Did I update you on the rat problem I've been having? I don't think I gave you the latest scoop on what's been happening on that front so I want to share that with you today.
We have two bedrooms that have beds in our house. The bigger bedroom is generally colder than the smaller one, so we use it during summers and retreat to the smaller bedroom during wintertime. As the seasons changed in California we switched bedrooms recently.
It's been a few days since I heard the attic noises at nights. Is it that the rats are gone, or is it that I'm just knocked out during nights? I can't tell yet, but what I did freshly notice is the sound that comes from the bottom of the house. An animal had come under the crawl space.
But I wasn't as surprised by this update because my gardener had come paid me a visit few days ago. He walked around the house with me to inspect where the rats would have come in. Why did I pick my gardener, of all people, to do this with me?
First of all, he's a neighbor so he's always around. Secondly, when we had a crawl space animal problem he referred me to a nice gentleman named Angel who took great care of our crawl space and patched things up. I had originally intended to reach out to Angel but I lost his number so I called my gardener for it. Unfortunately Angel had moved out of town and my gardener (I'll refer to him by his name now, Jesus) said he'd come take a look.
So Jesus looked around with me and immediately noticed the gap in the crawl space. He told me: "that's it". When the plumbers dug underneath the crawl space, they had removed Angel's work but didn't replace it with the airtight care and at that moment it was obvious to even me that this was why we had the rat problem after the plumbing work.
My gosh. If only I had looked there! The answer was just sitting there at my home and I turned my back to it and wondered "Hmm, I wonder what the problem is". This entire experience taught me the importance of actually just looking.
After the initial email about my rat problem my friend Teresa offered to draw some cards for me related to this situation. I found the cards most interesting:
This is the past, present, and future reading. What particularly struck me was the transition from six of wands to eight of pentacles. Six of wands, as you can see from the body language of the card, is often times representative of triumph and pride. Not gonna lie, I'm feeling pretty good these days; but what's important is what do I do with this triumphant energy? When I don't put care into my pride, it can quickly turn sour for me.
Eight of pentacles signifies diligence, knowledge, and detail. Which is exactly what I had been missing in the face of this rat problem. I needed to look before, and I need to look with diligence in the future.
A few nights ago I uncovered the crawl space cover to let the animal out overnight and covered it again. I then had one remaining piece of this situation I hadn't looked at myself; the attic. The attic was this giant mysterious place in my home that practically belonged to other people like HVAC professionals or electricians. But if I were to claim ownership of this experience, I knew I had to actually go up there.
So with the help of my wife I concocted some natural rat remedy (which is unfortunately designed to kill, chemically as opposed to a physical trap; please let me know if you know an effective deterrent) and climbed up the attic. I was a bit scared, a bit apprehensive because it was this space above my head I needed to peek up to. Like peeking up a trench during war or peeking up a manhole on a busy highway.
As soon as I was able to get the hatch open I immediately understood something I didn't understand about the people who worked on my home: why do they always leave insulation on the floor after they access my attic? I immediately understood it because I couldn't even open up the hatch without some struggle. The insulation was so tightly packed around the hatch, there was no way for me to open the hatch without tearing some portions of the insulation.
The second thing I understood was how difficult it was to work in an environment like an attic. It is HOT. Figures, because that's where all the insulation is. The combination of dust, hot temperature, the mystery of not knowing what's underneath all of that insulation contributed to an immediate surge of stress. I was in the attic for like, three minutes at max? But my wife asked me, "how did you get this sweaty in this short amount of time?".
When the plumbers worked on my house, I recall thinking to myself "you couldn't pay me $18,000 to do this work". Not because I'm high and mighty, better than them; but I simply cannot imagine myself being that capable and strong as these workers. After visiting my attic, I again found a newfound appreciation for the people who work on homes.
These are the cards Teresa drew for me around the plumbing problem and the rat problem. Five of pentacles is such an appropriate card because at that time when I had recently quit my job a $18,000 bill was a big hit on my finances and it felt like I was going through a hard time. But notice how much I used the words "learn" "taught" and such; the rat problem is allowing me, giving me the opportunity to teach myself and learn from this situation. Which is perfectly encapsulated by the hierophant.
I intended to write this as a separate writing but I think it makes sense to talk about it here as well. Yesterday I saw a video from Chris Do, that was interviewing a person who is charging $2k/hr. The video also talked about Chris charging $5k/hr.
Now, I understand how the value of your work is a concept. I understand how we tend to limit the amount of wealth we allow for ourselves. I have many affordable products, but at the same time I do intentionally offer a high priced program. I am not defined by my highest priced offer, I am not defined by my lowest priced offer. I am the autonomous decider of how much dollars equates to my time at this moment.
At the same time I understand how charging $5k/hr for some online AI strategy can be seen as mindblowingly stupid for some people. Or even enraging. I also understand how you can feel that they don't deserve to charge that much at all, and how there needs to be some regulations for the coaching space.
But what I don't see talked about often is, $2,000/hr work is not necessarily better than $200/hr work. Jesus charged me $180 to patch up the giant hole in my yard the plumbers had made. To me today, that is more valuable than some life lessons I can learn from somebody else.
This doesn't mean that life lessons are valueless. To another person someday, my words may be more valuable than anything they have in their possession. It saddens me to see that so many small online business owners' goal is to just ramp up, up, up. Why don't we see more people who are PROUD to have a small business?
I truly, genuinely have a renewed, deepened respect and admiration for the people who have solved the physical problems in my life. I learned this through rats. And I'm writing to you to propagate this message: regardless of how much we make, how much we charge, what we do for work, what we would like in the future, and so on, let us be proud of the work we are today.
Billy Seol
July Life Coach
julylifecoach.com
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