I had the glorious experience of taking a hot shower today. Ok, maybe it wasn’t so glorious, but it felt like it to me. 
I’m sure you must wonder what would make a hot shower so wonderful. Our hot water heater has not been working well and we got a new one installed yesterday. Wow! What a difference!
The comparison between how badly our old one was working compared to the new one is crazy. We have 8 people taking baths and showers, do about 5 loads of laundry, and wash countless dishes each day. It didn’t matter if you were first or last…the hot water did not last long at all, and even then it was only warm. In our master bathroom, for some reason, the water water only lasted about 2 minutes max and then it turned ice cold.
We noticed that it wasn’t working as well as it should be about a year ago. The warm water didn’t last as long as it used it, but it was still fine– nothing too terrible. It gradually got worse, but we lived with it until this week.
Thinking about the difference the new water heater made reminded me of how we often deal with things in our life.
We tolerate things and just kind of work around them or deal with them in some way. At first, we may notice and really complain. It’s inconvenient, we know it’s not ideal, it’s not the best option, etc. But something happens and we find ourselves accepting it and getting used to it being in our life. We may not even complain about it anymore. It becomes our new normal. Our new standard.
We adjust ourselves or our life around it, instead of making it fit our needs. It controls us — we don’t control it.
What are you tolerating in your life? Maybe it’s something good, but it could be better — and it’s definitely not the best!
- Is it life balance?
- Do you lack margin in your life?
- Are you stuck and doing the same ‘ol thing just because it’s easier than going to the trouble of changing? I mean, you could….but it’s good enough so why bother?
That’s how we were with the water heater. We knew it was not working well, but we got so used to it that it didn’t seem that bad. But once we replaced it… wow, did we ever see how bad it really was!
Do you need to make a change in your life? What impact would that change have? Do you think it would make a difference? Would you wonder what took you so long to do it? What will it take for you to finally do it?
What is your “water heater” and what will you do about it this week?
