Once in a while it's like a cascade of negative incidents happening, making you feel totally miserable. You feel like you are sinking into an ocean of trouble, and when you think it is not possible that anything more can happen - that's exactly what happens...
We're not talking about minor things. Like having dinner at a restaurant where you never have been before, and discover that your wallet is somewhere else. Awkward moments, but you deal with it. These are major challenges. That affects a lot of people and put you out on a limb. Things that goes public. And you are the one in charge.
At our end we have been swimming around for a while now. Everything that possibly can go wrong is going wrong. At least that's what we feel. Not many days ago we experienced that our e-mail provider had a hick-up resulting that a mail we had scheduled was sent 20 times to the same person, to thousands of people!
At that moment - It felt like pulling all our teeth was a preferred experience. And then, this week our web host is having trouble when upgrading to a secure server - resulting that the pages for an online program we are in the middle of is unavailable for more than a day! Hundreds and hundreds of leaders are visiting the site every day, and nothing works... Oh no ... let us rather jump off a plane.
Because, it does not matter who's fault it is, or what could have been different. What matters is what happens now. Done is done and here we are. We are in charge, and needs to act like that. It takes a moment or two avoid shredding ourselves into pieces, but it is possible.
First of all don't let things like this drag you down. Step back a little and use one or all of the following tactics:
Deal with it. Unfortunate things happens. What can differentiate you from most other people is how you deal with things. We have a friend, who says that we all should look upon incidents like this as QUALITY RESISTANCE. She is right. - when we are able to look at it that way, suddenly the perspective is changing.
Do not ask yourself WHY it happens - rather ask WHAT CAN I LEARN from this? This might, of course, have something to do with the WHY, but it will help you look at the bigger picture. When you look at the long-term target, these are only minor hick-ups. Usually challenges are leaving us stronger and wiser than we were before.
Look for the positive things. No matter how negative an incident may be, there can be positive things happening as a result.
Working online, we miss the immediate feedback that we receive when we are doing live workshops. However, both when the mail-server went bananas, and now that the online program is down, we've been flooded with positive and caring feedback from people who are following the program and can't find what they are looking for. Not one single person is angry. What's more - we've never received so much positive feedback for the program. We feel lucky.
Even luckier did we feel the day we had been eating in a restaurant far from home, and discovered that the wallet was left at the hotel. I brought a purse I seldom use, and I desperately searched it (in hope of finding some hidden magic that would save us). No magic, but I did find my drivers license. How strange! I had no idea it was in this purse! (Not only women's purses that are a little messy, is it?) Yes, it was embarrassing to have to come back to settle the bill in the restaurant - but that was NOTHING compared to the total misery I would have felt the next day. We had months in advance made arrangements to test-drive two Ferrari's, and guess who would have been left in the office without a car if I hadn't been able to show a valid Drivers License. Now, THAT would have been a total bummer! Wroom, wroom...
So, what are your tactics on how to act When the Sh**t hits the fan. We are sure you have some splendid tactics on how to deal with this (and we would LOVE to hear them).
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