Why does shit always break last thing at night?!
This is my first Decompression newsletter. I was toying between doing a video as well as writing an email, but decided to just opt for email this week. It may change over the coming weeks.
Heck, it’s definitely going to change over the coming weeks and months as we find our groove.
The last week’s been busy.
Scrap that, every week’s busy 😂
We’ve been in the final stages of completing my mum’s apartment, she moved in over the weekend and is currently living amongst a maze of boxes.
The end of building work is always stressful.
Not only that, it twice as long as the entire fucking build!
I find it intensely frustrating. When you start living in a space, you begin to find all the little things that aren’t quite finished, or aren’t quite right.
That’s nothing against our builders. To be honest they’re pretty awesome, and have been very good to work with.
It’s just how building work goes.
But that doesn’t make it any less frustrating.
As a customer, they seem like such simple things, but getting a top quality finish (which they’ve done) is not simple and some things always get missed.
To top onto that, last week was a week where simple shit broke, and it shouldn’t have,
There’s no other way to say it, it shouldn’t have broken.
Yes, it got fixed, but it shouldn’t have broken to start with, and the issue when it breaks is that it takes five times as long to fix it.
And always.
I don’t understand why.
But it always breaks the last thing in the day or first thing in the morning.
When it breaks last thing in the day, it’s like someone has intentionally screwed with your ‘me’ time.
When it breaks first thing in the day, it’s like someone is trying to destroy your entire day's plans.
Either way, I end up feeling stressed for no apparent reason.
*** and breathe ***
Breathing.
Something I always need to remind myself to do just before we start putting the children to bed.
At two and a half and four and a half years old, bedtime has become some sort of pantomime nightmare.
We start getting them ready for bed around 6pm.
Time they go to sleep… about 8pm!
What the actual f**k.
Two hours.
Of course, there’s nothing else to do.
Except eat maybe.
Don’t get me wrong, I love putting our children to bed, when they actually go to bed.
It’s a double-edged sword though. Because despite me wanting them to go to sleep (desperately). At the same time they are now of an age where they’re making up games, and I also thoroughly enjoy listening to the games they’re playing on the monitor.
What I don’t enjoy is the calling you back up to the bedroom every time your foot hits the bottom of the stairs. It’s almost as if they’ve got a monitor themselves and are waiting for you to think you’ve got away with it and can begin your evening before the chorus begins.
On really special nights, one will go to sleep and the other will wake them up. Those are the good ones to look out for.
I think that the big thing I am missing on here is exercise.
And sleep.
Let’s not forget sleep.
This week I’m going to get back into an exercise routine. I specifically bought a rowing machine to start exercising again, something I must do if I don’t want to turn into a walking full stop, but have struggled with the routine.
Thirty minutes a day for exercise should be achievable by anybody, but somehow it seems very difficult to fit it in.
Why is that?
Any ideas then please let me know, they will be gratefully received.
Over the last week, everything has boiled down to one thing… the expectations we put on ourselves.
In my case, nobody else is putting them on me, just me.
If I stopped doing that, life would be far more stress free.
How do we stop that?
Honestly, I haven’t got a clue. Yet.
But I’m pretty convinced that I’m going to figure it out.
Dastardly (a Decompression reader) has been telling me to listen to music to relax and de-stress. Is that something you do?
I don’t, but I’ll be trying this week and letting you know how it goes.
One thing has happened over the last few weeks… I’ve managed to de-stress about work, and that’s pretty awesome.
My favourite way to de-stress is to read books. I’ve just finished reading The Invention Of Everything Else, about Nikola Tesla, and I strongly recommend it.
Now I’m reading a book I was recommended by a friend called Start Late, Finish Rich. It’s a book about personal finance, which sounds boring as hell but has started well.
It promises to show you how you can achieve financial wealth, no matter what age you start. Let’s see, I’ll keep you posted.
I’m going to leave you now, but I’d love to hear what kind of week you’ve had. What went well, what went to shit, and how you feel about it.
I’ve begun writing a list of everything on a sticky note, and when I come to write this newsletter I go through every item on it. The goal is try and get this list shorter week-by-week. If I get it shorter it means I’ve got less to decompress on, and that can only be a good thing!
Over ‘n out.
Michael Wilding
P.S. I’ve also got a tenant who’s being tricksy. More on that next week (probably).
P.P.S. We’ve got a new puppy coming soon, and I’ve just remembered I’ve got to choose a name for it today (Arggggh).
P.P.P.S. I’m helping a friend setup a new business in the education space, I think it’s going to be awesome, and I may be able to use it as a case study in how to start (and hopefully scale) a membership site (if that’s your thang).
P.P.P.P.S. Stepping back from your businesses and work definitely gives you perspective, it allows you to slow down. I am getting to understand the benefit of slowing down. It’s taken a long time, but I’m getting there.
P.P.P.P.P.S. Do you run your own business or work for someone else? Let me know by leaving a comment.
P.P.P.P.P.P.S. Enter your email and hit the button to join the newsletter.