Anyone know what a Tizzy is?
When I was young, my parents would often tell me not to get myself worked into a tizzy. I didn’t know what a tizzy was at the time, but I had a pretty good idea based on the agitation I seemed to be causing my parents in that moment. So, back in the day when I unwittingly began to work myself into a tizzy and I was getting closer to being punished for it, I retreated, thus saving myself from making the situation worse for all of us. The word tizzy hadn’t come up in what seems like forever, until this morning when I reflected on how I handled the previous day which included a plethora of things that all went south at the same time. I’ll be danged if I hadn’t worked myself into a full-blown tizzy.
Not believing that tizzy was actually a word, and betting that my parents had made it up as a “pattern interrupter” to get me out of the poor behavior I was exhibiting at the time, I looked it up this morning. And there it was, right there in a dictionary app, defining “tizzy” as a state of nervous excitement or agitation. So, wow…just WOW…that’s exactly what I was experiencing yesterday. I had worked myself into a tizzy! So even though I admit to being raised by the best parents in the world, who are both now in heaven, they neglected to share with me the most important part of being in a tizzy…and that’s how to get OUT of it once I’m in it!
How’d I get myself to tizzy status? Well, it all began when I found myself approaching noon having already accomplished several small tasks in the morning. I had an actual list of tasks (I love lists) for the afternoon and had grabbed my vehicle keys to get after it. Things had been going so well, and right as I was heading for the garage, we lost power at home. I waited the obligatory 10 seconds to see if it would come right back on…and it didn’t. I quickly shifted into the obligatory 5 minutes of “hope and pray” that it would reset, or refresh, or turn it off and turn it back on mentality that seems to work for computers. But, alas, it didn’t happen. My tizzy had begun.
Turns out my “hope and pray” attempt was a waste of time, but not completely. You see, when we moved into our house in 2001, I brought a massive generator from our old house and had a licensed electrician install a switchbox on our current home that allowed me to plug my generator in and power more than half the home to get us by during power outages. The most important stuff, like the furnace, refrigerator, internet modem and router, outlets and lights that are used the most, are all powered by the generator. In the last 24 years, I’ve successfully helped our family weather every power outage with little, if no disruption to our lives.
So, I wheel the generator from the garage to the back of the house where the switchbox is, connected the generator to the switchbox, put the switch in the neutral feed position, and started the generator with an enthusiastic pull of the starter cord. My tizzy was immediately amplified when the generator roared to life stuck in the highest speed I had ever witnessed before. I immediately shut it down knowing something wasn’t right.
I checked everything making sure I hadn’t made any mistake in starting it up and started it once again. The engine again whined at a fevered pitch. Believing that if I threw the switch to power our home that the increased load would calm the generator down, I pulled the switch. This turned out to be a horrible decision as out of the corner of my eye, I saw sparks come out of the kitchen outlet where our coffee maker was plugged into. My tizzy was entering nuclear meltdown status, and as I was about to find out, wasn’t fully finished messing with me. Side note: Tizzies in no way help nor support good decision making. They do not aid in facilitating positive thought processes. You can take my word on this.
When I saw the sparks, I immediately placed the switchbox back in the neutral position, then shut the generator down once again. Nothing was working the way it was supposed to. It had always worked before, and my frustration was driving my tizzy into unknown territory. I paused, counted to 8 (I couldn’t make it to ten), started the generator back up and played with the throttle mechanism which finally…finally had the generator running the way it was supposed to. I connected the generator to our home through the switchbox, and everything seemed to be as it should be, so I went inside to check out what had caused the sparks and see if anything was damaged from the massive power surge the generator had sent.
In the end, allowing myself to fully embrace being in a tizzy, my actions had fried our furnace, several small appliances, a space heater I had in my home office, and (I’m tearing up as I write this) our adjustable bed that had helped me recover from past surgeries and helps me fall asleep while reading each night. Now, we all make mistakes in life but the lesson I learned from all this that I’d like to share with you today is that being in a tizzy never, never, never helps when facing a dilemma. Being in a tizzy promotes impulsive behavior. Impulsive behavior leads to poor decisions. Poor decisions lead us down a path to regret. The regret we experience is nearly always unnecessary.
So, how does one get OUT of a tizzy? Don’t get into one in the first place. I’m serious! Just don’t! When dilemmas arise, and they continuously will in life, just eliminate any and all tizzy’s from entering the situation. Life will be better, thinking will be more focused, and solutions to dilemmas will appear much sooner. You don’t have to learn this lesson the hard way…I did it for you! Hey…I Believe In YOU! GiddyUp!