I’ve had a few late nights of late, and it’s had a knock on effect on my morning routine.
I haven’t been waking up naturally at 6am like I usually do, and therefore my morning routine has been squeezed, putting me under more time pressure than usual.
It always seems that when time is short and you have to do something quickly, the universe conspires to f*ck you over even more.
Case in point, my set-up for coaching clients is usually pretty swift to put together.
I put my ChromeBook on a stand to use as my screen for video calls, and I set up my large laptop in front of me to type notes on as I coach.
This usually takes me no more than five minutes to set up, even if I’ve packed both devices away.
One morning, when I was slightly bleary-eyed from going to bed at 1am following a late flight from Cork, my ChromeBook behaved beautifully and was raring to go for my first call, but my laptop had a massive cob-on.
First of all, she decided she was going to run a Windows update before allowing me to type on her.
“OK…OK…I thought. Stay calm. We still have three minutes before the call. Most updates are dealt with in that time. We’re good….We’re good…Breathe…”
Chrissy the ChromeBook rolled her eyes at her willfully awkward colleague.
Chrissy is always instantly ready for action because she just jumps straight onto the Chrome browser to get to work, and finds ordinary laptops with their infernal boot-up routines more than a little tiresome.
At 8:59, one minute before my first call, the update looked as though it was complete and Laura the Lazy Laptop got ready to restart and get to work.
At 9:00 precisely, she decided today was the day she would reinvent herself as Upside Down Girl, well…you know…just BECAUSE…:
“AGGGGGGGHHHHHHRRRRRR, WHAT THE FFFFFF…..” I momentarily seethed with frustration.
Chrissy (you can just about spot her in the rear of the picture) wanted to punch her, too.
There was no time to mess about with screen settings before my call, so I had to get myself in check very quickly.
Reactions such as shock, fear and frustration are automatic.
You literally can’t stop them from happening momentarily, because they originate in a part of our brain that activates before the logical part of our brain can take over, so Lazy Laura was very lucky she didn’t get launched through the window at this point.
However, I’ve taught mindset work long enough to know if I can refrain from Violence Towards Technology for a few seconds, my logical brain kicks in and I’ll find a Plan B.
The Plan B in this case, was simply to grab a pad and pen and make my notes in the old school way, and wait until I had a break between calls to remedy Laura’s sudden decision to become Upside Down Girl, albeit with a little bit of further cussing because of the complexities of typing on the keyboard in what effectively felt like a twisted Downward Dog yoga pose to get into her settings.
Remember, if you feel yourself in instant rage for whatever reason that it’s a temporary reaction, and you just need to wait for logic to kick in.
Chrissy still thinks Laura is a twat, I think she always will, but at least Laura’s not in pieces on the patio.
I call that a win for mindset training!
DM me if you know you could do with upgrading your operating system!