Survival Tip #14 - Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Yeah, we've all heard that one before.  1) Don't sweat the small stuff. 2) It's all small stuff.

In the grand scheme of things, most stuff is pretty small.  And if you focus on all those small things, they can seem pretty big and get overwhelming and be a total buzzkill. 

Let me tell ya a little story... one some of you may have already heard at least part of (and are kinda sick of - I know I got sick of talking about it when it was happening). 

I moved here to this beautiful place at the beginning of April.  Since we moved with almost no large belongings, one of the first things we did was order new furniture - pretty much a whole houseful - and appliances.

The appliances arrived no sweat.  (Thank you, Sears.)  And the beds, too, since they were ordered from the same place.  (Again, thank you, Sears.)  However, we ordered the remainder of the furniture from a local dealer's website one Saturday night.  I called Monday morning to make sure they got the order and to get lead times for delivery.  Everything looked to be 10 days to three weeks out.  No sweat. 

Later that same day, the dealer called and told me the recliners were pushed back, but he had a couple he could get in sooner - just a little more $$ each.  Okay, fine.  We ordered the new recliners he recommended because we needed something other than lawn furniture to sit on.  The recliners came in but the end tables we'd chosen suddenly got back ordered, too.  But he had a ton of nice end tables in stock we could come look at.  He'd even cut us a deal.  So we went and looked.  Picked out a couple nice new tables and he delivered them with the chairs the same day.

He also assured us that the rest of the furniture was on schedule to be delivered the following week.

Time passed.  No furniture.  I called and bitched - getting increasingly irritated with every day that went by.  Finally, the delivery day came and I was assured everything would be here.  Until about an hour before he was supposed to be here with my stuff.  Then he called and said not everything had come in from the manufacturer.

Needless to say, I was livid.  Where in the hell was the rest of my bedroom furniture??  I spent the next couple hours ranting and bitching.  (My poor husband - who is a saint - put up with it.)  Before the delivery guy arrived with the dining set, I promised Hubs not to take it out on the guy.  I would wait until after he left to call and rip the salesman a new way to go.  Except the delivery guy was the sales guy.  And I'd already promised.

Funny thing happened while I stood there waiting for this nice young man to adjust my chairs so they'd be steady on my floor... I let all that anger and angst go.  It might've helped that he was so sorry about everything.  He looked genuinely nauseous at what the manufacturer had done to me.  (It also helped that my husband was taking everything so well that I felt like a crazy-woman in comparison.)

Anyway, since you sat through that whole story, let me get to the point. 

I was letting the small stuff totally put a crimp in all the great things about living here.  So we don't have dressers to put our clothes in.  Everything hangs quite well and what doesn't hang fits in our old dresser that some brilliant person insisted on moving 700 miles.  (Hubs wanted to sell it rather than move it.  I don't blame him.  It's a bitch to move.)  Not having dressers isn't killing me and it isn't likely to. 

Life totally gets easier when you just let the small stuff go.  Hey, I was totally pissed about the dressers and damn near missed enjoying how awesome the dining set is.  (It's gorgeous.)  When those dressers finally get here, they're going to be awesome, too.

When I finally get published, after all these years of crawling through the minefield on my hands and knees, it'll be AWE-SOME. Until then, crawling isn't so bad.  You find a lot of loose change down here and the occasional pretty pebble.  Sometimes a feather... Look! A nickel!

Anyway, here's another thing: Don't let the small stuff ruin your enjoyment of what you do have.  If you love writing, write for the sake of writing. Because when you sweat the rejections, they might just drag the joy right out of you.  No one wants that.

Okay, your turn.  What's one thing that you could totally turn into the small stuff it is and let go? 

PS. The rest of the furniture is supposed to be here on the 6th.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.