Good afternoon!
I hope you’re all keeping well on this incredibly sunny Sunday.
As the title suggest this week it’s all about boilers and boundaries. I told you this was going to be exciting!!
To heat or not to heat, that is the question!
First up the boiler. I know, I am spoiling you!
Some of you may have heard me moaning about my boiler before. It’s an old thing, from 2007, it’s cantankerous and it’s had enough of life.
For the last three weeks, it’s been refusing to start up at the first attempt. Finally, it gave up the ghost on Thursday. No amount of cajoling would start her up. In desperation, we got an engineer from Worcester Bosch to come and look.
Fixed price, thank god!
When I came back home from my weekly wanderings (more on that in a future newsletter I am sure) the boiler was in bits. Some of them were on the side path!
Talk about a sorry state.
The engineer did his thing and promptly called us all together for the autopsy. The expansion unit had stopped expanding (if only the same could be said for my waist!) something else was leaking and corroding something else. There were bits that he had to shove his finger in to clear (don’t ask!) and there was a list of reasons 10 miles long of why our boiler needed replacing.
But the thing is about all this, even though we’re facing a bill of over £3000 to move and replace the boiler, I am not anxious about it at all. Five years ago this news would have sent me over the edge, literally.
So what has changed?
A lot of work on myself! That is what.
People talk a lot about doing ‘the work’ and sometimes it’s just not something that you can quantify to others, is it? Well, I am glad to say that now I can! It’s all about not getting excited when your boiler is in a million bits and is about to cost you an arm and a leg!
Do you have boundaries?
At college, we’ve been talking a lot about boundaries. As a coach, I know a fair bit about these. In theory, I should rock these!
But honestly? I have to say sometimes it’s a case of doing as I say and not as I do!
The last couple of weeks has been really busy and somewhat stressful at work. I have been working extra hours I am not getting paid for, all because I need to get stuff done. Normally I wouldn’t have an issue with this. But I’ve also got college work to do and a small business to run.
Things were starting to get a bit too out of hand.
So much so that on Friday night, I didn’t go to an online event that I wanted to attend, because I was just too knackered. That is not good.
So this has got me thinking about putting some boundaries in place. It’s not easy, not for all of us. But it’s a case of looking at what could happen if we don’t.
For me, that means stress, which has led to burnout in the past. We’re not going there again!
So a little tip is to work out what your non-negotiables are.
Mine is most definitely not working on a Friday. But also I want to do a good job for whoever I work for.
The 2nd one is the one that is motivating me more right now. Because I now know (after doing that pesky work) that if I over-deliver in the wrong way, I will not be able to do a good job!
What about you? Are you good with boundaries, or indeed boilers?
So that my loves, are my thoughts for this week. As ever, be excellent to each other and I’ll see you next week!