Now that I live in Kansas City, my parents get to hang out with my kids a lot more, which is AWESOME.
A couple of weeks ago, my mom bought a new car seat so that she’d be able to take Audrey places without having to switch car seats and reinstall them all the time.
I am not what you would call a master furniture builder, mama, so I left the task of assembling the car seat to my father.
Which turned out to be a bad choice. Why do we do this to ourselves?
From the moment the car seat was out of the box, my dad was in his element. Cursing under his breath, muttering to himself, insisting that the car seat was defective, and that we should take it back to the store.
This thing is ridiculous! he finally shouted, at which point, Justin joined him.
Now there were two men, cursing and muttering as they tried to put together a FIVE PIECE car seat. I could hear them arguing. I watched them struggle to install one arm for a good seventeen minutes.
They got nowhere.
Afraid for the tender ears of my children, I finally interrupted. “May I please try?”
The menfolk insisted that I, a mere woman of inferior strength, would not be able to make any sense of this complicated machinery.
I mean, that’s not quite what they said. What they actually said sounded more like,
MMMRRRSPHDGDF SDFHEUER BLASTED SHDEYSSAPWYE MMMSDYEXDHFG, which I took to mean that they felt they had the situation under control.
Let me paint you a picture. The two of them had taken over the entire living room floor at this point. They had a screwdriver and a HAMMER, and they were trying to REMOVE an armrest, because they were CERTAIN it should not have been installed at that point in the process.
Have you ever, EVER had to use a HAMMER to put a car seat together?
(Confidential to Grumpa: THE ANSWER IS NO.)
This was when I could no longer contain myself, and I picked up the instruction manual for the car seat.
STEP ONE: INSERT THE ARMEST, said the manual, with a helpful illustration.
And while my father and my husband were trying to align to pieces perpendicular to each other, the image clearly showed that the pieces should instead be horizontal.
Within about one minute, I had the armrest properly in place, and about three minutes after that, the car seat was assembled.
(My mother clapped for me. My father and husband did not. I have noted this and will adjust my love for them accordingly.)
I literally followed the instructions created by the people who already knew how to achieve the end goal, and I was able to get there faster, and with far less frustration.
Bless it. Does that sound like anything you’ve experienced, mama? Why do we do this?
Look.
You want to build a business? You can do it the hard way. Get your hammer and screwdriver and bang on things. Mutter a lot.
Or.
Check out my free training on freelancing, where I literally walk you through the process that is PROVEN to get you to the outcome you want.
You DO NOT have to figure it out on your own. You DO NOT have to wonder, WHO MADE THIS DAGNABBIT THING? You DO NOT have to work yourself to a frenzy and make yourself nuts.
So why would you?
P.S. If you enjoy doing things the hard way, have at it. But if you’re into shortcuts and achieving success, then you should definitely check out my free training.