Houston, we have a problem

While driving home from a long weekend with friends I briefly checked my email and to my horror saw a message urgently telling me ‘Day One is not working!’

Let’s back up a bit!

Once a year a group of friends come together for a long weekend. We always schedule it a year ahead. That way all of us can plan everything else around it.

Perfect, right? Right!

Except that I didn’t take this weekend into account when I set the starting date for the »Live Your Own Day 5-Day Challenge«.

Without taking a good look at my calendar I decided to make Monday September 18th the starting date for the Challenge. The very Monday immediately following the long weekend with my friends!

By the time I figured this out, I had communicated the launch date to so many people I couldn’t change it anymore. Oooops!!

I would just have to make sure everything was good to go by the time my long weekend started. And that’s exactly what I did.

Except for one tiny detail which turned out to be the cause behind the urgent “Houston we have a problem’ message glaring at me as I checked my email.

(you can watch the video or read on below]

When I scheduled the release of the 5 separate assignments (one for each day of the challenge) I forgot to check to which time zone my website was set!

Turns out WordPress believed I lived in the UK and because of it the challenge assignment came out 2(!!) full hours later than intended!

Not a good start!!!

After my initial shock and dismay I solved the problem and quickly sent out an email to all participants announcing that the link was now working.

(Long live the smart phones and a good internet connection in a parking area along the German Autobahn)

That wasn’t the interesting part though.

What was interesting was what I noticed about the way I was talking to myself.

My usual response to a situation like this would have been to seriously cuss myself out.

You probably know the drill – the one where you say all the things to yourself, you would never dream of saying to someone else. Like….

☹ “Jeez! How could you be so stupid as not to check that setting?”
☹ “How dumb do you have to be to overlook something so essential?”
☹ “You’re such a total screw-up! You can’t do anything right!”

Not this time though.

To my own amazement I found myself telling me that of course this was not how I had intended the Challenge to kick off. Not after all the preparation I had poured into it.

BUT….

I solved the problem as soon as I became aware of it. And I followed it up with a quick email to all participants explaining the situation and offering the solution.

It may not have been the smooth start I had in mind. It also wasn’t the end of the world.

At worst it showed I’m only human and since the incident had happened already, beating myself up over it wasn’t going to change anything. Better to learn from my mistake and move on.

It’s an attitude change I’ve been working on for a while now.

Give myself the same break I will give anybody else.

Not just in this situation but in life in general.

What are areas in your life you deserve to give yourself a break?!

As always….

Go dare greatly!

Photo: Steve Halama (Unsplash)