Welcome Early Mornings

As my previous post will tell you, when I’m stressed I’m up early at four or five in the morning. The other day it was half three. Where previously I would pass this off as just needing less sleep and being a part-human part-cyborg amalgam, albeit one that was also a good part-bloody-tired, I understand now that it's pure stress.

Preparing for the Pan-American (antipodeanadventure.com) is entirely my own doing but now one much closer to realisation: I am only a week away from shipping my vehicle. I won’t complete everything, but it’s comforting, not stressful, to say that. Not every task must get done, but that takes some perspective, prioritisation and time. For any task I will set up a reasonable duration in my head. Cup of tea? 7 minutes – three to boil, four to brew. Making and eating lunch? 30 minutes. Making love? 2 minutes 35 seconds with the wind behind me. Sometimes my girlfriend barely has time to get the stopwatch. 

Task Setting

For planning I try to look at the sunny day scenario and then treble it: usually, in project world at least, you allocate 3 times more time than you think you’ll need if you’re unsure of the task. Here is a prime example when fitting in some new car seat belts. Sweet Jesus . . . anyway, here goes, please bear with me, there is a point I swear it!

• Problem - The seat belts in my car were frayed and slow to retract despite cleaning them several times. This is not only against the law but dangerous, meaning I may not pass muster at the border control in some countries
• Solution – Buy and fit new seatbelts. Shipped by express post, I was still waiting 3 weeks later
• Complication #1 - To access the various seatbelt bolts, I had to remove the new seats and carpets I’d just installed whilst waiting for the seatbelts to arrive
• Complication #2 – Long wooden panel boards cover the seatbelt retractors so I had barely enough gap to get the spanners in. Restricted but manageable.
• Complication #3 – It’s Melbourne, so although it’s 19/66 degrees in the morning, by afternoon it’s 35/95 degrees, so the longer it takes, the more I crumble to a sweaty mess
• HALT! – Despite being direct replacements, the new mounting plate for the seatbelts doesn’t fit. Down tools, contact the company I brought it from. Curse and curse some more.
• Solution – Get a response back fairly quickly. Yes, it will fit BUT not given much of a description how. Sifting through the spare parts, I realise I can use one piece to achieve the outcome I need. Is that piece meant for the purpose? Probably not. Was this specified in the instructions? No. Was the piece referred to at all during the instructions? No. Awesome.
• WIN…ISH - So then I fit both sides within 4 hours, am very proud. I pull on the seatbelt to check their speed to retract. . . and it’s slow. Even now, days after, it is slow to retract.  Arsehole.

Celebrate The Small Wins

Now, am not saying that every job I undertake is exactly like that, but they are all exactly like that every time for every single bloody thing that ever needs touching. Bolts impossible to undo, then they’ll sheer, then the tool you use to extract them will break. This tells me about my own resilience though, as well as that of the bolt. 

I am finding I can do things once again and for me that’s one of the key things in getting back resilience: do small things, build yourself up. Like training for a marathon, it doesn’t happen by whacking out a 26 miler just before you’ve knocked back a full-English heart-attack breakfast, it takes time. Be kind to yourself during the falls, celebrate the small wins however you know best.

Images and References:
http://livesmartly.co/4-tips-help-build-confidence/
http://stopwatch.onlineclock.net/
https://awakened.ca/the-power-of-small-wins/