Lessons from Wrecking Your Trailer
___
It was an accident. And I felt like an idiot.
You know those signs entering some parking lots that say “Maximum “7′ 7” “? Normally I ignore them because my truck is way under that height.
But then I went on holidays. And I towed my trailer. Yea.
I didn’t realize my trailer wold hit the over-height-bar. Did you know that those things can do quite a bit of damage. In fact, my trailer received a hair cut. Everything shaved right off the roof. Vents, antenna, toilet vent… ripped off and littered on the pavement behind me.
As of right now, I don’t know how much it will cost me financially. But it strikes me, there are some important lessons here.
Slow down. I took a wrong turn, but was in a bit of a hurry. I didn’t give myself enough time to think. A fast brain is a brain that makes mistakes.
Read the directions is just the first part. They don’t tell you to think about them. If I would have thought for a second, my trailer is way taller than my SUV, so more than likely it will hit the over-height-bar.
Don’t ignore that little voice inside of you that tells you to pay attention to the sign. The voice was there, it was just very faint and lasted only a second. That was the last thing I heard before the crunch.
Don’t beat yourself up, it just makes things worse. I have a hard time with this one. Professionally I help other people to not beat themselves up, but I do a good job of it myself. The only thing that seemed to help was talking about it a little, feeling some empathy from my friends and family and then doing some exercise. Exercise seems to get the negative emotions flowing out of you.
Go on your vacation anyways. You can’t stop your joy because something bad happens. You deserve joy. You deserve life. Life will happen and you will face challenging, humiliating and painful things. Live anyways and go on your vacation.
Asking for help is the beginning of joy. And often it takes a difficult event, or even a crisis, for you to ask for help. I hate asking for help. But I have had do do it more now than ever. But I realized that asking for help causes you to trust other people, and even yourself more. And trust is the root of joy. You cannot feel joy without having a level of trust for yourself and the world.
I have more plans for camping. I’ll get the trailer fixed and then head out next year.
Stay tuned for more camping adventures!
Keep it Real
If you like this piece, you will also like When Life Becomes Difficult, Maybe it’s Time To Get Off The Bus?
I write articles about wellness, leadership, parenting and personal growth. My hope is to deliver the best content I can to inspire, to inform and to entertain.
Sign up for my blog if you want to receive the latest and best of my writing.
Getting High on Recovery 