I fix things. As a kid, I fixed discarded toys, and made them my own to play with. When I was ten, my mom gave me a broken alarm clock, which I repaired and used for a while, before I found a better use for it – take it apart and put it back together, repeatedly. These honed skills served me well later in life, when I fixed photography equipment and used some of it to start my photography career.
I did it again this week when I fixed one of my old lenses, and put it to use. At the same time, a battery charger for the same outfit stopped working. I immediately ordered a replacement unit from Amazon, but then thought: why order a new unit instead of trying to fix my broken one? I took it apart, and before long found the problem and repaired it. I now had mixed feelings, happy about my successful repair and disappointed about jumping to order too quickly.
Technology and product design have changed over the years. The advent of the microchip, sophistication of polymers, automated production lines, and streamlined distribution networks, enable people around the world access to high-tech products of all kinds. When those products fail or break, most of them are replaced with new ones; it is either impossible or cost-prohibitive to repair them.
Are there other parts of our life that suffer from the same phenomenon? Are we quick to abandon a personal or professional achievement and replace it with another too soon? Much like as with a camera part, a cell phone, or a car, are we disposing of our assets before attempting to restore them to good health?
The first part of a coaching process is assessing the value of these assets before sailing onward to new destinations. We earned these assets through valuable time and labor. Even if they have lost some of their shine, they often retain an investment value that should not be discarded off hand.