Don’t you just hate it when technology just won’t work? As you may be aware I’ve had my challenges these past few weeks. A cpanel crash meant having to shift all my websites and blogs, and that of my clients to another server. Minor hiccups have meant that we (web guy and me) need to find a fix for UTF-8 on some blogs as the charset isn’t showing correctly although other blogs appear to be fine, but hopefully we’ll get that sorted soon. Everything else appears to be working fine now.
And then add to that, we (my family and I) had intermittent internet connection for the whole of last week so it made it hard for me to check on the status of the server change and I was unable to respond to email as quickly as I usually do. Frustrating.
However, it did mean that I could elect to do things I don’t often spend as much time on, such as reading and writing (I have a new book in progress), sorting through papers and I was away interstate some of that time too which helped to decrease my level of frustration.
Sometimes things are just out of our control and we can either elect to get totally stressed about it, or just accept it after assessing the situation and assuring ourselves there is nothing further we can physically do. It’s important to advise clients when you are unable to carry out work if it’s dependent on internet access (as much of mine is) and then make a date with your diary and plan to catch up when things are back online.
As I said a couple of posts ago, it’s good to realise ‘it’s only temporary’ and take the pressure off yourself.
I hope you like the post I put up on the weekend. Now I know why I write so much. Actually I always knew that writing was therapeutic – at least for me it always has been. A great way for getting my thoughts in order and decluttering my mind. Just nice to see that scientists agree with my theory 🙂
Kathie is the former owner of VA Directory and is former past President of the Australian VA Association. She founded the Virtual Assistant industry in Australia in the mid 90s, having already been operating a home-based secretarial service. Today the VA industry covers a multitude of office-based services for clients worldwide.
Pam Archer says
I agree with you, Kathie, that while these set backs are challenging and frustrating, we should take that time to invest in doing something we love or don’t often have time for. Well written blog post.
Melodieann Whiteley says
I’m with you Kathie. I always look at these times as God’s way of telling me I’m too focused on something and I need to step back and take a break. Thanks for the reminder that some things are just beyond our control and we can make it a positive experience as you did or just let the frustration add to our stress – which is never a good thing!