Except I Don't Know How....

​Except I don’t know how…….
  I have found over the past year I have used this phrase a lot. “I don’t know how to do that.”  You see, when I bought a business with my brother I was excited about the BUSINESS part.  I didn’t realize all the OTHER bits that came along with the business.  I quickly realized that small business owners are mostly super heroes with concealed capes.  They fix their own broken equipment, they repair leaks, toilets, doors, windows, tractors (YES, tractors) and anything else that could possibly break and break things have.  At least something once a week…. (Insert sigh.) This week was no exception.  As I walked back through the kitchen I slipped and slid ice skater style, “OH CRAP!” now dear ones, you may be saying to yourself “she said something besides crap.”  You might be right but I’ll never tell!  There was water spraying into the air, across the three compartment sink as if we were trying to do an impression of the fountains at the Bellagio!! I rushed to turn it off, no luck. I twisted and turned hoping the spraying would stop. NOPE.  As I stood in front of our latest challenge the thought occurred to me how many “I don’t know how to…” have turned into “I know how to….” I have been faced with every challenge you can think of.  Each situation was unique.  I have gained skills I never thought I would have or even that I wanted but now that I DO have them, they are valuable.  When I think of it that way is frustrates me less and makes me a little proud.  It’s the kind of knowledge nobody can teach you.  Life has to teach it to you. Experience has to teach it to you.  So, now when I face a new challenge I find myself thinking, “I have to figure out how to.” That’s a good thing.  It’s sometimes a scary thing, but I have found that the growth and learning doesn’t really occur in the comfortable places.  It occurs in the uncertainty.  In the scary places.  When I was looking at our new “learning experience” spraying water all over the kitchen, I started brainstorming ideas.  I am not afraid to ask for help.  Yet another thing I have gotten better at this year. My dad is a good problem solver.  An engineer for over 30 years, he tried to help me repair it first.  No luck…so he instructs me to start looking for something that can deflect the water down.  That would be great since we are about to be swimming! We fiddle with this and that and get the spray slowed down from Bellagio level to annoying level.  Next step, deflect downward instead of upward and floorward! We settle on a funnel over the hose and slid down to cover the leaking bits. HA! Success.  My dad chuckles that he has an engineering degree and just had to fix a sink with a funnel.  I chuckle because we solved the problem and saved the budget for at least one month because faucets for industrial sinks are PRICEY! We both smile and move on to the next task.  So stay strong fellow humans! We are all struggling to find solutions for the day to day.   The point is, whatever you face in your day start finding a way to say “I have to figure out how to…”   I bet you can figure out a solution.  Even if it’s just a temporary one that gets you to the next month!

---