I've lived independantly for almost 6 years since 2007. Yes some of it was with roommates, but I was responsible for my part unlike being subordinate to a family member, and I'll tell you what basically got me into it.
It's something I learned in college, that sometimes you just have to jump into things, damn the torpedos type action. Sometimes these things that are terrifying, and well out of your current safety bounds. Once I figured out how to do that, then I could cope better with dealing with what I didn't have a choice in. Sometimes you have no idea what your doing because no one really tells you what it's like.
You sound fairly independant, but I understand some of the things you mention such as the mail. It took me a while to deal with mail and I've got it down to a few steps so I can handle it. First, I quickly sort out what's junk(adds, city newspaper, flyers, etc..) and what's not. I throw that junk away immediately, or if I need packing material, I set it aside. Then i sort out what's important but not neccessary(bank statements, some package invoices, etc...) and put it aside for shredding, and then the rest which are usually important (receipts for proof of purchase of mail ordered item, bills, etc...). It may take a while to handle the important stuff but I eventually will. Despite this method I've figured out for myself to handle the mail, it wasn't always so. I used to just ignore dealing with it, and let it pile up. I hated it, but after a few missed bills, and finally realizing that I can order stuff online cheaper than buying local and have it mailed, it was through trial and error, and repetition, I got where I can handle it, and this took almost four years to get to the point I could handle it.
One thing I can suggest is that you try and use risk management and to troubleshoot your issues, much as if you had to troubleshoot why something is innoperative like say a computer(Not saying you're broken),
With the risk management you can do 1 of 4 things.
You can accept the risk. -- You don't like mail. You are not going to try and like mail, but you still will get mail and will be bothered by it.
You can mitigate the risk -- You don't order anything, and you put yourself on the do not mail lists, and if see if the sender can send it in a different media such as email. You get less mail but you still get mail.
You can share/transfer the risk. -- If you have a roommate or a friend they can deal with your mail. You don't deal with it so it's not your immediate problem.
You can avoid the risk -- You could put your mail on hold with the post office.
And the troubleshooting will usually be for how you want to mitigate or share/transfer risk.
Once I learned risk management and adapted my troubleshooting skills(computers/IT are my career field), these two techniques have gotten me through problems that really got in the way of me being able to function on my own.
I hope this helps for dealing with what troubles you in life.
27 Jun 2013, 12:01 am
