#46: Understanding what's out of our control
Taking a Stoic approach to challenges can lead to less stress and greater happiness
Happy Monday everyone!
While Corey and I couldn’t be more excited about living here, moving to Austin has not been without it’s challenges.
I’m not talking about the 3,000 miles we had to drive over the span of a week, or loading all of our belongings into the U-Haul truck and then out of the U-Haul truck by ourselves in the heat.
Those things are normal challenges when moving. They’re challenges we were prepared for.
One challenge we weren’t ready for is not having the gas turned on in our new house for the first week and a half of living here. No hot water for showers. No stove or oven for cooking.
Why isn’t our gas turned on?
When we called the gas company before our lease started to get service turned on, they said they needed to send a tech to inspect the property since it had been vacant for more than 90 days. During the inspection, the tech found a small gas leak that wasn’t coming from any of the appliances themselves.
Long story short, it ended up not being a leak, but instead faulty inspection equipment the tech was using. But, because a leak is what was initially reported, the City of Austin now has to come out and verify there isn’t a leak before we can legally have our gas turned on.
This could have been something we got upset about, focusing on the fact that we have to take cold showers and can’t cook a meal. People have told us we need to make the landlord or the gas company get the gas turned on ASAP because we can’t possibly live like this.
But, what good would getting mad and yelling at people do?
Our landlord and the gas company have been doing everything they can in a timely manner (way faster than we’ve ever had a landlord do things of this importance in the past), and though not ideal, cold showers for a bit aren’t the end of the world.
Instead, Corey and I have recognized and accepted that all parties involved are doing everything they can to get this fixed. The City of Austin doesn’t do inspections on the weekend, which is something completely out of our control.
Rather than let this sully our experience of starting our next chapter in Austin, we’re making the best of it.
We recently started walking 2 miles around our neighborhood every evening, so a cold shower when we get back home has been kind of refreshing. The water coming out of the faucet is registering at around 75 degrees Fahrenheit, so they aren’t all that cold anyway. Plus, between the walk and the cold shower, I’ve been sleeping deeper than I ever have before.
As far as not being able to cook a hot meal, we’ve made do with that as well. We’ve been eating a lot of bagels with cream cheese and smoked salmon and A LOT of tacos from our favorite (so far) local spot.
While we’d rather not live without hot water or a stove/oven long term, we’re taking the challenge in stride and working around it.
Understanding that most things are outside of our control is crucial to a happy life. We can’t make other people work faster. We can’t get mad and yell and expect people to work outside of their business hours.
The only thing we can control is how we react to things.
Corey and I choose to focus on our excitement of living in Austin rather than frustratingly wishing we had a hot water. We choose to be excited that we found a nice house in a great neighborhood. We choose to be grateful that Austin has some fantastic food spots that are both safe for our food allergies and don’t break the bank (allergen-friendly eating out tends to be more expensive in our experience).
We’re choosing a more Stoic approach to the challenges we’re facing and it’s made the moving process a lot less stressful.
Keep this quote in mind when you’re faced with your next challenge.
“We suffer not from the events in our lives, but from our judgment about them.”
— Epictetus
Life Update
Later today, I start
’s two week Photography for Creatives course and I am so excited to learn more about taking and editing photos!I’ll share the photos I take throughout the course here in the next few issues, but I’ll also be sharing them over on Twitter as the course goes on.
Until next week!
Rychelle 💜
What a great approach to a not-so-great situation. Hoping to take this week in with stride, too - especially since I'll be seeing you at the Photography for Creatives course!
I take it you're all moved in then Rychelle?