Achieving Small Goals
This week has been an a week without work. It’s not by choice but it’s certainly needed after the hectic nature of last week.
I am hoping that I get paid from last week’s work later today too.
Small Goals
I’ve been procrastinating a lot lately.
I have needed to ring Housing Trust maintenance regarding some plumbing work that a plumber had mentioned needed to be done the last time one was here.
I know that once I make the phone call it can take up to 4 days for a plumber to turn up for what is “non emergency” work.
The challenge I have in making this particular phone call is that I need to convey some technical information to someone who then has to convert that into note form on their computer screen which then gets tendered out to plumbing companies.
The issues that need seeing to are that the wax seal has gone around the s-bend and this is causing a slight blockage. This is the source of black mold I’ve been struggling with.
I have to be careful not to say “blockage” because they might just send a guy around with a plunger. They’ve done that before.
Also the taps need to be updated and replaced.
In the past I have enountered extremely rude people on the phone wanting to accuse me of damaging the property and that they would be the judge as to whether or not it was “wear and tear” as I’d claimed.
I understand that it’s public housing and that there are people who punch holes in the walls and trash these places, but I’m not one of them.
The other issue is that because I don’t have a consistent income I have been trying to get as much work as possible and haven’t had a day off in ages to actually just make the phone call and be home for when the plumber does decide to turn up.
In my mind I had elevated this phone call as being something much larger than life. Logically, every phone call is random and I could get an entirely pleasant native English speaker on the phone who understands what I am saying completely. I might not.
Anxiety is not only fear based, but future speculation based and I can only write out what I beed to convey on paper, take a big deep breath and dial the phone number.
Waiting for the perfect timing is procrastinating.
Then there’s the wait time that usually plagues Government phone lines…
Nope. Just do it. Make the call. Get it over and done with.
I’ll have a few notes prepared and make sure they understand fully what needs to be done.
I Made The Phone Call
The look of stress reliefI forced myself to make the phone call and my anxiety was justified. The call took 5 minutes. 1 minute of that was being on hold and the other 4 minutes was me having to negotiate them actually calling a plumber.
They weren’t going to upgrade the taps unless I told them they need repairs and also told them that the toilet was leaking.
The end result is that the work order for the toilet has gone through and I was given a rough estimate of 24 hours for them to turn up (it was 4 days last time).
And the replacement taps will be 10 business days, but at least it will be done before the Housing Trust inspection in June / July.
Some goals can seem small to others while seeming insurmountable to others and perspective is everything.
This achievement feels great, but I won’t be able to rest until the plumber has done their job.
Please do something great today.
Thank you for reading.
Until next time, insist on being treated with dignity and respect and treat others the same.
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A month of stressing about it, then five minutes of actually doing it. Crazy how we can build these things up in our minds.
Yeah. And I think I mentioned in a previous post how there are a lot of these 10 minute or less things we need to do but we procrastinate for whatever reason.
For me, today’s phone call was like pulling hen’s teeth. They won’t fix anything unless I state specifically that something is broken and describe how it’s broken.
They wouldn’t fix the seal on the S bend unless I said it was leaking. It sort of is, but not in a “gushing torrent” kind of way.
I also realise that the call was “being recorded for training purposes” meaning that there would possibly have been a conversation with her supervisors afterwards.
They really can’t do anything unless there’s a report.
I’m glad I don’t work in all that red tape.
Your stress-relieving appearance is really interesting, friend.
I really enjoyed the story you shared.
Thank you for reading, voting and commenting.
I'm real glad you can destress yourself Shaidon
.. keep going buddy
Thanks. I'll be happier when everything is fixed.