to go for it anyway.

The trick is to know how to give yourself the confidence to make the big move