I need a strategy!!!

I'm having one of those days...you know the kind I mean. When the littlest things seem to go awry and create aggravation. I know a lot of people on this list think I never get frustrated, never get bored, never have problems. After all, I'm the Strategies for Success author, the newsletter writer, the life coach to many.

I have problems just like everyone else - my laptop just starts capitalizing and highlighting without notice, my new toilet has decided it doesn't always want to flush, and the program I'm using to design someone's web site is having temper tantrums. The news is terrible today as it often is with financial failures, a bombing of an embassy and ridiculous political advertising when what we need are clear cut plans, true vision, answers to the problems that plague us, and optimism.

And for the life of me, I can't figure out an iPod!!! I can fly an airplane...I am truly a license private pilot and computer techie...but I cannot load an iPod!!!

Ok...enough ranting and complaining. Here's what I've learned that might help you too.

1. Vent if you must but keep the venting to a bare minimum. This newsletter is my one and only vent so I'm done venting since I'm now in solution mode.
2. Have a list of things handy that you know cheer you up. One of my simple favorites is to view the contented baby I found on YouTube...scroll to the bottom of the page if you haven't seen him yet.
3. Step away from what bothers you if you're able to. I'm stepping away from technology - the iPod from hell, its cousin the laptop with issues and the TV with all its gloom and doom. I'm going to go outside and find a place that makes me happy...a walk to a coffee shop perhaps, under the trees in a local park or one of my favorites, the bay.
4. Get together, call or email people that make you laugh or at least make you feel better.

I used to have my students fill out 3 index cards to keep for days like this. One lists the 10 things that instantly change how you feel, one lists 10 things that make you laugh out loud and one lists 10 things you're grateful for. Keep them handy for days when you most need them...and there seem to be plenty of days that call for strategies.

One final tip...spend at least as much time focusing on what's good in your life, good in the world and what great things are possible in the future as you do on what's going wrong.

Oh yeah...and if you know how to load an Ipod, would you fill me in...please!!