This week, I rediscovered an old forgotten technique and thought you might find it helpful. Behind the scenes, I am doing a bit of a rebrand and refreshing my website and all my marketing collateral. We might be two hours away from unveiling the new website. Excitement is in the air! On Wednesday morning, my web guy sent me a note. “Need to talk to you. It’s urgent.” He had to go on vacation with his family for a few days, so finishing the website must wait. Say what? Here are three videos I have recorded for you to ensure you can do everything yourself. Say what? To say I was surprised and then annoyed would be an understatement. I stayed quiet and asked a few nondescript questions while trying to collect my thoughts. In his country, the Ukraine/Russia war has caused significant power concerns (Germany isn’t the only country crippled by the drop in oil supply). So for several months, his government implemented rolling blackouts. The power would be off for two to four hours each day. Then the blackouts grew to longer than four hours. Finally, the government admitted the power grid couldn’t accommodate the fluctuations, the blackouts and the crazy resultant high peak demands. So it decreed that the entire grid would be shut down for six days for maintenance; some businesses would be allowed 20% of their regular usage, and all remaining companies, homeowners and renters would be entirely cut off. Therefore the only way to make this work would be a national holiday. Starting in ten hours. I was gobsmacked at the entire tale and immediately felt all his pain, anguish and suffering. And knew he had tried his absolute best in the surprising circumstances. I also knew that compared to what he was going through, finishing my website did not matter one bit. And that is what I want to share with you today. We all believe so much of what we are doing and working on, regardless of whether it is personal or professional, is so important. And good lord, the world will collapse if we don’t finish this or that or make some deadline. Maybe. I remember in my early twenties declaring self-righteously, “there are no emergencies. What we are dealing with is poor planning!” I’ve generally kept to that mantra for most of my life so that when real emergencies do occur, I can respond accordingly. I simply ask, will this matter in a month, six months, a year, or even five years? And 99.9% of the time, the answer is always NO. It doesn’t matter that my website is delayed by a week. It won’t matter in a month, and it certainly won’t in a year. So this delay is a blip on the calendar. What matters are the millions of families without an alternative place to visit, who must stay indoors for six days without power. THAT is what really matters. Perspective is everything, isn’t it?
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