I have mentioned my patient husband Charlie in these posts before. He is thoughtful, methodical, and detail-oriented. This is frequently important, but it really came into play recently when we decided to paint two rooms in our house.
Charlie’s attention to detail means he’s great at lots of home repair and maintenance tasks. My strengths…well, let’s just say that my strengths lie in other areas.
We decided that each of us would be in charge of one room that needed painting. Charlie and our son would tackle the larger room, and I would do the smaller one by myself. This allowed for a fascinating side-by-side comparison of our styles, and let me be the first to say that the room Charlie painted looks MUCH better than the one I did.
Charlie carefully prepped the room, laying down plastic, taking off the outlet covers, cleaning the blades of the ceiling fan. I piled everything in the room on the bed and threw a drop cloth over it.
Charlie assembled every tool he would need before he started. I had to stop in the middle of what I was doing several times to go find the next thing I needed.
Charlie knew exactly what he was taking on when he started the project. I nearly quit when I realized how much work painting the trim was going to be.
At this point you may be wondering, “Hey, so, what strengths do you bring to this, exactly?” And that’s a great question! My contribution to getting the rooms painted came earlier in the process.
What I’m good at is getting things going. I’m a starter. I have huge enthusiasm and energy for new ideas and projects, for getting the team together and planning how it’s going to happen. I’m decisive—the dates for painting, the paint colors, and the game plan all decided and in motion fast.
Charlie is a finisher. He stays with a project until the end. He deals with the detail work and the irritating obstacles.
Our strengths complement each other. I show up with paint cans and a plan, and he tells me the best way to sand the trim. And in the end, the rooms are painted.
