Last Thursday, we experienced a good old-fashioned West (Wet) Coast downpour. As I was leaving home, I noticed water overflowing from my gutters. That meant only one thing—clogs!
Saturday morning I decided to get up on the roof to clear the traps around my drain pipes.
There was one serious catch: Going up on the roof.
I am not afraid of heights. I have no problem with window seats in airplanes. I love taking the Peak-to-Peak at Whistler. Visit here for pictures. (http://www.whistler.com/gondola/) I have done Ziptrek at Whistler. (http://www.ziptrek.com/whistler-canada). I even scaled down a rock cliff in my younger days.
No, I am not afraid of heights. I am afraid of the impact of hitting the ground when I slip off my steep roof. As my daughter so graciously told me, that was how her neighbor broke his femur.
My roof has a 6/12 pitch—see the slope here. (http://www.calculator.net/roofing-calculator.html)
Duty called and up on the roof I went.
Getting onto the lower roof is no big deal; I can sneak out the bedroom window.
Getting onto the second level is a little trickier; it requires me to sit on the upper roof ledge while standing on one of the peaks of the lower roof and boost myself backward up onto the upper roof—with no surface to grip.
Now that I am on the roof, I gingerly—ever so gingerly—slide my way along the roof on my butt and start to dig out the stuff in my gutters.
The first part isn't so bad; I am working over the lower section of my roof out front and over my second floor patio out back so, in my mind, it’s only an 8-foot drop to that first roof. I don’t want to admit that if I fall 8 feet onto a pitched roof, I won't stop. After a short roll, I will drop the last 9 feet to the ground.
While I am clearing the gutters with my hands, my neighbor comes out, looks up, and says, “Don't fall.”
Seriously?
Then he asks me why I’m not using some type of gadget to clean them out.
Do you think if I had a gadget that would let me stand on solid ground and do this, I wouldn't use it—instead of working 20 feet in the air?
I was now at the roof corner and had problem. Getting the gunk out of the corner would mean leaning forward at the very edge of the roof.
Nope. Not going to do it. That corner can stay full.
By this time, a wind was picking up. I am standing on the top of my roof with no safety harness in the blowing wind. Doggedly, I move over to work on the other side of the roof where it’s less windy.
But the wind is not letting up and now I don't have the “safety” of the lower roof between me and ground. It’s straight down to the concrete sidewalk.
As I steady myself in the wind, I decide this is stupid. I am not going to do it—at least not this way. I shinny myself down off the roof, sneak back into the bedroom, and go downstairs to retrieve my extension ladder.
Then I proceed around the house—climbing up 20 feet, reaching over to scoop out the gutter clutter and toss it to the ground, climbing down, moving the ladder over 8 feet, climbing up . . . again and again.
It wasn't the height; I had no problem once I was at the top. The issue was that as I was ascending the ladder and looking up, I kept thinking this ladder could slide to the left or right at any moment and take me along for a ride back to the hard ground. I had to keep my faith that the aluminum ladder and aluminum gutters would bond to each other as I slowly worked my way around the house.
At one point, I was struggling to reset the 20-foot ladder over a small fence on a neighbor’s property—freaking out that I’d lose control and put it through a window.
The neighbor came out of his house, saw me struggling with the ladder between my yard and his, and got into his car and sat there. No offer to help—that’s the same guy whose lawn I mow each week because we share a corner in a cul-de-sac.
Fortunately soon thereafter, my wife came out to help; she steadied the ladder, which assuaged my fears.
Once the gutters were cleaned on the inside, my wife and I went to work cleaning them on the outside—I do have a gadget for that so I am planted safely on terra firma.
At the end of the day, I stood on the street and admired our glistening white gutters—best-looking ones in the neighborhood. I was proud of the accomplishment. The sad part was only my wife and I knew how clean the insides of the gutters were.
This morning as I was writing this, I noticed there was still some water sitting in my gutters. I went outside to check and saw a little bit of debris around the drain trap.
I knew there would be some tweaking after the major effort but the hard part was done. Now I had only a few minutes of maintenance.
What does all that have to do with assessments and living your purpose?
1. Doing anything major in life takes risk. You are going to be asked to do some things that might freak you out. In fact, you may even think you can't do it . . . but if you hang in there, you will have the “nicest-looking gutters” on the street.
2. It’s way easier to proceed when you have a support group or support mechanism—even if it’s only in your head. When my wife came out and steadied the ladder, it made all the difference in the world. The reality is that if I had started to go sideways, there is no way she could have kept the ladder upright—but knowing she was there helped. The feeling was the same when I was cleaning above the lower roof. An 8-foot drop was more bearable than looking straight down 20 feet.
3. You will meet people along the way who make stupid remarks and say they have a better solution . . . and then offer no assistance. “They” will say you should do it this way or that way. I am here to tell you to do it the way that works best for you, with the tools and resources you have available. Find a way to make it work—even if it’s not “the best way.”
4. A better way may come to mind as circumstances change and you have an opportunity to reassess the situation. Don't be afraid to make adjustments to your plans as you move forward. When that wind came up, I needed a different game plan and thought about using the extension ladder. In the end, it was a more efficient way to get the entire job done. The people who fail are the ones who refuse to adjust to changing circumstances.
5. Some people will just stand and watch from the sidelines when you need help the most. You can either get frustrated with their lack of participation or you can find a way to get it done yourself.
6. People will come to help you; they just need to be asked. They are the ones who really care. Sometimes it will be family. Don't disregard the way your family can help you accomplish your goals.
7. Not everything you accomplish will be noticed by others but you should do everything that is required. If I had simply washed the outside of my gutters, it would have looked good but it would not have removed the clogs.
8. Start by cleaning the inside first, then you can clean up the exterior. If I had washed my gutters first, then cleaned them, I would have left a mess all over the outside of the gutters.
It is the same in life. If you are facing the same problems and running up against the same old roadblocks, it’s time for you to stop trying to change the external. You need to get clear about who you are and how you best interact with time, people, tasks, and situations. Only then can you truly make a difference.
9. There will always be a need to tweak. I know I will need to get back up into the corners of my roof on a regular basis but the amount of time required will be much less than last Saturday. Your project will need tweaking. That new employee will need follow-up. That goal needs to be reviewed from time to time.
⇒In just over a week, CRG is hosting its next CRG Assessment Systems Certification program.
Why should you attend?
The program focuses on your personal and professional development.
To have credibility using CRG’s transformational resources with others, you need to experience the power of our processes personally.
Not only will you learn how to use our assessment and development tools in new and more effective ways, you will gain transformational insights.
That happens as the training unfolds and you “go in-depth” with our suite of over 100 assessments and tools for professional development and training.
I don't know what is “clogged” in your life today but if you want to be successful—if you want to live on purpose, you need to face your fears and get up on that roof!
⇒Start your clearing process with CRG.
June 5 to 7
Here in Abbotsford.
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PSI Workshop |
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May 31, 2014 |
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June 5, 6, 7, 2014 |
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2014 Canadian Association for Supported Employment Conference |
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