Tag: advice

We’ve found a place…and reality checks

Yesterday we viewed a house. We are both super impressed by it, and have instructed the solicitors to start work on it and have placed a holding fee upon said property.

The solicitors are already rubbing their grubby little hands, as within an hour of instructing them they are already asking for various payments in advance. I should have known.

The wife, in full supervisor mode

It’s a new home, on a site that I have passed more than a few times a day in the last two years of its construction, i witnessed the day they broke ground, so I know the area very well. It’s in a nice town about 12 miles from where we currently are, it’s pretty much all we are looking for. Believe me it will be our last move unless we hit big time on the National lottery. This so far is proving to be stressful beyond what I have ever experienced on previous moves.

Full supervisor mode

And I still believe the reason for that is the incompetence we have experienced in the early days of the selling experience. Confidence is still so exceptionally low that the sale will ever complete, and it’s strange that we cannot be excited as we are just waiting for the whole chain to collapse. We’ve never experienced such lethargy before and I can only put it down to how this whole process has evolved over the past few months. We’ve always been so excited and positive on previous sales we’ve completed before, this time though they have really kicked the trust and excitement out of us. We are but a shell of our former selves.

Anyway without sounding too dramatic, it will be what it will be. We are fortunate to have a home and if we end up staying here it is no loss at all. We are fortunate and must never forget that.

I spoke to my friend Ed today, he’s the guy I spoke about a few weeks back in my blog who has a diagnosis of stage 4 cancer in both his lungs and kidneys. He’s managing just superbly at the moment and his immunotherapy treatment is progressing just fine. Even despite his diagnosis he is so upbeat and chipper with a superb attitude.

And there’s me whining about a bloody house. What a prat. It was the kick in the pants I needed I tell ya.

It’s a horrible analogy I know, but someone is always worse off than you are.

I’m now saying thank you for what I have, everything I have been given, and for whatever I receive going forward. Just writing this post has made me go from down hearted and depressed to thankful and hopeful.

Thanks to my friend Ed, you have made me see sense and taught me a big lesson today. My friend, I wish you continued good health and I pray for you and your family on a daily basis.

Sometimes, a step back from a situation and a full evaluation of your current situation is all that is needed.

We all need to do a reality check from time to time. Today was that time for me.

And I am truly grateful for all I have in my life. I really need nothing else. Just be humble.

Have a super day my friends. Stay humble. Stay safe.

A little advice…

List the people you admire and look to for advice…

I guess we will all at some time look to a mixture of people for different kinds of advice.

Contentment

For emotional advice there is no one but my wife who I’d turn to in the first instance. I think for her, I’d fit that bill as well, heck, we’ve been together so long we sometimes know each other better than we know ourselves. She’s my confidante and I know anything we discuss stays totally between us. She’s just such an understanding and calm influence for me. I need that sometimes. Don’t misunderstand me, when she cracks she goes full loop de loop, and is known in the family as the Rottweiler, you just don’t cross her. And when this does rarely occur I’m the one that calms her. God, we were truly meant to be together to keep each other at peace. So far so good.

At work I’m in probably the best work team I have known in all my working days. We are always there for each other, there is always support for each other 24hrs a day, and when things get a bit too much, there is always a calming elder figure to talk to. I guess that is why it’s recognised in our organisation that our depot pretty much runs itself, with no issues and no need for guidance, we self manage and are a well oiled machine in all aspects. The guys I work with are just the most fantastic, supportive and caring bunch you could ever work with. And a combined fabulous sense of humour doesn’t go unnoticed.

Work

Outside of these two highlighted above, I look to some older and much wiser friends, elders of my life if you like for that additional advice, that advice that sometimes you just have to run past someone on the fringes of your group, to see if you are thinking it all out correctly, and addressing any issues logically.

I don’t really look to anyone else in my family group for advice, but saying that it is sometimes good to discuss approaches to issues with the younger members of the family to see their reactions and ways of dealing with similar issues. Sometimes they just seem to have a less tangled and somewhat easier approach to problem solving. Some times though they don’t.

So here I guess I am saying, that I can advise the younger generation from an experienced point of view, but at the same time I must be open to learning from them. It really is two way traffic.

