What lies beneath

The other day I was on my way back from town. Lately I've been hopping on the bus to and from the station mainly because my less than practical business smart shoes are a killer to walk in. I know I couldn't possibly manage the three quarters of a mile journey which includes a very steep hill. Well at least that's what I tell myself. 50% of the time it's true and the other 50% I just can't be bothered to walk. This is a real turnabout for me; the person who used to cycle a 12 mile round trip to and from work daily. And there were days when I'd clocked up over 30 miles if I had meetings to go to. On more than one occasion I even cycled from the Elephant and Castle to Hampstead and from there to my home in south-east London, a cool 40 mile round trip. Consequently, noticing that I had become so sedentary that walking home felt like an effort, set alarm bells ringing.

Anyway, this day I didn't have the inappropriate shoes excuse. Despite the fact that I could have fallen back on the fact that it was about to rain (it was), I decided to get on with it and walk. Walking although obviously slower than riding the bus; has the advantage of providing a completely different perspective of your environment. Being slower you notice so much more. I noticed that the town centre looks like it is well on the way down. You can always tell because more and more shop fronts are given over to open plan retailers who operate from the pile them high market stall mentality. If that doesn't clinch it, the nail in the coffin is the influx of bargain basement shops selling everything for less than 99p. Leaving all that aside, the most amazing thing was I walked past a builder who was pebble dashing a boundary wall. Pebble dashing – surely this ugliest of fascia treatments; second only to stone cladding, is not making a comeback? Call me a snob but pebble dashing a building is no longer stylish. It is even difficult to believe it may have been once; then again so was Formica. However tastes change and it definitely isn't in fashion today.

It set me wondering what possible reason the owner had for doing this. The original motivation for pebble dashing a building was to hide imperfections. To put on a thin veneer of respectability, when just below the surface lay cracks and other faults. As I pondered this, it occurred to me that people sometimes pebble dash aspects of their lives. For example I can think of a few people who've pebble dashed their finances. That is they've put on a good veneer to cover up the cracks. Either spending like there's no tomorrow, wholly unaware of whether their cash flow is enough to meet their outgoings. Or constantly worrying about how they are going o make ends meet. However hiding what's wrong is never the solution.

The good news is that taking off pebble dash is actually possible. It's by no means an easy job and there is a lot of work required to repair both the original faults and the damage caused by removing the cladding. Once it is off and the work to repair what lies beneath is completed, the beauty of the building really shines through. It's clear that the improvements are even better than the original.

If you're one of the people who has pebble dashed their finances, a good place to start hacking away the cladding is by looking at the quality of the relationship you have with money. Many people have difficulty with their finances because their beliefs and attitudes towards money are out of alignment. In tomorrow's post I will be looking at why this is, so stay tuned.

What have you notice when you have slowed down to appreciate your environment. Please share your observations I look forward to reading them.