Could I Have One of Those?

It’s amazing (and stupid) how I sometimes let those normally minor tasks in life snowball into a big dramatic mess that makes me lose my shit. Over nothing.

Last week I was having a really bad day, filled with angst and stress and pissyness…over a newspaper deadline. Not a major newspaper like the Seattle Times, mind you. This was for the Newcastle News. Just a little blurby ad to announce a new event on May 3rd.

I had sent it to an event participant a few days prior, as an FYI. When she responded, everything went to hell.

She freaked out because one of their activities wasn’t available the day of the event. Also, she needed to send the ad through their Marketing department. So I freaked out. Because by the time she told me that, we were way past deadline. So we played phone tag. We traded messages. I talked to nineteen different people. I went to this person and that person to find out if I could tweak it or pull it.

If I’d taken just a moment to step back and reflect for five minutes, I would have realized absolutely nothing was wrong. Except for the fact that I totally miscommunicated with my participant, resulting in a stellar episode of freak-outed-ness.

Because the way I wrote the ad, it didn’t matter if the activity was available. I had another participant who could do it. And it didn’t matter that I used their logo, because it was purely informational. Since the ad didn’t commit them to anything but receiving donations, her marketing department was fine with it.

This was a classic case of momentary retardness biting me in the ass because I sent an informational email that didn’t include all the information. i.e., what I was asking her to do. Which was nothing. All I needed to say was, ‘This is an ad for the event, it’s purely FYI. There’s nothing you have to do. I just wanted you to see it’.

It would have saved us both an entire day of stress. Instead, by the time 4pm rolled around, I was so pissed at having wasted the day I decided I needed a break to think about something entirely unrelated. So I pulled up my blog feed and started reading a book review on Presentation Zen, which talks about what makes for truly effective presentations vs. ‘Death by PowerPoint’.

From Presentation Zen, I found this video of a presentation given by Jill Bolte Taylor. It is ASTONISHING. While she’s talking about her research on the brain and why, let me stress – this is not some boring subject matter review.

It’s personal. It’s inspiring. It’s emotional. And I think it puts any ‘bad day’ I might ever have into perspective.

At eBay, Richard liked to tell our training classes this story about a board meeting he once attended at Nestle’. Several hours were spent on a heated and lengthy debate regarding corporate miscellanea, the specific topic of which I forget. But it was one of those altruistic arguments that spin and spin forever, getting no-one anywhere, ever, but which take a lot of time and give folks who want to talk a huge opportunity to make themselves look smart and sound important.

Finally, one guy has had enough, and says simply, “Guys. We make chocolate.”

I throw concerts. I show movies. I set up bouncy toys and tents. As long as no one’s dying, none of my days can be that bad.

Related Links
TED, Ideas Worth Spreading
TED talk: Jill Bolte Taylor
Ask A Ninja: Extra Time