What Annoys You The Most?
A few days ago I found myself waking up really annoyed. Nothing in particular but lots of little things combined just left me really annoyed.
It’s been over a month now that I have been trying to get a form signed by my mother’s doctor and submitted to Medicare to get approval for a lift-chair. One piece of paper, signed by a doctor, sent to the medical supply company. In today’s day and age, I think that could be done in a matter of an hour, in one day. Nope! Thirty days later and we are still trying to push paper through the system.
And then, on top of that, the pool pump seems to be not working and the Jacuzzi part of the pool is empty for the home we are trying to sell. I left the pool maintenance company a message over the weekend and to their credit they called Monday morning telling us somebody could be out later that day. Wednesday of the same week, still nobody out to fix the silly pool pump. Arrrggg!
And then there’s the home staging company we hired to do a little staging in our condo we are trying to sell. To their credit, they did show up the day they promised although three hours late. But they forgot to bring a fake TV to go in the entertainment centre area, which we feel is kind of important as it blocks the view of all the wires and cables coming out of the wall. And they promised a professional photographer to take updated photos which we know is really important because today buyers go online and check properties out, inside and out, via pictures before they decide whether or not they are even going to take the time to go see a property. Two weeks later after staging, no faux TV and no professional photographs.
And I’m really annoyed at all of our elected politicians. Doesn’t matter which party they are a member of, they are all guilty of mismanaging the financial resources, our tax dollars that we have entrusted to them. Their solution is always ‘give us more, give us more, give us more’. Well here’s a thought – why don’t you do your job effectively and manage within the resources that have already been entrusted to your care?
As I was thinking about all of my annoyances, I remembered what a really high-priced business coach once told me: all problems, all annoyances can be boiled down into one of three categories – do what you say, be on time, and finish what you start.
In the examples I just mentioned, I think you can see where people dropped the ball by either not doing what they said, not being on time, or not finishing what they started. Whether it’s one of these areas or a combination of two or three, typically the root of most, if not all problems comes down to one of these three areas.
And then my thoughts drifted to ‘what am I grateful for?’ because if I think about all of these little things, and that’s all they really are, little annoyances, none of which are life threatening or financially catastrophic, I was reminded to be grateful for good health, a wonderful family, not having to deal with issues that other people have to like being notified that they have been diagnosed with a terminal illness.
We all know of folks who have strained relationships with children and/or grandchildren, maybe never having spoken, much less seen them in years, or maybe even decades. Just remember that no matter how bad things appear to you, there are always people that have it much, much worse. So the next time you wake up annoyed at the world or some minor, petty thing, why not take a minute to remind yourself about all the blessings that you have and what you are truly grateful for.
