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Construction season. Yuck!
A sea of orange cones. Obnoxious blinking arrows. Speed reduction. Detours. Miles of torn up roads and bridges, all under the guise of future “improvement.” It seems to be an elaborate ploy to aggravate me and waste my precious time.
I can’t escape it. I always find that one section of highway under major reconstruction. An entire lane closed for miles. I sit and wait an eternity for the pilot car to return with a million cars slowly trailing behind. It’s like the drive through of a Chick-fil-A grand opening. At least they get a sandwich after the excruciatingly long wait!
Even the smallest tasks take forever. I realize “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” But I’m not asking for Rome. I just want that pothole on 63rd fixed! Are they replacing the pothole with a Colosseum?
I’ve had to navigate through a bridge repair for the past three months. I barely notice any progress. I understand this is a big undertaking. But you should be able to complete any difficult project in three months. It only took me 90 days to get six-pack abs! Well, I assume it will only take me 90 days. That’s all it took for the seemingly already in-shape guys from the commercial. I bought the workout videos a while back. I just need to find the right time to start the 90-day clock. And a working VCR to watch the videos.
Construction chaos is everywhere. It’s slowing me down. It’s interrupting my daily routine. And it’s annoying me to no end. You, the reader, likely thinking: Uh oh, I sense he’s going to turn this into a life lesson. I hate when he does that. Indeed. Thank you for the seamless segue, dear reader.
Construction, by its very nature, is a process of improvement. It’s either intended to fix something, enhance something, or to build something completely new. Each of the annoying projects I bemoan will soon make my commute better than before. I’ll be coasting on buttery smooth roads and benefiting from improved traffic flow.
Sometimes we are under construction. When we take time to learn, adapt, evolve, and improve, we are in the midst of a personal upgrade. We are tearing down the old and building something new. Sometimes that project is a voluntary venture. And sometimes a project is unexpectedly forced upon us.
These worthy projects of self-improvement can be messy. They can take longer than we originally anticipated. They can be frustrating. And through the process, we might even annoy those around us within our construction zone! But the impatience of others does not expedite our progress. Building something worthwhile takes time. We can’t wish for great things today and have
them tomorrow.
Ignore the haters who complain about your construction projects. (No matter how handsome and charming they are.) Give yourself some grace. Have some patience. Smoother roads are ahead.
