How To Push Through Setbacks And Still Be A Pleasure To Deal With...

A couple of weeks ago I turn on my computer
and the screen is all black.
Just a cursor.

It's only my entire livelihood that's on the computer
so the panic was kind of high.

Good news - I back up my stuff to an external drive
and I have an iPhone for times like these.
I also have a back up computer.
Bad news, I have to fix this computer and I'm not an expert.
But I've fixed it before and it's time for a skills upgrade.

So it took me two weeks of digging into the registry,
surfing Google and flailing my arms for help,
changing Microsoft service configurations
and all kinds of technical adventures
to get things back to normal.

All while this is happening, people still need help.
I still have promises to keep.
There can't be any let up.
And I can't be a cranky grouch while this is going on.

Sometimes you're going to wake up and find yourself kicked back to zero with something.
It's going to happen way more than you like.

10 Steps To Dealing With A Setback

1. Take a deep breath. Don't panic. Get your eyes clear to see what's going on.

2. Remember how great your situation
is compared to worse problems you've overcome.
If you've ever been through worse stuff
than the problem at hand, remind yourself if needed.
You do that for comparison and contrast
to give you a clinical perspective.
You do that to not let your emotions
start hyping up the problem.

3. Get a handle on what kind of timeline is involved in fixing things up. Things like death for example, can't be fixed.
But when people have died in my life, I had a timeline for asking for extra help and support so I could maintain a certain level of getting stuff done as I promised or rescheduling as needed.

In this case, I didn't know if I could fix the computer
or how long it would take.
So my answer was undetermined
but it could be a while - weeks.

4. What's the plan in the meantime?
Study up on the problem, start trying different solutions if you can handle it yourself (I believed I could). And I had top people I could ask for help before I gave up completely.
And if absolutely needed, I'd let them work on it.
This is not one of those "delegate to others" items to me.
I have one for example later on.

5. Put some stopgap measures in place
(use alternate computer and iPhone)

6. Have emergency decisions
already made if it comes to it in stages
Stage 1 - installing a new operating system over it
Stage 2 getting a new computer and which one, etc.

Never come to a dead end
without your pivot ready to go.*
My pivot would be leaving the computer
for dead and starting over.
*Sometimes that may not apply - you may want to stop everything and examine why something happened before you go make a big replacement purchase or make a big correction of any kind. What if I'm a big idiot and I'll just break the next one? What if a program I put on it is the problem and after I get a new computer, the bad program does its magic and breaks that one too? I need to determine that it's not user error or a bad program. I need to make sure that I'm not behind creating the conditions for the computer going catatonic on me. There's too much at stake - I can't make a lot of repeat mistakes here.

You want to know what you'll do next before you get into fixing a problem.

If I find out a marketing service provider is messing something up, for example, I need options ready to go.

7. Prepare myself that the fixing process is going to take time and adjust my mood with others accordingly. That means realizing I have to be extra nice when I may not be as attentive to how I'm coming across. Think of how you feel when you can't find your phone. Think of how you feel when you're pretty sure your phone is lost. You know that sinking feeling? That's how I feel about my computer. So I need to listen to my tone of voice when I say hello.

8. Push through the process to start fixing things.
That meant rebooting to safe mode, going through the registry line by line, etc. Now that I know what my next steps are, I can show off my ignorance in epic scale trying everything I can and learning new things along the way. It's a contained exercise. There's a ceiling on how bad I'll let things get.

Two weeks of looking:
A program that got updated was the culprit.
I deleted it along with thousands of orphan files in the registry. Problem solved.

My tech friends who do this for a living were very impressed and proud of me.

I wanted to do an action film about it,
that's how epic it felt to me.
Jason Statham is my first pick.

9. Be grateful my fix worked and treat people accordingly.
That means don't be a crank because this took a lot out of me. I'm grateful I learned how to fix it at least for now.

10. Be ready for the next problem and be cool about it.

And right on cue...
When pulling into my driveway tonight,
my wheels started making all kinds of noise.
I drove around a bit - I'm not fixing this one.
Scheduling a checkup.
Probably brake pads.

And just like that,
Another setback to schedule in.

But my setbacks don't mean I can't help people.
And setbacks are not a license to be a grouch.

The week ahead will bring what it brings.
I'm going in to help with some setbacks for other people.
The mechanic can do the rest for me.