Kimberly Frey Consulting

Sometimes all it takes is a new perspective to help you accomplish your goals. My recent experience searching for a new area rug for my living room reminded me of this very important fact.

My partner and I have been living in our current space for over two years. It’s a pretty quirky unit with an unusual and partially dysfunctional layout, and there are several things I actually really don’t like about it. However, I love where I live simply because we have the most amazing view of Lake Michigan from every window in the unit. We are the end unit facing east, so we have views of the lake from the north, east, and south. When sitting on our couch in the living room, we also have a pretty amazing view of the sunset skies over the city. When we walk into the front door, the first thing you see are the blues and greens of the lake (unless it’s nighttime when it’s pitch black nothingness). One of my favorite quotes is from Kate Chopin’s book The Awakening – “The voice of the sea speaks to the soul.” Living in our unit, I have that voice comforting me on a daily basis.

Since the beauty of the views supercedes the things that I don’t love as much, over the years we have found ways to counterbalance the quirks or inconveniences of our unit. One of the most recent things we finally did was buy a large area rug for the living room.

The flooring throughout our unit is dark gray tile. This tile is unforgiving on the legs and feet. There is no cushion or give to this floor. When we first moved into our unit and I was walking around for hours unpacking, I couldn’t understand why my legs and feet ached so much. Then I realized it was because our floors were so hard. I bought a couple of anti-fatigue mats for the kitchen area and a pair of Oofo recovery slides for every day walking around to create the cushion that the floors lacked. Having always lived in places that either had hardwood floors, carpet, or laminate flooring, walking around on hard tile was a whole new experience.

In addition to the harshness of our tile floors, they also do little to help retain warmth in the winter. Plus, with as many windows as we have to provide our amazing views, the unit can be a little difficult to keep warm. No matter how high we blast the radiators, on a cold Chicago day I find myself walking around with a hoodie on and keeping warm on the couch with a blanket.

Ever since moving in, we have said that we wanted an area rug for the living room. In additon to the visual appeal that the rug would provide, it would also help relieve our two primary issues with the tile floor by providing both some cushion and helping to retain the heat. We had been casually looking at rugs since shortly after moving in, but with winter right around the corner, I had decided it was a priority. I didn’t want to spend another few months with a cold, unforgiving living room floor. Scrolling through rugs on Wayfair, I couldn’t really find anything that jumped out at me. I didn’t want to just settle for something that I didn’t really love because it was going to have such a prominent place in my home.

As I was about to give up and start looking at other options, my partner made a suggestion to change the wording of how I was conducting my search. My reply was a quick, “Okay, we’ll see….” In reality, I doubted that I was going to see anything that differed much from the choices that had already popped up. So imagine my surprise when I started scrolling through the results and saw a rug that spoke to my soul in approximately the second or third row. It was colorful, bohemian, shaggy, bright, and bold – everything I had been looking for. That rug and me? Love at first sight. It is now in our living room and every time I look at it, I am so happy and fulfilled.

I share this story to say this: sometimes a situation seems impossible, but we just need a different approach. By looking at the exact same website but in a different way, I was able to find the perfect rug that brings me true joy. Allowing yourself to view whatever it is you’re struggling with through a different lens can bring you a whole new perspective. This fresh perspective can reenergize you and give you better clarity so that you are able to achieve the goal or persevere through your circumstances.

I also want to point out that it was my partner who offered the suggestion to try a new approach. In the midst of my frustration, I was ready to give up. His objectivity helped me to reframe my search and push through to success.

Sometimes when we are in the midst of difficult circumstances or are facing a difficult path towards a goal, we can become inefficient, get stuck, or even give up completely. Having the benefit of someone who can support you in those moments could be the difference between success and failure.

As a coach, I love helping support my clients in whatever search they are conducting in their lives: a new job, goals that support their life vision, understanding of how they can harness their full inner potential to achieve success.

What is it that you’re trying to achieve? Do you wish you had someone to support you along the way? Or are you feeling stuck in the process? Licensed clinical social worker and founder of ADHD reWiredEric Tiver says, (and I share this quote often), “We can do hard things, but we don’t need to do them in the hardest way possible.” Let’s chat to see if there are ways I can help you find your perfect rug.

You Can Do It.

I Can Help.