There I was in Istanbul Turkey minding my own business
A few years ago we were in Turkey and we received an email. One of our tenants had stuck a junk sailboat in the driveway of our rental house. He also decided that because we were so far away that he would stop paying rent. Such is the life of having rental properties.
There was nothing we could do from Istanbul. I must admit I was a bit stressed out since we were pretty much helpless but hey the house is insured and we would take care of it when we got back. Sometimes you can only do what you can do and other times you just have to do when needs to be 
done.
So we got home and went through all the necessary things to get the guy moved out of the house but… there was still that sailboat in the driveway! I have to admit when I first saw it I had to laugh a bit. It was so nuts that it was funny but it did have to go.
It also happened to be a week when it was over 104 degrees. The first step was finding out what to do with the thing. I called around until I found a dump that would actually take it. The next step was figuring out how to get it there. I found a wrecker service that could pull it up and a tow truck but I had a problem. The boat was 25 feet and the truck bed was 17.
The only answer was…. cut the front off of the boat…. it 104 degree temps.
That is exactly what I did I went out into the driveway and took a saw and cut the front 8 feet off of the boat. Then I cut that down the middle and stuffed those sections back into the boat hull. Sounds simple but this took 4 hours in the sweltering heat. I did it with no help. I am not sure how many of you have ever used a power saw on fiberglass but let me say this…. it sucked 🙂
So what does this mean to you. Simple… Sometimes there is no easy way to get something done. You just have to make the effort and do it no matter how hard it is are how difficult the process is.
Did I want to have to cut a boat in half? No. Is it my fault the boat was there?… No. What the problem going to take care of itself if I ignored it?…No.
There was only one answer and as much as I didn’t like it … It had to be done.
The BIG mistake I see with so many personal change methods is that they are focused on trying to get you to feel good about things that suck. Then when you feel good about it you can then take an action. The problem with that is those good feelings tend not to make you want to do anything about it. You get into a “Life sucks but it is okay” mindset. That is not the mindset that will cause movement to get something done.
Finally the tow truck came and loaded up the boat. The final indignity was paying to have it hauled away. Was I happy about it… No. I was glad to have it done.
Instead I realized this sucked and I was going to take care of it anyway. I didn’t wait until I was in the mood. I didn’t try and ramp up massive motivation to do I. I didn’t wait until I felt good about it. I didn’t wait until the temps cooled down. I just did it.
What was not there? I did not focus on how unfair it was that I had to do this. I did not focus on how much it was costing me to do it. I did not focus on what an ass the guy was who did this. I just took care of it.
Sometimes you just have to do it even if it takes effort and sucks. Don’t get caught in the trap of waiting until your life perfectly aligns and you are feeling comfortable with it.
Did it suck at the time… yes but it makes a great story 🙂
