tadpoles live ON my driveway... [🐝U]

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There are tadpoles living in my driveway.
Hundreds of them.
Maybe thousands.

Not in a pond.
Not in a ditch.
On the driveway ... the 1 I'm supposed to drive on.

My short video clip on Facebook is going semi-viral with over 2,500 views

Before I bought this place there was no water.
I checked ... repeatedly.
I came back in torrential downpours on purpose, hunting for pooling in the low spots, before I ever signed.

7 months later, at least 1/3 of the property's underwater.
The driveway.
Around my shed with the solar equipment.
Even a corner inside the barn.
& now ... tadpoles. A whole nursery of them, right where my truck's meant to go.

Meanwhile the basement of Mamma Mia’s house … the 1 I'm supposed to be out of by the end of next month flooded too.

Teardown & repairs are already underway there ... nobody buys a flood-damaged house, so it's getting fixed whether I like it or not.
That part's not optional.

What's actually frozen is the property.

Because I can't sink a dollar into making this place liveable for a frigid winter until I know 1 thing ... is insurance covering that basement repair, or am I?

If they cover it ... the money I scraped together stays earmarked for surviving out here.
I’ll just be homeless with nowhere to store my stuff.

If they don't ... it gets swallowed by a basement I won't even own much longer.
Assuming the sale still goes through!

So here's the part that makes no sense

Every penny counts right now. Obviously!

My mentoring calls are at a record low (partly because I stopped taking on new people because of the rash of no-shows & last-minute cancellations).

The smart, responsible, obvious move is to grab every call, every project, every dollar that'll hold still long enough.

& instead?

I'm sitting here thinking about pulling back.
Taking a break.
Cutting some of it loose.
Making room to actually catch up ... & to keep my own head above the water line.

In the 1 week where that feels least affordable.
I know. Believe me, I know.

You can't bail out a flood with a bucket

Here's what the driveway's been teaching me.

I can't drive on it.
I can't drain it.
I can't stand out there with a bucket & win.
The water doesn't care how hard I work at it.

It's a pond aspiring to be a lake … because there’s another month’s worth of rain this weekend. I know I’ve said that before - a few times - & unfortunately, it’s being said again.

My only real job is to work around it ... & not lose my mind trying to force it dry.
& somewhere in the middle of resenting that, it clicked.

I've been treating my whole situation like a bailing problem.
Like if I just scoop faster ... take 1 more client, work 1 more late night, say yes 1 more time ... I'll get out ahead of the flood.

But you don't get ahead of a flood by bailing harder. You get ahead of it by making room for the water ... & protecting the thing that has to still be standing when it drops.

Here's who this lesson is really for

Who's been waiting to "focus once things settle down"?

Spoiler Alert: They almost never settle down.
But you already know that.
& sometimes they just keep getting “worse”

There's always 1 more crisis
& the script's always the same ... push harder.
Do more.
Now's not the time to ease off.

But grinding through a flood doesn't drain it.
& the catch-up you keep deferring ...
the rest, the headspace, the breath ...
isn't a prize you collect after you've earned it.

It's the thing that lets you keep going at all.

Making room isn't quitting.
The driveway's still mine … at least for now … unless I sell
It'll be a driveway again … eventually … because this too shall pass.
Just ... not this week … or month.

Try this if you're underwater too

→ Name the flood. What's actually got you under right now? Be specific. Not "everything" ... the real 2 or 3 things.

→ Spot where you're bailing with a bucket. Where are you scooping faster & calling it progress? The thing you keep grinding at that isn't moving.

→ Pick 1 thing to let be a pond for the season. Pause it. Shrink it. Hand it off. Let it go ... temporarily. Just till the water drops. Make the room on purpose.

It'll feel backwards. Especially if money's tight. Do it anyway.

I haven't actually decided

I want to be straight with you, because that's the deal here.

I don't know yet if I'm pulling back, or how much, or whether I'll lose my nerve the second the bank balance stares back at me.

I'm turning it over in real time, baby wipes for a shower, another rainfall warning for the weekend.

But I do know this much ... the tadpoles aren't a disaster.
Well, they kinda are, but it’s not forever.
They're just a season.
& I've never once bailed a flood dry by hand.

So maybe the bravest thing I do this week isn't pushing harder.
Maybe it's making a little room ... & letting the low spot be a pond for now.

What's 1 thing you could let be a pond for the season ... so you've got room to keep going?

Rumor has it the water always does drop … eventually.
& supposedly before it freezes.

Just make sure you're still standing when it does.

Make it a great "lake-front view" week!
EG

PS:

Want to help keep my bank balance above water?
Choose whatever fits your life right now.

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Thanks for being here. 
Seriously! 
I do appreciate your support.

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