Bleeding Before You're Cut

In my life, when things go wrong, I tend to play out the worst case scenario.  It used to drive my Dad bananas. Over and over, he'd tell me: "Only a fool bleeds before they're cut."

This week, I was that fool.

On Tuesday, hell broke loose at my restaurant.  The hood came in, but it was too big, so I demoed a wall that I had just put in to make it fit.  The HVAC crew who delivered the hood damaged my wood floors as they brought it in.  Then a lumber delivery didn't show up.  Then my 100 year-old hammered glass window broke.  And when I thought it couldn't get worse..

A building inspector showed up to say that the fire department thought I may need a $50,000 sprinkler system.

DAMNIT.

My mind began to race.  I called my lawyer.  I called a friend's lawyer.  I called a friend's friend's lawyer.  I called the Mayor's Chief of Staff.  I called my architect. I called the Economic Development team.  I called the City's inspector.

(Somewhere in there, I called my husband and told him to pour me a queen-size goblet of wine.)

Long story short, I played out every worst case scenario in the books about how the Fire Department would make me install a sprinkler system that I couldn't afford, thus thwarting my whole restaurant project. My family would go bankrupt.  We'd have no place to live. The kids would go hungry.  We'd have to put the dog in a shelter.  

Needless to say, I didn't sleep that night.

The next day, the Fire Department showed up.  And they couldn't have been nicer.  We came to a compromise that would allow me not to have to put in the sprinkler system.  All would be just fine. Nothing was wrong.

And to think how much blood I lost without a single wound.

Reader, take it from this bleeder: you're going to get hurt out there in the world, but you don't have to let your own imagination hurt you.  Let things play out on their own.  If there's a problem that feels scary to you, maybe there's an outcome with a solution that you didn't foresee.  Maybe the worst case scenario isn't going to happen after all. 

I leave you this picture of my 2 year-old eating a popsicle in his tree house today, without a care in the world.  Fancy free. All of his scenarios are good ones.  He's my hero this week.  See you next Sunday.

 

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