I Need a Hero

“It turns out I’m afraid of heights,” the stranger on my voicemail said.

He explained that he had started repairing the top of his chimney. By the time he’d set up the staging and gathered the materials, he realized he wasn’t comfortable working twenty-five feet in the air. He was looking for someone to finish the job, and fast. It’s not a good time of year in Maine to be without a working chimney.

This was an easy no for me. It’s not the kind of work I want to do. But not that long ago, I might have said yes. It’s easy to fall into the hero trap.

It feels good to put on your cape, step in, and save the day. Who doesn’t like to be a hero?

But there’s a thin line between helping and overreaching. Between doing good work and trying to be everything to everyone.

I used to say yes to anything I could technically do. Chimneys, tile repairs, patch jobs. Anything involving a rock or a tile. I told myself I was being helpful, but really I was drifting from the work I wanted to be doing.

The 3Ps, the framework I created for saying yes to the right work, have helped me see those traps more clearly. Let’s run it through the filter….

People: Nice guy. We joked about the predicament he’d gotten himself into. He would be easy to work with.

Project: Wrong kind of work.

Price: It doesn’t matter. I’m not getting up on that roof.