Earlier today I was in the shower, just a-scrubba-dub-dubbing, when I suddenly decided to remove and wash my fitness tracker. I wear a WHOOP on my wrist – it’s a small device that tracks heart rate and sleep and such. I wear it 24/7, it’s waterproof, and it has a stretchy, elastic band, so I usually just wash it like I wash my arm: quick swipe with some soap and call it a day. But today, despite the fact that I had somewhere to be after showering, I decided it was time to give the fitness tracker a deep clean. I postponed shampooing my hair, took my WHOOP off, disassembled it completely (took the band off and everything), and scrubbed out about six months’ worth of sweat and tears. After a couple of minutes, I felt great about the new cleanliness level and started to return the device to active duty.
This, as you might have already guessed, is where things got dicey.
See, I couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty together again. I couldn’t connect the band to the device, couldn’t get everything where and how it needed to be, and, everything was wet, so I couldn’t see what I was doing wrong and I didn’t have a good grip to reassemble.
I do not take pride in telling you that I got highly annoyed. This was supposed to be a simple thing. Wash, move on. I had somewhere to be, for heaven’s sake!
After several minutes of failure, I finally set the WHOOP on the shelf in the shower, then shampooed my hair and got out to dry off, still feeling cranky about the whole thing.
Then, just before I left the bathroom, I grabbed the WHOOP, wiped it off with my towel, and put it back together and on my wrist in one singly try.
Seriously?
I started laughing.
“This is a life lesson, Ashleyne,” I said to the mirror. “And you should not have had to learn it the hard way.” My reflection shrugged and I went on with my day.
But now, a while later, I just really wanted to share it with you. I know I’ve been away from the blog for six months, and you’ve all missed me horribly, blah blah blah. I could apologize and say I’ll do better, but let’s skip all that. Today, I learned this thing and I thought of you, so I’m telling you:
If you’re trying to do something but all the water around you is making the thing difficult, get out of the damn shower.
You don’t need to stay in there, beating your head against the tiles, wondering if you’ll still have time to shave your legs.
You can get out of the shower and try again.
Whatever it is, if you feel stuck and like you just can’t win, move to a different space, take a deep breath (or five) and start over.
You can do this. We can do this.
Have you had any big life lessons hammered home in an annoying way lately? What were they?
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