I’m not sure if this week’s heading is grammatically correct. Maybe you can come up with a better heading. 

Here’s the message.

Since Ross and I have been travelling we’ve learned sooooooo much; so many things we didn’t know we didn’t know. 

This week I was listening to a presentation and the speaker mentioned how he had evolved his business once he was able to push his ego aside and take on the lessons.

This really resonated with me because I have had to do the same thing during the past few months.

I don’t know everything and certainly I am finding out, I know very little about travelling in a motorhome.

Standing at the counter at a pharmacy, I asked the assistant for some Bettamin (Vitamin B1). My sister-in-law told me about it the night before. It’s supposed to help prevent reactions to sandfly and mosquito bites. The assistant knew exactly what I was referring to.

I also asked her for some insect repellent. As she went to get it for me, an older man who was waiting on a script quietly advised me, “the bushies recipe works better than that and it’s much cheaper”.

“Oh. What is that?” I asked.

“Equal quantities of Dettol and Baby Oil. Mix it in a squirter bottle and it will keep all the insects away.” 

“Fantastic. Thank you so much. We are going to the supermarket now, so we can buy the stuff now, too.”

We still purchased the insect repellent from the pharmacy and made our way to the supermarket, only to run into the man again.

Holding up our ingredients, we were eager to show him we had listened to his advice.

Ross made up the recipe as soon as we got back to where we’re staying.

The next day I was working from my computer at the local library. (I needed to charge my computer, since we didn’t have electricity the night before.) A lady started chatting to me and we both admired and were thankful for the library resources. 

I mentioned the recipe, to which she added, “Oh, Dettol can be a bit hard on your skin. We also add Sorbolene to that. We even rub it on the horses at our property”, she replied.  (We were in a rural town.) She added, “We use 1/3 of each and it is so easy to rub on your skin.” 

“Thank you so much.”

Later that day we met our new neighbours in the caravan park and they added tea tree oil to the recipe.

So far I have used the initial recipe of half Dettol and half Baby Oil and it has worked. We also bought some Sorbolene and will add that and test it and then after that will add the Tea Tree Oil.

It’s a long winded story to make the point about putting your ego to one side or demanding it to stand down long enough to accept that others may know more than you do about particular topics.

How healthy is your ego? Are you open to it standing down?