Focus on the mile you're in right now

What a way to end the week!!

The end of the week, and the end of yet another quarter, certainly ended with a bang.  In fact, it almost ended with a crash, bang, wallop!!

It seems like a lifetime since we moved house and yet it's only been just over a week.  We'd managed to get a few things done over the course of the week but yesterday's events almost put paid to that.  I was preparing for boot camp on Saturday morning when I heard a squeal from Mr Bob - "look at this, that wasn't there before".  I looked up and saw a water stain on the living room ceiling.  Luckily, Mr Bob's son had arrived to help us out with a few things so we all raced upstairs to track down the problem.  Eek, it was obvious we'd have to rip up the bedroom floor.  My heart sank, the bedroom was one of the few rooms we'd finished and it looked lovely. 

I had no option but to go ahead with my boot camp as it was far too late to cancel at this point.  I couldn't go outside as the electricians had arrived to wire up the orangery so they were drilling.  Luckily I have enough space in my office but that meant that all my boot camp members would have to listen to drilling, banging and possibly lots of swearing whilst the bedroom floor was being ripped to shreds.  My fitness lot are amazing though and we ploughed on regardless.

As soon as boot camp was finished, I rushed to the bedroom to see what was happening.  As we peered under the floor, it was obvious there'd been some issue in the past but everything looked dry which was strange.  We left it open to keep an eye on the situation and we wandered off to do a few other jobs.  I then went back upstairs for something and I heard a drip.  I looked underneath and there was a very obvious leak from some pipework further along the floor.  This meant taking everything out of the room and ripping up the floor and carpet even further.  There was no option but to call out an emergency plumber.  In the meantime, Mr Bob decided that all it would need was tightening up, which in theory was right.  However, when he tried to do this, the seal wouldn't go back on and water started to gush out, despite the fact we'd turned it off.  Mr Bob's son played an absolute blinder and literally held the pipework together until the plumber arrived!!  

Turned out that we'd had a very, very, lucky escape as the whole situation could have been disastrous.  We'd had a new boiler fitted which was way more powerful that the old one and because it had been a little chilly the other night, we'd turned on the central heating.  The pipework joining had already been loose apparently, so the blast of pressure had made it worse and it was hanging on by a thread.  That could have come off at any time and would most definitely have resulted in the living room ceiling coming crashing down.  It doesn't bear thinking about that we could have either a) been in the house and seriously injured or b) come back to the house having been out and found it half destroyed.

It was soul destroying to have to clean and re-arrange the bedroom yet again but it could have been a heck of a lot worse.  At the time, we were completely overwhelmed by the amount of work that we had to re-do and by the amount of work that we still have left to do.  We were both exhausted but after a cup of tea (always helps, always) and re-grouping we started to plan again what we had to do. I thought back to the phrase that I always use when running marathons - 'focus on the mile you're in right now'.  I don't stand on the start line of a marathon and think about running 26.2 miles.  I focus on simply putting one foot in front of the other and concentrating on each single mile.  We can't think about the end game of our house right now, we must focus on one thing, one room and take it from there.

Getting back on track, notice how Mr Bob's new phone matches the kitchen and how I'd managed to find THE most important box in the house!!

Feeling overwhelmed by things is horrible, it's like a heavy weight bearing down on you and you can't think straight or focus on anything.  It doesn't have to be big things either, the smallest of things can be overwhelming.  We all react in different ways and for me, it's about reaching the FI point (the f*** it point - see previous blog!) before I can think clearly again.

Ways to deal with overwhelm:

• Cry, scream, shout, swear - it's ok to show your feelings!
• Say b****ks to multi-tasking - focus on the mile you're in right now
• Take a deep breath - it will encourage your body's calming response
• Take action - don't let overwhelm control you

I'm really hoping there's no more dramas next week and I can get back on track.  It will be a week later than planned but next week I'll be reviewing Q2 and how it's gone.  Well, that's going to be interesting!

#2020