Pays to be prepared!

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I’m all about having a positive outlook when possible and a strategy for handling life’s challenges. Or at least being open to new strategies – from friends, family, great authors and speakers.  You get the idea. 

Even with a strategy at the ready, sometimes we just have to let go.  Despite all the planning, practicing, nagging, hoping, wishing…things happen.  It’s the unpredictability of life.  Doesn’t matter your gender, your race, your social standing, what country you come from.  Life steps in to remind you that life happens just as it did for me the other day.  Here’s what happened.

I’ve been playing the Fairy Godmother the past several years with Rhode Island’s own Kaleidoscope Theatre.  Two weeks ago we had 4 performances at the Kelsey Theatre in New Jersey for school kids on Friday and for families on Saturday.  During the second show on Friday as I waited for Cinderella to return to the stage resplendent in the gown for the ball my magic had created, I got caught on my own gown or my shoe, something.  I felt myself starting to fall backwards.  Thinking I would fall on the box that was behind me, I let myself settle down on it.  But it wasn’t where I thought it was, so I let myself fall, unfortunately taking the table down with me.

The key words here are ‘let myself fall’.  I didn’t try to stop it because to do so would probably have caused more of a spectacle and perhaps an injury.  Trying to control it would have been the wrong thing to do.  It was gravity and I was going down.   So in front of hundreds of children and their teachers, the Fairy Godmother hit the deck.

No time to assess the situation.  Need to come up with an appropriate comment and move on.  You’ve heard the expression, “The show must go on!”  And so it must especially with an audience of impressionable kids.  They needed to see that the Fairy Godmother was ok.  So I picked myself up as I said something like, “I’m so excited for you going to the ball in your beautiful new gown that it knocked me off my feet!”  Then I crossed over to Cinderella, introduced her to her flower girl and coachman, and reminded her to be home by midnight!  Oh yes, we sang too! I had to keep going.  If I hadn’t sent her to the ball with the admonition about what would happen at midnight, the rest of the show wouldn’t have made sense.  The story as we know it would have been over!

So besides a chuckle at my grace on stage, what can we learn from this?

• when possible, pick yourself up and keep going       
• We can’t let the little things in life take us out (or in my case, down)
• No matter how much you prepare, life will hand you surprises

The sooner we realize stuff happens, the better so we can move on.  It happens to all of us – even those in the limelight.  Think President Gerald Ford if you’re old enough or President George W Bush who was photographed trying to exit from a banquet in China through a locked door.  Or Jennifer Lawrence tripping up the stairs on the way to her Oscar.  Life happens.

It’s best if we can keep a cool head and a positive attitude whenever possible.  Stress does nothing but hurt us emotionally and physically as more and more research is proving.  Oh yeah, and be prepared.   We at Kaleidoscope call it, “It’s been to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it!” strategy.  Words I actually get to say onstage this summer in Cinderella’s Wedding.  My strategy that day?  AWB – Always Wear Bloomers!  

Don't trust technology!

Technology is an integral part of our lives.  We depend on a working internet, cell towers that function, the latest gadget.  They’re all so amazing when they work.  And incredibly frustrating and stressful when they don’t.

Are you prepared for them to fail at the worst time possible?  You’d better be.  Because it’s going to happen.  You can pretty much be sure of that!

I’m all about strategies; it’s what I’m known for.  Stress strategies, success strategies, you name it.  Now I’ve added technology strategies to my repertoire because I’ve had to.  You should too.  Let me share a few quick stories to tell you why.

Last September I was leaving for a trip to Florida for some training.  I was going to be picked up by my sister-in-law.  All good - until the morning of the trip when my iPhone decided to take a journey to la-la land.  First, all my contacts were gone.  All of them including my sister-in-law’s phone number which I never memorized because it was ON MY PHONE!  Then the phone began cutting out during calls and texts.  What???  How could I travel without a phone?  How would she know where to meet me, when I would arrive?  My flight was less than 3 hours away.  What was I going to do?

I went to Verizon and asked for help.  I was told I would be about 8^th in line, about a 40 minute wait.  I told them I had a flight to catch and they said I was 8^th in line and had to wait about 40 minutes.  Luckily I teach stress-busting strategies or I would have been in real trouble.  The wait turned out to be 20 minutes.  They couldn’t fix the phone.  They did notice that nobody had contacts on their phone because of a mix-up on the upgrade that just happened.  They actually were there but not under contacts (just what we all need…a mystery search!) They were going to have to ship my phone out and send me a new one in about 5 days.  What??? 

I’m actually really lucky.  For some unknown reason, I took along my old Droid phone.  They reactivated that and thankfully I made my flight.  The new phone arrived but it had a problem.  It wouldn’t connect to iTunes which meant it couldn’t pick up the music.  Off we go again.  The third one also had some issues so that went back.  A month later, I was back with a working phone.  A month!

Strategy #1?  Back up, back up, back up.  Use sites like Carbonite, a service that is continually backing up your computer.  Back up to non-technology.  I copied down all my phone numbers, all the dates on the calendar.  I try to do that once a week.  Because you can’t trust technology. 

