Serious Trouble Will Bypass You

Today’s FortunateBluFrog fortune is so fitting for the day I have had. I actually opened the fortune this afternoon at lunch but the words clearly had something to do with my morning.

Today was the very last day of my three day company wide presentation. This was a big deal. I was the organizer of an event open to the entire company (2000+) people. It was my job to organize people who would advertise the event, decorate the venue and present the topics. We held the event in our auditorium Monday, Tuesday and Today from 9:30am to around 11:30am. Monday went very well and so did Tuesday. Today also went very well but was not without hiccups.

I came in to work as I usually do on Wednesday’s, early and straight to the gym. I had a good workout but my bluetooth headphones ended up dying on me so I had nothing to take my mind off the recumbent bike. I was in the middle of a good Average Betty podcast too.

After the gym I made my breakfast and then checked my work e-mail. I had a message that was titled “flu” from one of my presenters. The poor woman caught the horrible stomach bug that knocked me out about a month ago. She was not coming in. She did however send along her script. My stomach did a little backflip and not in a good way. I got it together and headed down to the auditorium. It was 8:00am

Once down at the auditorium I went and checked the video the agenda slide and a few other things. Then I checked the sound. It wasn’t working right at all. So I had to page our operations staff. The guys who had been helping me all week were in another building so instead I got five guys from operations and corporate systems to come down and take a look at what was not working right. This was 9:20am. This was the time when I usually start the intro video. However panic did not set in.

At 9:23 the sound was working right and the video was playing and the day was starting. I was furiously trying to learn the script for my part of the demo which would occur in about 30 minutes. The demo came and went, I got up, did it and sat back down, relieved. The day continued, the ground didn’t swallow me up and we put on a heck of a show.

I think this fortune was appropriate because things could have been much worse. The sound could have been completely gone, I could have panicked and lamented about having to do a demonstration to a room of 200+ that “learned” over the course of reading the script twice. I learned a few lessons that could apply to blogging as well.

How this Fortune Applies to Bloggers

As bloggers we work with technology and as members of social media we deal with people. At any time technology can fail you and people can, well they can do any number of crazy things. The important thing when things don’t end up going perfectly is to remember three things. Breathe, Unclench and Focus.

Breathe

You’re blog is not showing up, what do you do? Do you lament on twitter or facebook about your fate and how the universe is out to get you? I’ve seen that happen. Or do you take a moment, breathe and figure out what the issue is. When faced with something catastrophic we often hold our breath. This makes it so difficult to act rationally. Without oxygen your whole body goes into panic mode and makes you act even more irrationally. Take a moment to close your eyes, take a deep breath and then look at the issue again.

Unclench

Along with stopping breathing you might make your body get clenched up and tense. Relax and shake it out. Have you ever seen a dog get up form a nap, they do this amazing full body shake to get things moving again. And the only way to get things moving is to loosen up. When you are loose you are flexible and you can see different ways to solve problems.

Focus

Sometimes when you are faced with trouble you tend to think of all the things that need to be done at once. Tackle the most immediate issue, take care of it and focus on the next most immediate issue. When you become unfocused then you miss can important issues. Stay on task and you will see what needs to be done.

Breathe, Unclench and Focus

Follow those simple steps the next time you are faced with a crisis and your head will stay cooler for it.