Advice must be listened to and acted on, if we are to learn how to deal with a multitude of problems/ issues. Taking advice and not following through with it achieves noting and leaves you empty and confused. And that is where the “What ifs” arise. Good advice can definitely alleviate doubt.

Want some advice?

Be happy and have a great day – there you go 👍

Jumping out of an aircraft

Describe a risk you took that you do not regret.

This is a hard one to pinpoint to be honest. We all as a race of people on this big old world dynamically risk assess pretty much everything we do on a daily basis. I must admit I’m not a natural risk taker.

In my job I’m responsible for taking people around a live railway and the last thing you really want in that role is to be a risk taker. One foolish decision for me puts peoples lives at risk. I just don’t do it.

Now thinking of it, the biggest risk I probably ever took was throwing myself out of an aeroplane with an instructor attached to my back on a tandem sky dive. It earned a considerable amount of money for a Hospice in my local area at the time, but would I do it again? Probably not.

Let’s do it 😂

See, I risk assessed that activity to the point I’d never do it again. I took note of something my Father had once told me being a parachute regiment veteran. He said, “ The worst jump is always your second. You are fully aware of just what could happen”.

Probably the only good advice I’d really ever listened to from him.

Wise words?

Have a great day all, take care.

Anxiety in life

There are many blogs I follow on this platform. One I follow religiously is the “Anxiety unplugged project”

The Power of Fear: Turning Anxiety Into Strength
Superb advice in every post

For anyone who has moments when they just can’t fathom out what is going on, I’d recommend latching on to this site and just taking in some of the superb advice and guidance available.

Why not? We all have times of stress and anxiety and a few minutes spent reading some good honest advice is no inconvenience to anyone.

Stay safe. Peace to you all.

Bluesky

I’ve never been a fan of social media, I don’t do the main three as I’m not particularly interested in talking to anyone I went to school with, most of them kicked the life out of me so I’m not interested in that. X or Twatter or whatever it is know as now was always a cauldron of vileness and hate and nothing seems to have changed there either. As for Instagram, i don’t need some z list nobody to tell me what to buy or where to go, the fact that you are there ruining it for everyone doesn’t really float my boat.

But there’s a new kid on the block. Bluesky.

I’ve joined out of curiosity, I’ll probably bin it after a few weeks as I usually do, but so far it seems quite pleasant. There seems to be a few people migrating from the other side so no doubt it won’t be long before the poison sets in. Then it’ll be time to go. However the filters are pretty good and I have many words and names filtered and they don’t seem to be getting through so I am actually only seeing what I want to see. And that is good. As long as it stays like that I may be tempted to stay.

Apparently it was how Twitter was back in the early days, but we all know youngsters grow up and can develop an attitude so I’m very sceptical at the moment.

For the moment I’m happy with it, cautiously content is probably the right statement. But could it get any worse?

Update: account deleted on 27/11/24. It really is as crap and poisonous as all the other platforms out there. Not needed in my life.

Stay safe.

P’s and Q’s

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

You can give this question a lot of thought and really overthink it. I can think of a few items of advice that have struck a chord with me over the course of my life, but I don’t think you can get better advice than that instilled by your parents (if you had polite ones that is!) at an early age.

The simple advice to say Please and Thank you.

Three simple words that are basically the leverage you need to get on in life.

It’s a pity that they seem to be dwindling in certain sectors of our society, however it is still nice to hear them being said.

I still use them, and will continue to use them.

Great advice, for life.

Have a good Sunday.

Why bother? I care that’s why..

How do you waste the most time every day?

I probably waste too much of my day worrying about others and how they are fairing. I don’t know why I do it as to be honest most of the people I’m thinking of wouldn’t give me a second thought. There’s only so many times you can be asked for advice, and when you see those people do the complete polar opposite to what you advised you often wonder why do I bother?

I care that’s why, I don’t like to see anyone struggling, and that’s where I waste the most time every day.

One day someone may thank me, I don’t know. I seem to overlook my own well being for others. Maybe, just maybe, there is someone out there wasting time thinking about me, that would be nice.

I doubt it though. But I’ll never change.

That’s just me.