Just Fix It!

Have you noticed that the harder you try to fix something the worse it gets? My lovely daughter for the Forth of July wanted to make some cookies. She asked me what kind I would like and started right in. The cookies turned out amazing, when she started to work on the homemade frosting, things started to fall apart. She wanted to know what color I wanted so I said yellow. The yellow turned to orange, which eventually turned into this burnt orange color which was all due to her putting into too much of one color in. Then due to not whipping the butter to the right consistency the end product was more of a soupy sweet mess. Needless to say, she started over. She tried to fix the problem she was having, but instead of getting better it progressively got worse until she had to try again.

This was a small issue that didn’t cost her much other than time and a few ingredients. When we did a remodel on our house, floor joists were ordered based on measurements taken. What wasn’t taken into account was that our original house was not quite square. So when the joist arrived and the workers started to install them, they ran into the problem of them not going in properly with what had already been put in. When different attempts were tried to get them to fit, new joists had to be ordered. This was a costly mistake that could have been avoided but was eventually made right.

Mistakes happen, problems pop up. Life is never perfect, and finding ways to problem solve will be essential. Problem solving can be fun. It can be a time of growth and development. It can be frustrating if you let it. Currently as I write this I am in the process of trying to publish a children’s book I wrote. It’s not that the process is hard, it’s that it is time consuming, there are a lot of stumbling blocks that I have to hurtle myself over. I love this challenge, I want to make this happen. I have to be creative, and find ways to set time aside to just get it done. The only person I will hurt for procrastinating on this is myself. This is not a bad problem to have to fix but it is one that feels like I am climbing a steep hill to get it done.

In each one of these scenarios the option to give up is there. The self dialog of “it’s too hard, or I’ve messed it up too much” is there, but so is the silence button. We learn and grow from making mistake and finding ways to fix them. People don’t become experts at what they do by sitting idly by hoping that someone will come along and fix what’s before them. They keep going, trying different things until something finally works. When my kids were younger and learning to walk we didn’t let them give up the first time they fell on their bottoms. We would keep picking them up, we would encourage them, and they would finally get it. They would become masters at walking, instead of giving up the first time they fell. In some ways we as adults need to copy the younger generation and keep getting up. Keep trying even if it’s hard, keep listening to the encouragements, keep going. Problems won’t fix themselves, we need to tackle them over and over again, and learn from each time we try, so keep trying! Until next time:

Most people don’t want to be a part of the process, they just want to be a part of the outcome. But the process is where you figure out who’s worth being a part of the outcome.

Carey Lohrenz