Navigating a goal

High on the success of my plumbing the weekend before last, I decided another little niggling thing that needed fixing was the fridge-freezer in our outhouse/utility room. The way they open needed reversing, and quickly using my friend Youtube I realised there was a few videos there that could be used as a teacher. So I decided that fixing the doors was my next goal as Silje the ‘handyman’. Not all superheroes wear capes and all that….

Saturday full off enthusiasm I went outside and tidied away what was in my way (mainly bikes), emptied the content of the fridge-freezer into coolbags, and arranged a variety off tools that could be helpful aiding me in completing my goal. Quickly I realised that most video tutorials was only showing the reversal of ‘basic’ fridge doors, and not blowing my own trumpet or anything, if our spare fridge had only been such a model, this post will have been very different. Instead I realised that our American kind with lots of electrics was not such an easy task to take on. After lots of googling and trying to find the right kind of help for the same kind of model, electrics and door hinges, I was bombarded with warning messages. In short it was saying that if you try this yourself and it doesn’t work you won’t be covered for any parts etc that are damaged. More and more I was starting to think that this was impossible for a very basic diy’er like myself. The obstacle to achieve the goal suddenly seemed too big, it became an impossible task. I started capitulating to the fact that this would be a different Saturday feeling to last weeks high of achieving something great before lunchtime. Whilst I restocked the fridge and freezer I was thinking about the reason the door opening that way was such a little irritation to us all, and realised that maybe if I rearranged the utility room itself it wouldn’t be such a big deal. And so I decided that by clearing the space specially for the new bikes we have accumulated since Christmas, the squeeze to get a new milk out might not need to be such a big hassle. Though it took me a lot longer, and my husband has to find a space in the loft for his golfclubs, I still managed to achieve the ultimate; making the space we have useful and not an irritation.

Did I achieve my goal?! Well no, because the doors are still opening the same way, but actually YES I did because now it doesn’t matter anymore. Ask yourself why your goal is important to you, and what does success look like when you accomplish this? Don’t be afraid to stop and rethink a goal, and even sometimes along the way make a little (or large) tweak. And never give up if it matters to you no matter the obstacles! There might just be another way!

Silje -the successful tidy-up’erer of stuff to make space useful, less successful fridge door reverser’er.