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We've had a running toilet for about 3 months now. I don't quite know how he does it considering it's tough for me to even run 3 minutes! (Anyone?) But anyways, seriously, our toilet has been running on and off for the better part of three months. I'm the furthest thing ever from a handyman, but I have gotten better about at least trying to fix things around the house. I used to be held captive by the fear that I would break something completely or make it worse, until I realized that either way, I would end up calling someone or replacing it if I couldn't tackle it on my own.
So back to the toilet. I tinkered with the handle. I messed with the chain. I changed the height on the bobber thingamajig. I even went as far as to by another rubber ring, take the toilet half apart, change out the ring and put it all back together again (Applause??). But to know avail, the stupid thing continued to run. It wasn't running as much, but it was still going on from time to time. I had gotten so fed up with it that I would use the other toilets in the house and turn the water off to ours completely. Pathetic, I know.
About 1 month ago, we had a plumber out to the house for an unrelated issue. I told him about the problems I was having with my toilet and about all of the "fixes" I had attempted. He said that if I did in fact replace the rubber ring, I should probably get a piece of sand paper and run it across the plastic piece where that rubber makes a seal. Great, I thought, I'll get right on that and try it out.
And again, that was a month ago. I don't know why, but I never got around to taking a piece of sand paper to the toilet. Even though the running water annoyed me SO MUCH, I still didn't take the time to try everything. That is, until yesterday. I finally walked out to the shed, grabbed a piece of sand paper, lifted up tank lid, turned off the water, flushed the toilet, sand papered the seal, moved around some little white tube, put the lid back on and turned on the water. I went through the process, because although it sounds like a lot, it took me all of 4 minutes. 4 minutes!!! I can't believe I put off something for a month that took me 4 minutes to do.
Isn't life like that sometimes? We build up a task, event, conversation, etc in our head so much, that we are guilty of "making a mountain out of a mole hill". Or we say that something is bothering us like crazy, yet we don't take the time to address the situation. I know for me, I used to complain about how I felt, yet I wouldn't take the hour or so a day to do my treatments. It's like I was waiting to feel worse in order to react. Kind of like my toilet. Finally, yesterday, something snapped in me and I decided to walk my lazy butt to the shed and get what I needed to get in order to give fixing the toilet a try. Fortunately, my toilet didn't break to the point of no return, otherwise, we'd have a completely different mess on our hands. I'm glad that my urge to do something about it happened before we were faced with that type of situation.
So I don't know what it is in your life, but DO SOMETHING about it. Stop waiting for the perfect time. Or the right tools. Or a better situation. Or for things to get worse.
Don't be like me and the toilet. Oh, and by the way, the stupid thing isn't running anymore.
All it took was 4 minutes.
