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Before the weather turned to Winter, we were outside doing some end of season yard clean-up. One of the projects I wanted to get done required me to use the hose to spray some things off. When I turned the faucet on, no water came out the hose. I waited and waited and then turned it up to see if that would help. Eventually, water started coming out but it wasn’t with as much pressure as normal. I didn’t think too much of it and continued my work. About 45 minutes later my daughter came running outside and told my husband there was water coming out of the basement bedroom light — you can see where this is going. The outdoor faucet is on the same wall as that bedroom. So all of that missing water pressure in the hose was due to the excessive water going into the house. It was a disaster!! We had to cut large holes in the ceiling and walls to remove the soaked drywall and insulation. Oh and this was all happening days before we were to have guests come and that room just happens to be our guest room.
When the plumber came to remedy the problem, he found this:
This little half-inch crack in the pipe caused thousands of dollars worth of damage, mess, and inconvenience. He said that with the way the pipe was installed (incorrectly) it could have been like that for years and then because of the buildup of water when the temps dropped, it froze and cracked. It's kind of crazy, but we are sometimes like this pipe. We have little, maybe not even noticeable thought "errors". These thought errors are things we have been thinking for years, maybe even our whole lives. We call them thought errors because they are things we think are true but may not be serving us, in fact, they may even be causing us damage (like a crack in a pipe).
Thought errors can include things like:
“I’m always late.”
“I’ve never been able to do it before so I won’t be able to now.”
“No one likes me.”
“I always doing it wrong.”
“I don’t like doing new things.”
"Things never work out for me."
These thoughts feel necessary. They feel justified or reasonable. Maybe someone else even said them to us, but that doesn’t mean they are useful. They can be very sneaky but over time can cause us to believe things that simply aren’t true, which can be detrimental to us.
What are your sneaky, little thought errors that are causing you some damage? Can you see them? Do you want to keep thinking them? We always have the choice to pick our thoughts so why not pick some that prevent damage?