2020-08-01 — Priorities

Hello, again, my lovely peopleses.

It’s been another good day over here. Why? Because of course every day is a good day: It’s just good in different ways.

😁

Anyway, well… I succeeded less successfully at getting up at 6:30 again. (how’s that for positivity 😁). However, I did get up before 7:30! So… I’m gonna count that as progress. My wake-up hour is at least moving in the right direction, if not yet reaching the goal. I was okay raising my exercise by a minute a day, why not something similar for my wake-up hour?

I’m gonna set the goal to just get up, but if it turns into steady progress and doesn’t come all at once, well, I’ll count either of them as successes. Progress = success, in my book.

So… One thing that did bite me in the butt a little bit… or a lot, depending on how you look at it. My choosing to finish my post last night instead of get today’s schedule worked out on time probably cost me, oh… maybe $500?

Oops. 🙃

I’ll keep that in mind next time. It’s the first time, I think, that I’ve had being unprepared until the morning of cost me so badly. I was scrambling this morning to get the jobs arranged, and we had a lot of people just flake out anyway. Sort of a perfect storm, I guess. But… you live, you learn, you let it blow away on the wind, and you don’t worry about what was lost. Just… move forward.

At least I got the post done! 😉

Let’s see… yeah, so I busted my butt today, didn’t really make any money to speak of. I’m not really sure if I made really much of anything at all. I’ll have to see.

Because it was my fault, to some degree, that the schedule was crappy, I paid my tech as though he’d worked a good solid day of good jobs, even though that’s not what ended up happening. It wasn’t really fair to him to have to pay the price for my poor prioritization last night.

Anyway, the day was fine. I was in a good mood despite everything, so that was nice. Honestly, I’m amazed so far at how this week has gone after the little transition I went through last Sunday. One more day makes a full week. It’s gone by both slowly and like lightning at the same time.

So anyway, I only really did, what, a half a job today even though I worked all day? I finished a job that David started because I wanted to get him on to the other jobs that needed to be done, and I was already there as well and could finish it up, so I did. It took forever but I did.

Then… guess what? I went home at 5 p.m. again!

Loving this. Part of me feels a little bad because I had probably three “emergency” calls after I went home, but… I have to have boundaries, right? A lot of the people who call are in a bind, and… I just can’t get everyone and maintain a healthy, balanced life, so… I’m starting to choose to say no 😕.

After getting home, I decided to make myself chigger bait for a while. I spent some time pulling up most of the weeds from around the outside of the house. I also realized that the AC condensation drain pipe is flooding the foundation area a good bit, so I’ll be dealing with that this coming week to try to prevent that water from leaching into the crawl space like it likes to do. I’ll probably buy some PVC pipe, and run it to the front of the house or something. We’ll see.

Let’s see, so yeah, chigger bait pulling lots and lots of weeds, more rose bush trimming, more driveway cleaning, cleaned out most of the cobwebs out of the windows in the kitchen and family room, started putting my massive amount of clean laundry away, replaced the alternator in one of my pickup trucks. Now I just need to get a battery for it, and then I can put it up on the chopping block!

Today was similar to yesterday, nothing earth shattering in terms of personal progress/growth, but I’m paying close attention to my thoughts and feelings and emotions and I’ve been able to kick out the negative really quickly. It’s pretty cool!

I let one get away from me for, oh, 1 or 2 minutes, but, overall, it was a good day. I was upbeat, able to dust the negative off and let it float away on the wind, and… yeah. Good stuff.

Aside from my daily 4X5 stuff, I also got my blog a little more organized, putting the fear stuff in its own section, and writing a few new overcoming-fear posts. I started my list of things I’m afraid of that I’ll be using to help manufacture fearful experiences to practice overcoming. It’s certainly not exhaustive, but I’ll be adding to it, just like I’ve been adding to my Becoming Who I Want to Become list little by little.

I also wrote out my first-draft of countermeasure statements that I can repeat to mentally and verbally combat my fears as they arise.

