When Tech Attacks, Take a Step Back
The Zoom credentials for my virtual barre class wouldn’t work.
My left AirPod died… then the right one.
The printer was “offline.”
My email and calendar notifications stopped working.
My laptop forced a restart… and then wouldn’t wake up from hibernation.
The internet connection was spotty.
I added a page to my website but messed up the header without knowing how to fix it.
And the day wasn’t half over yet.
UGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I felt like Michael Bolton with the printer in the movie Office Space.
Did you ever have a day like this? Where all the tech in the world was out to get you? I groaned through a morning like this recently and with each snafu, felt my mood go sour. It was as if a mirror were turned on my worst qualities: impatience, frustration, and control freak tendencies. Typically, I’m able to laugh these things off and chalk it up to bad luck or the universe owing me good karma later.
But quarantine and COVID-19 and school temperature checks and did I remember my mask and did I wash my hands and did I sanitize the steering wheel after I went to the grocery without my gloves and did I touch my face after I got the mail all got to me. I was ready to lose it.
<Deep breaths.>
I knew that it was time to take a literal page out of my son’s “choose your ending” books, where the “Superhero” has the power to choose to make good decisions or bad decisions and see how they shape his day.
I really wanted to be miserable and to whine about it all, much like the small child who reads these books. But…. every superhero knows that’s not the right choice. I knew the right thing to do was to snap out of it and gain some perspective. So I couldn’t work out that day. Big whoop. I was up early and got a ton done with my “spare” time. So the score was Tech: 1,000; Jenn: 0. No big deal. I should be grateful to have these gadgets, a full-time job, and my business. Overall, no one died or lost their liberty because my tech was on the fritz. Time to get a grip!
Back in the B.C. (Before COVID-19) world, on February 19, 2020, I wrote about changing my attitude to find gratitude in small everyday tasks. I said I vowed to change from an “I have to” to an “I get to” mindset. Then COVID-19 hit. And although I have been blessed because my family and friends are safe and well, it’s easy to get frustrated and feel out of sorts.
It’s now months (eons?) later and I realize it’s time to press reset and follow my own advice. But . . . I’m also here to say, it’s ok. We are going to have our days where silly things like Zoom and AirPods can make us fly off the handle. My addendum to the prior blog is this: practice some self-compassion while changing to a gratitude perspective.
I’d better go charge my AirPods.