I travel for business and have run into a new problem.  Hotels are finding they can’t handle all the technology people bring along with them now.  I’ve been in 5 separate places this year that had intermittent internet.  One place told me that although they only had 27 units, they sometimes had over 200 devices using the internet at one time.  I had a laptop, iPhone and IPad.  I see what they’re saying.  Technology is growing faster than the infrastructure to support it.  If I wanted to use the internet at one place, I had to do so before 7 am or after 11 pm

Strategy #2:  Expect and prepare for the worst.  Call ahead and see if the place you’re staying at has a cord to plug the laptop in.  Oh yeah, bring a laptop if you really need the internet.  IPads and other tablets are the last to get the signal for some reason.  If you need a file in your travels, better have a hard copy or back up thumb drive just in case.  To quote the favorite line from my friend David at Kaleidoscope Theatre, “It’s better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.” 

Think of how technology was affected on that horrible day in Boston or what’s going on right now in Moore, OK.  Technology can’t handle all the calls on days like those.  We have to be prepared for the what ifs.  Texting, Facebook and Twitter are sometimes the best way to communicate when phone lines are down.  It’s how I found out my nephew, his wife and their baby were safe after just leaving the Boston marathon. 

Strategy #3:  Have a plan to communicate with loved ones should the usual technology fail.  Make sure everyone knows the plan.  Have a backup for that plan.

That goes for non-technology issues as well.  Be prepared for bad storms, possible fires.  Don’t wait til the last minute.  Have the water, the non-perishable food, the batteries, maybe even the generator.  Keep important papers safe.  

I love my technology but I’m prepared for it to leave me whenever it feels like it.  I don’t live in fear of it because I live by the motto “prepare for the worst but expect the best”.  And that’s a less stressful way to live.  You can do if you plan for it.

Got to go… starting to thunder…and I need to unplug this laptop!  Be safe out there!

Candy Crush Saga Life Lessons

If you have a smart phone, tablet or Facebook, you’ve probably played the game Candy Crush Saga. I fell prey to it about a month ago (thanks a lot Val!) using it to relax at the end of a long work day.  It’s fun, it’s relatively easy (or it was), it’s often frustrating and it has hidden rewards when you least expect it.  That’s if you play it mindlessly.  Once you begin to understand the game, everything changes.

As I was playing the game the other day, it reminded me that life is the same way.   It’s fun at times, often frustrating and has hidden rewards when you least expect it.  Once you understand the game of life, the strategies that help you design your life the way you want it, everything changes. 

In Candy Crush, random awards show up, candies that have varied powers to help you win the game.  In the beginning, I didn’t know where they came from or if I had any power to make them appear.  Then I watched.  Four in a row = striped candy.  T-shape = wrapped candy.  Five in a row – mega candy with all sorts of power. 

Once you learn how to create them, you get a big more control over the game.  You get to play with bumping the special candies into each other to really increase your abilities to win.  Great to know these strategies especially when time is running out. 

So many lessons for our lives in the random candies falling in a game.  Here’s what I came up with:

1. Just like the candy falling, events good or pad, people happy or otherwise, fall into our lives right from the start.  We can’t control what or who shows up.  We just have to keep playing the game of life.  What we can control is how we react to them.  We can get frustrated and give up, or figure things out and keep playing.
   
2. As we start to play (grow), we learn.  Three of a kind forms a row and it drops out. If we want to win the game, we must be looking to eliminate those things that stand in the way of success, whatever that means to us.
   
3. Jelly = stuck!  For many levels of the game, the goal is to remove the jelly.  In life, we need to come up strategies to help us get unstuck too.  We just need to gather the ones that work for us.
   
4. As we go through levels (grow up), life gets tougher. The good news is we get smarter – if we practice.  If we keep noticing what works, if we learn.  Learning is the key.  It always has been.  If we stay mindless we can still play the game and occasionally win but we don’t get as far as we could and it can be a very stressful journey.
   
5. Those special rewards can be repeated over and over once we figure out how to make them happen.  Some give you great power in the game just as in life. They’re like great strategies. You come into life without knowing the best ones for dealing with stress, relationships, health and money.  You can stumble on great ones every now and then and feel lucky. Or you can learn them from books, TV shows, from someone who’s figured them out and use them in your own life so that you take charge of how to make your life easier and more successful.
   
6. You can ask for help.  After you’re played a certain amount of time, the game has been designed to stop you.  Now their goal is to have you so hooked, you’ll pay to go to the next level.  Or you can ask a friend, usually on Facebook.  I love that.  I’ve never paid.  I can wait til it lets me play again.  I choose to be patient.  In fact, I’m grateful that it stops me so I don’t spend too long playing games no matter how much fun or additive they are.  I have a business to run and while I can justify a few minutes distraction, I certainly can’t let it use up too much time
   I haven’t asked a Facebook friend for help yet but I like knowing I could.  People would help me – at first.  As long as I helped them when they needed it and didn’t constantly pester them with requests.  Same as life.  Help a friend when you can but don’t take advantage of that friendship.
   
7. Don’t forget the goal.  In the game you’re looking for 3 of a kind, for special candies but if you forget the goal of the game, you lose.  And you lose quickly.  Whether it’s to remove all the jelly the candies are stuck in or to bring all the fruit home, you’ve got to keep your eye on the finish line.
   You can play the game of life with no goal but you won’t get where you want to go.  You’ll be blown about like an airplane without an autopilot or GPS.  Your life will be an endless game of maybe, an often frustrating one.
   But if you know your goal, if you learn and use strategies along the way, if you’re patient as obstacles pop  up – and  they will both in the game and in life – you can really enjoy the process as you go along the journey.