This has been a pretty momentous week in the Siebert household — my daughter started kindergarten.

Oy!

She's doing it online from our living room, but still. I'm feeling all the things. 😉

Also (albeit less cool and exciting), we recently got a visit from the maintenance folks.

Just a Little Irritation

See, two and a half months ago, the toilet in the upstairs bathroom started acting wonky. As in, it was

I've lived with folks who used outhouses and didn't have running water in the main house. And my

deployments during my Army days made me incredibly grateful to be able to walk to the restroom

without getting fully dressed.

But even though it wasn't a show-stopper, it was still an irritation.

We tried to fix it...

Flooded the bathroom (picture that scene in Paddington where he flooded the bathroom, but with

more water spraying the ceiling)…

I stopped trying to fix it... 😉

Put in a maintenance request.

And we waited.

At first, it was kind of annoying. Even more so than having to walk down the stairs to use the restroom, I

was frustrated that the acknowledgment/action on the maintenance request was less than what I

I was hoping for.

But then something interesting happened...

After about a month, I stopped noticing.

I stopped thinking about having to go downstairs. I stopped hearing the water run during those oddball

times when someone would use that bathroom.

THAT'S how every irritation in our lives works.

Something will annoy us or inconvenience us. And for a while, it will frustrate us. And if we let it linger,

eventually, we'll stop noticing.

It will no longer seem like a big deal.

But the problem is that it IS a big deal.

Because those irritations in our lives do more than frustrate us. They also sabotage us in ways we

I don't see.

They tell us on a subconscious level that we're:

1. Not worth having something better.

2. Incapable of creating something better.

But the problem is that it IS a big deal.

If I can't fix/improve this minor irritation, then I can't select/have better more

important things.

Because those irritations in our lives do more than frustrate us. They also sabotage us in ways we

I don't see.

It trickles down to how we approach our goals and daily to-dos. How we feel, how easy it is to do

things, and how productive we can be.

That may sound silly or like I'm making a mountain out of a molehill. But I invite you to experiment with

it.

Take care of a couple of irritations or incompletes in your life, and see how much better you feel.

I've been doing one little thing each day since the maintenance victory, and I feel much lighter.

Okie Dokie! Time to dive into the One Fish, Two Fish book I bought my daughter to celebrate the start

of kindergarten. 🙂

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Until next time!

Jewell "Handling Irritations" Siebert