The Faucet Wins ... For Now

The Faucet Wins … For Now

I am no the handiest of humans, I can follow instructions, follow Youtube tutorials and such but puzzling it out without help has never been my strong suite. Still I don’t let a little thing like that stop me. Most of the time.

I am a big proponent of the idea the “truth” that we are more capable than we realize and can accomplish more than we thought possible if we simply set our goals a little higher. People perform up to expectations as well as down if you give them the opportunity.

That includes you.

However I also think it’s imperative one be honest with themselves and keep a fair assessment of their abilities and the situation about them. I will never, for instance, be an Olympic weight lifter.

So it was I found myself four hours into the project of replacing a faucet and utterly stuck for an hour of it.

That’s a long time to be stuck. At which point I have to ask myself is continuing to beat my head against the proverbial wall a sign of tenacity or delusion? What am I not accomplishing because I will not let this go. And, most importantly, might I get a better result starting over.

Sometimes we get a thing stuck in our head. We decide something must be done. Or done in a certain way, or by a certain time. And, certainly, any of these things may be true and none-negotiable. But much as I mentioned in my previous post about shutting doors before you open them it’s easy for these dogmatic things we latch onto to be artifacts of our own creation.

I’m not saying one should give up, or one should quit easy. Certainly not. However one should, if met with great difficulty, pause and consider if this difficulty is warranted. If it is warranted now. And if a better result may be achieved by pulling back.

I, in the example over this weekend, obviously lacked the tools and the awareness of the tools I would need to accomplish this task. I might need a wrench, or a friend, or a plumber, or a sprits of WD-40. But I didn’t have it and I was on the verge of attacking the problem in an unhealthy way (with a hammer) which is a clear indicator I’m not processing it correctly.

So I stopped, pulled back and let the faucet win.

For now.

Do not under value the benefit of taking a step back and facing your challenges from a different angle with more information and a bit of rest. You can “lose” a round and still win the contest.

I hope this is helpful to you my dear readers. Take care and God bless;

~ S. Wallace