You dribble up to the hoop. You shoot. You miss. There are times when you just don’t win. That doesn’t mean you’re an abject failure, it just means you didn’t succeed this time.
Yesterday was full of success and failure for me. If you’ve been following me on social media, you know I’ve been working on replacing the radiator in my Jeep. And it’s been one thing after another keeping me from getting the job done. Yesterday morning I was down to one hose, one hose clamp, and one bolt from being done. I was optimistic I’d be done by lunch. Later that evening I was still one hose clamp and one bolt from being done. It took me half the day to get the bottom radiator hose into place, and I spent the other half trying to get the hose clamp into position.
I spent almost an entire day cursing the manufactures of my Jeep for the poor placement of their hoses, clamps, and bolts. I was of the mind Jeep purposely designed this engine so I, specifically, couldn’t work on it. There are spaces too small for my big hands or not enough room to put any normal sized tools. In fact I’ve had to go buy about $75 worth of new tools just for this task, and I’m still not done.
The more I worked on that hose clamp, the angrier I got. I soon realized I was about to blow a fuse. So I stopped. I cleaned up my work area, put my tools up, and walked away. One stupid hose clamp is not worth my blood pressure or my sanity.
I spent the rest of the day sitting on the couch, watching TV, mindlessly emptying a bag of pork rinds, and feeling like an absolute failure.
I was reminded late last night of the old saying, “Don’t sweat the small stuff.” And you know what that stupid hose clamp is small stuff. It doesn’t change the big picture of my life at all. I just can’t let the little things like this very minor setback define my day. Sure I’m disappointed I didn’t get the job finished yesterday, but It just means it’ll be a few more days before I can drive the Jeep again. Hey I did manage to get a very difficult to place hose into place. So that is one less thing I’ll have to do.
So I’m not a failure, I just didn’t succeed this time. It’s all in how you look at things isn’t it?
I hope your week is going well.
Links from this episode
- Blog Oklahoma Podcast on Instagram
- Instagram #blogmonth challenge - Google+ Collection
- #blogmonth challenge
- Snapchat: programwitch
This episode's bonus interesting articles
- La Liga’s Rayo Vallecano and local businessman team up to bring NASL club to Oklahoma City - NASL (Soccer)
- How Facebook is Stealing Billions of Views - In a Nutshell (Kurzgesagt)
- How Languages Evolved - IFL Science
This episode's bonus musical selection
You can listen To the Blog Oklahoma Bonus playlist on YouTube or Spotify. Enjoy.
- New To The Playlist:
Reminder
I'm going to be off for the next two weeks. Will be back in December with an all new episode. - K.
