The other morning my wife found a small puddle of oil under her car.

She had her oil changed the previous afternoon. The assumption was that the technicians spilt or failed to clean up after doing their tasks.

After checking her oil — the first, and most logical step — she went to work. Then she called me to ask my thoughts on the matter.

It was my day off and I was working on a project. But we have some history with cars and oil. Once in the past, we had a failed component in the oil filter housing that caused the entire reservoir to spill onto the street while driving — ultimately destroying the engine in the process. A $6,000 upset that was an unfortunate flaw in the car’s design.

Needless to say, anything oil-related hits me. So, although I was focused on work at the time, I knew that ignoring the problem, and assuming that it was a non-issue, would eat at me for the rest of the day.

I picked the car up and took it back to the shop that did the change.

The problem was, as we assumed, a combination of spillage and lack of cleaning by the technician who performed the change.

I returned the car to my wife’s work and made my way home.

Even though we both assumed the reality, it was the possibility that would have eaten at our minds. Had we not decided to have it checked, we would have spent the entire day with underlying stress wondering: what if?

As annoying as the half-hour journey was, the peace of mind I felt for the rest of the day was incredibly calming.

Sometimes taking an inconvenient action — even though you’re confident it isn’t needed — is worth it.