Did you notice something different last week?

For years now, I’ve been in the routine of writing these messages on Thursday and scheduling the message to be sent out on Sunday at 7 AM.  Until this week, I had only missed one Sunday, and it happened because of a glitch.  Unlike that time, I couldn’t blame technology when last week’s message was sent out a day late.

I wrote on Thursday, and I scheduled the email to be send out on Sunday as usual.  I got Sunday’s date wrong, though, so I scheduled the email to be sent on 8/8 instead of 8/7.  On Monday morning when I checked my email and didn’t see the usual G5 message, I was so mad at myself.  I spent the time writing the message, checking it over, making sure it was all set to be sent out, and one silly mistake made that work pointless.  It was late!  What a waste of time.

It’s interesting how the only detail in that story that I chose to acknowledge is the mistake I made.  Despite my efforts to do the right thing, I didn’t give myself any credit for trying.  No only is that a harsh and negative way to look at the situation, but it’s also unproductive.  Having a “woe is me, I’m such an idiot” moment wasn’t going to get the email out.  I shook it off and sent it out right away.  It was a good reminder of two things:

1. Check your work.
2. Where there is one negative, there are likely multiple positives.  Which you focus on is your choice.