There are many situations in life where the idea of something is greater than how it actually is. It could be what you wear, what you drive, what you eat, where you live or even what you do. We all have these images of what we will feel when something happens and more times than not, we couldn’t be more wrong.

I remember a suit I bought a few years back and thought it would look good. I got it home and wore it to a conference and I felt like a goober walking around in that suit. As I have written about several times, I love those old Jeep Grand Wagoneer’s. Every time I bought and sold one, I told myself I would never buy another one. I have owned three of them. ha. You have this image of wearing an old hat with a flannel shirt, driving an old vintage SUV with wood grain down the side and it would be so cool. Well, its not. They leak like a faucet, drive like a big lawn mower, sound like an angry weed eater and they break down all the time. Case in point, the idea of the Wagoneer is much better than actually owning one.

I was counseling with a young man one time who wanted to open a store that sold saltwater exotic live fish. He was all pumped up about how great it was going to be. I took out a piece of paper and told him we would just do a chart with income and expenses to see how profitable it would be. You guessed it. By the time we got all the way through the spreadsheet and he realized how many fish he would have to sell every day to make it, the answer was clear. Don’t do it.

There have been many people destroy their lives because of an image or idea of some change they wanted, but never gave careful thought about what it would actually be like. As with many things in life, especially if you have people depending on you, be careful when you want to pursue a new idea or image. It usually takes much longer, and costs much more than you expect it will. KT