Sometimes the littlest of things can throw us out of kilter.
Take yesterday… we arrived at our motel in Wellington (that’s our capital city).
We knew it was a 3-star place. So it wouldn’t be the flashest accommodation. Or have gold-plated taps and whatnot.
But while we’re settling in…
One of my girls pipes up:
“I found an ironing board. But where’s the iron? I’ve gotta iron my clothes before tomorrow!”
Sure enough: One ironing board. Zero irons.
Then Vicki pokes her head around the bathroom door.
“Uhh… has anyone seen a towel?”
Fortunately she asked this before stepping into the shower. The one with the dodgy-as-hell cracks on the floor.
We found towels also strangely absent.
But that wasn’t all…
Because the mystery of the missing motel stuff deepened further…
Within an hour of starting to get our bearings in our temporary home-away-from-home…
We had discovered another 4 or 5 things strangely MIA.
And do you know what ONE thing threw us off more than all the others?
There was no plug for the kitchen sink.
No plug.
Why???
They have signs up to make sure you KNOW YOU MUST wash your dishes.
And we want to be good “leave the place as you found it” citizens.
How can we possibly do that without wasting a Biblical flood’s worth of hot water?
Running the tap while we wash the dishes is almost anathema to us Kiwis. It’s really NOT the way it’s done when there’s no dishwasher on hand!
And before you ask… and I laugh heartily in reply… there’s no plug in the bathroom sink either. And NOTHING else — like a pot — to make a makeshift sink out of.
Even when we finally managed to contact someone about it… it was the maintenance guy.
He came to help. Then flitted around our unit in a semi-confused state.
I think we threw him off as well.
He didn’t really have a clue where anything was that housekeeping normally takes care of.
I’d have thought that “Managing kitchen-sink plug-related problems” would be spelled out clearly in his job description. 🤷♂️
So he couldn’t even track down a spare plug. Or even borrow one from a vacant room.
(Is there a black market for stolen sink plugs or something?)
In the end… we just had to use what we had.
And I managed to wash the dishes with a minimal trickle of water. But it did come at the sad cost of excess dishwashing liquid.
We’re not really bitter about it… makes for trip stories and email fodder.
But we’re more baffled now about how the star rating service works?!?
Just as well we didn’t pick 2-star. Might have needed to bring our own lightbulbs!
With this little time away… we’ve got to remember that most of the stuff in the accommodation is actually ok. And we’re not going to be slagging off the place all over social media.
The whole time we’re together as a family is worth far more than these little niggles and setbacks.
But it did surprise me that something as small as a missing plug could get our family trip off to a wobbly start.
It’s unexpected things like this that are almost par for the course when freelancing.
Mainly because… like I mentioned the other day… there’s so many things we CAN’T control.
It’s why keeping a record of the progress and wins in your business can be so helpful and encouraging.
Especially when you’re feeling the setbacks are winning out against progress.
Using a journal or diary. Or keeping testimonials close at hand. Or writing wins on a whiteboard.
Anything that allows you to be reminded of these can be a real pick-me-up. And help to keep perspective.
So when things aren’t feeling the best, you can take a glance and see:
“Yes… I AM succeeding. I AM heading in the right direction!”
Because on this whole freelancing journey we all have to take baby steps as we start.
Sometimes we’ll be all feeling great because we pull ourselves up from crawling.
But then taking the actual steps… we wibble… wobble… and fall.
Even after we’ve been toddling… even racing around for a while… those setbacks can still jump out and give us a fright.
But those things are all there to show us we’re heading in the right direction.
Those reminders of progress continue to be a helpful encouragement.
And, you know… if we’re not even moving forwards… how can we even have setbacks?
For me, it’s been a wibbly, wobbly start getting going with daily email.
But with practice comes confidence.
And if I ever feel like I’m not going anywhere, I just need glance at my email archive for a quick pick-me-up.
It’s not so much the email content as it is the numbers on the left.
Enjoy the weekend.
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Chris Milham