Simple Things

This is a story about a successful consultant I know. He works with wonderful clients on interesting projects. He gets to travel around the United States and internationally, visiting well-trod as well as unusual, exotic, and remote locales. He’s always meeting amazing people, solving important problems, and engaging in social impact activities.

And yet, simple problems can make him crazy.

Wandering around remote jungles in Africa without electricity and plumbing excites him. He takes missed flights and lost hotel reservations in stride. He knows how to transform client disasters into intriguing opportunities.

And yet, simple problems can make him crazy.

Some of you have already figured out I’m talking about myself.. I’ve been pondering this seemingly contradictory aspect of my personality ever since WordPress screwed me up. Or rather, screwed up my missives. As my regular readers may have noticed, these missives haven’t been appearing on your screens every Tuesday morning as they have for years. I have been preparing the missives the exact same way, setting the time for them to publish just as I had been doing. And yet, they were not being published as scheduled. This simple problem made me crazy.

The first time it happened, I got the missive published once I figured out how to launch it immediately. But still I was worked up about this. Why wouldn’t the scheduled sending function work as it had for years? I talked to my tech guy who told me there was an update of WordPress and this had probably messed up a few things. He would take care of fixing it right away.

The next week it happened again. Same response from tech guy except he began with a long Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

The next week it happened again. This time I was traveling and there was nothing I could do so I stewed remotely until I finally got it published a day late. Hopefully we’ve finally gotten it fixed for this missive.

I don’t get in a crazed state for long but when I do, it’s hard to do anything useful. My thinking deteriorates, my voice gets louder. Suffice it to say, being crazed is not very productive…

I’m not alone in this behavior. Lots of people seem to be worse at dealing with simple, relatively inconsequential things, than with things that are much more important, that will have a much larger impact, or will cost them significantly more money.

If you get crazy about simple problems in your personal life, that’s your problem, and a problem for those around you. But if you get crazed in your work life, the ripple effects of your dysfunction can have a disastrous impact on not just your colleagues but on the entire company and its customers.

I work hard to notice when I’m getting overly worked up about something insignificant, so I can stop, take a deep breath, get my thoughts together, and put it behind me. Usually this works well and all is fine. But occasionally I miss the signs and do something I instantly regret.

I have no idea if it’s possible for those of us who suffer from this simple things mania to end it forever. But I do know that it’s possible to catch it fast, step back, re-set your head, and leave it behind you with no ill effects. But you have to pay attention all the time so you notice the warning signs immediately.

Keep your thinking from deteriorating. Give your family and colleagues a break. Opt for calm over crazed. (It’s what I intend to do if this doesn’t go out Tuesday morning…)

Both your personal and business life will improve…as mine have.