So… yeah, similar to yesterday. Almost like administrative progress, but still good, necessary, effective (I hope) progress, nonetheless.

(a little smile just bubbled up thinking about how I’m just about ready to go out and manufacture opportunities to face my fears. It’s exciting. Fear… doesn’t stand a chance. It’s days are numbered. I will let go, and through letting go, I will overcome. Onward.)

Well, there you go. Happy day. Progress.

#1. I’m grateful that I have good connections at the parts store. I got the alternator for my truck for like… $100+ less than it would normally cost. They also let me borrow a tool from one of their packages, cutting the package open for me to use the tool and not worrying about selling it to me. I’m grateful for the good relationships I have with these stores. The let me behind the counters to look up my own stuff. It’s not quite like it used to be with the Rogers store last year, but it’s good, and I’m grateful.

#2. I’m grateful that I was able to fix the misfires in the Ford truck that I worked on in the AutoZone parking lot. There was some concern that I wouldn’t be able to, that it was the 3-valve engine, but it wasn’t. It was the 2-valve engine, so that was okay.

#3. I’m grateful to be home again with hours of daylight still and to be able to make some progress on the home front. I’m so hooked on seeing progress made that I don’t really want to go to bed. I want to wander around and organize, tidy up, etc. But… One bit of progress I’m still working on is that pesky bed time. It’s 10:45, and I just need to finish this, brush my teeth, and go night night. So… that’s what I’ll do.

#4. I’m grateful that I was able to get the alternator in my truck. I wanted to be lazy, but this whole trend of being more productive kicked in, and I was like, nope. Just do it. So I did it 🙂.

#5. I’m grateful to have been able to get those other fear posts put together in relative good time. The statement post went together a lot faster than I expected. I might revise it significantly, but it felt good as a first draft. We’ll give it a whirl and adjust as necessary.

#6. I’m grateful that I’m able to be more flexible. I have no idea what has happened to me or how it’s happened, but I’ve almost miraculously, as of just a few months ago I think, been able to let go of having to have things be perfect out of the gate. I’ve been sooooo much better at just saying, well, we’ll roll with it, and adjust as needed. I’ve also been soooooo much better at being kind to myself–again, miraculously. And I’ve been sooooo much better at seeing things in shades of gray instead of straight black and white. I honestly don’t know how all that has come about. It’s only been in the last few months, that I’m aware of, but it’s making a pretty good-sized difference in my life, and I’m grateful.

#7. I’m grateful that I’ve been blessed with faith in the promises of the future instead of succumbing to fear.

Things to do better…

#1. I want to be more patient with a particular culture here. There’s a particular culture of people that has a large population in the area, and some of their idiosyncrasies and cultural norms are just… they try my patience. That was the issue with my little 1 or 2-minute lapse in positive thinking today that I referred to earlier. I just need to accept it as it is and not be annoyed by it. (the things that bother me most are the culture of bargaining. I really don’t like when people try and haggle my prices down, and also, and I don’t know why this is a thing, but it’s so widespread across pretty much every person from that culture I’ve ever done work for, they follow you. Everywhere. You walk to the back of the car… they walk over to you. You walk to the front, they walk over with you. It’s so… annoying. But… it’s not like it’s going to change, so I might as well accept it and choose to be unaffected by it or amused by it or something. Does me no good to be annoyed by it, only does harm.

#2. I want more self-discipline getting up at the hour I say I’m going to get up. I’m totally fine at 7:30, but 6:30 is kicking my tail–even though I’m getting to bed sooner, it’s just… not in my body’s rhythm yet maybe? So it feels totally unnatural? I don’t know. I’m gonna try again tomorrow.

Well, folks, I’m gonna cut it off right there. It’s 10:57, and by the time I brush my teeth, talk to the Big Dude Upstairs, and close my eyes, it’ll be 11:15, leaving me… 7 hours and 15 minutes of sleep. Which is, well, pretty good, actually.

Loves and hugs to all of you. Thanks, as always, for your support.

Lift the World.

~ stephen