Why am I sharing this? We need to have wisdom in what we have patience with.
I tend to have lots of patience. I will try to put up with things probably longer than are good for me. I realized that yesterday when I was thinking of the projector. While it has been useful and it has help me notice details and improve my work, it still has been a pain.
Because of the brightness issue it wasn’t always reliable and so I bought this 17 inch laptop to fix it. That did 90% of it, but there were days where there would be complex meetings with lots of intricate things and the 17 display just didn’t cut it even with zooming.
So I invested in my health, work and personal fun and bought a $2600 projector. I know to some people that may seem extreme, but for me it was the right choice.
I also made a cheaper decision last week about my health, work and personal fun. I had bought a desk that wasn’t what I had hoped it would be and tried to make due with it for a year and a half. Finally I just couldn’t take it anymore, and moved it into the dining kitchen area to use as a secondary desk and kitchen table. It works great there.
I bought a cheap $70 table and that is what I am using now. It is simple and it has transformed the look of the living room/office space. Instead of it looking like a cubical, it looks friendly and with the small table I was able to rearrange the furniture and now I have lots of wide open space. Before it was taken up by the U shaped desk that I wasn’t using most of it, and it was breaking on me.
I was patient for a year and a half because I figured well I bought these and assembled them so I should probably try to use them as long as I can. However if my client computer fell on the floor because it tipped over then I would be paying alot more to replay that computer than the cost of a $70 desk. It was a false economy and when I put it in those terms, it was obvious what I needed to do.
The old desk will work great as a kitchen table. It also has the benefit of using the space better in that area. The important take away is asking myself “What can I learn from this experience?” I try to learn something from every experience that I have. I think the thing that I learned, is that just because you invested time, money and energy into something, it doesn’t mean it has to be that way forever.
Sometimes you have to be willing to change, and everyone is better because of it.