I was a plumber

I’d like to share with you all a life-experience that occurred to me and my thoughts coming out of it. A little over a month ago I had to work on rental property. In this case, there’s a larger remodel going on. I was working late into the night and it got me thinking about lessons I had read in the book 48 Laws of Power. Let’s dive a little deeper.

I had arrived the day before, after a 4 hour drive. I had already accomplished several small tasks and projects that needed to be tidied up before I could continue with any of the other larger projects. At this point, I felt I had accomplished my to-do list and just needed to keep it going. I had already made at least two trips to the hardware store and I thought I had everything I needed. Part of the project I needed to perform this particular day was replacing laundry faucets and a drain attached to it as well. This was then going to be covered up with some drywall, as well. Nothing too far out of the ordinary for what I’ve already done. So, it’s about 7:30p and I figured I just needed to get this done.

The project didn’t seem to be out of my league and I was expecting it to go just as the previous ones had already gone. I uncovered the wall and dug in with both hands. I had turned the water off and made my first cuts. This is when the project took a turn. Not bad or good, necessarily, just a new route. I realized at this point, the water lines I had just cut, included a larger diameter water line, that I did NOT expect to have. Not only that, I had no way of plugging or stopping any water flow. At this point, I’d be dirty, sweaty and without water, for at least the next 14 hours. If you know me, I need to get the day’s grime off at the end of the day. This was not going as planned. I got under the house, uncovered the plumbing and figured out what I would need to do. My previously thought, 45-minute project, turned into a 2.5 hr project. I was dirty, tired and upset with myself that I hadn’t thought this completely through. But as I dug into the task before me, I came to a realization. This was a lesson I needed to share.

The lesson isn’t thinking your way out of a situation. Or even, “be better at planning.” As I was working, I brought to mind all the difficult situations I’ve been through in the past. I compared these in my mind to my academy days. Weeks on end of shoulder pain, shin pain, ab pain, knee pain, etc. Through every single one of these days, there was an objective. Whether that was learning from our mistakes, learning to work as a team or simply putting in the work. That’s what I was going through this night. I was alone, under a dirty house. It was dark out and no one was coming to do the work for me. I had to push through. The thoughts invading my brain, were just that. “No one is coming. It’s on you and today YOU have to get through this.” It felt like climbing a mountain, never-ending. Like running during a fire academy “never-ending.”

But if you’re reading, there’s a good chance you’ve done the work! You did it. You’ve had MANY accomplishments under your belt already. You got through the weeks of pain and struggle. The book I mentioned, 48 Laws of Power, law 11 teaches to avoid the unhappy and unlucky. I know for myself, sometimes that means ignoring my own negativity. It’s so easy to get sucked down and overwhelmed. The task may be running, team-building, learning a new skill or plumbing. It doesn’t matter. In our day-to-day, we have so many negative encounters. It may be with the driver that won’t pull to the right, or just that negative and verbally abusive patient that gets under your skin. The negativity is always present. But there’s two lessons I came out with from my plumbing job. 1) Sometimes the job just needs to get done. Today, that just happens to be you. 2) You can make it have a positive outcome. You can be the positivity needed, even if you put yourself in that situation.

Outcome: you can do anything you put your mind and effort into. There will be MANY failures along the way, or they can be learning opportunities. Remember to avoid the negativity and work on yourself daily, getting the work done. You are the positivity I needed today. Have a great week, friends.

-Dave (your friendly, neighborhood plumber)