The Progress Principle in action

 Years ago, I stumbled on a book called The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile and Steve Kramer. It was a great book about motivation and maintaining focus. My most important take away was that making progress on important goals is one of the motivators for employees. Over the years, I have found this to be true in not only working with others, but also motivating myself.

We are pretty certain that renovating a historic building is an exercise of patience and faith. We have big dreams for this space and have been wrestling with when to start phase two of renovations on The Market and putting together all of the pieces to make the next steps happen. This waiting is a little discouraging and there are times when we think that just haven't done enough or are behind our self-imposed schedule.

This week Jeremy had the brilliant idea to use Google Earth to look up older images of the building before we started any work. Wow! What a difference!

This was just the motivator that I needed to remember how far we have come (focus on the progress) and an important reminder of the fun work ahead.

The first collage shows a before of the front landscape and the next two show off our work so far - tree and fence removal, new windows, and new doors! A transformation!

The side and the back of the house show off just how much was hidden by the trees that needed to be removed. Removing the door to no where and the fiberglass wall of the shower (not kidding!) and just priming the siding were a huge step forward.

So, today, we are celebrating the progress, thankful for how far this project has come. And, we are hopeful for a quick start to the next phase!