The Phone Always Rings...

To say it's been an up and down 12 months would be a huge understatement.  My business had been directly affected by the GFC and flow on effects.  It seems people development was not high on the priority list for many of my prospective and existing clients.  During this time it's been very stressful not knowing where the next job was coming from and wondering how I was going to cover my overheads like rent.  The irony for me is that as That Happy Guy, I haven't been very happy.  Hindsight is a beautiful thing and I can see the errors I've made, in fact often I can see them as I'm making them.  Things like hopeless thinking, and then not actually doing anything because I think its a foregone (hopeless) conclusion.  Not great and I'm not proud of it but there it is.

Well anyway, I had a piece of good news yesterday which has allowed me to reflect and think a little more positively.  I had initially secured a range of workshops to be delivered for Dept of Communities in Feb and April and beyond.  A nice little earner and a good program to deliver.  With the recent floods the Departments priorities and focus shifted (and rightly so) to their role supporting the community through disaster management and recovery.  This meant my workshops were cancelled.  I'm not the only one to suffer so this is not sour grapes, just an unfortunate and unpredictable incident.  This means that I've not worked solidly or consistently since November.  It's hard to maintain a healthy mindset when you feel like what you've got is not wanted or needed.  Things were spiralling out of control.

Yesterday I secured a small piece of work for Feb that will help to keep the wolves at bay.  Great outcome and it reminded me of something that I thought I'd learned several years ago.  Focus on the things you can control and the phone will always ring (eventually).  It did ring and again I was reminded of this truism.  However I think I was lucky.  Usually luck is related to the effort you put in, I was fortunately rewarded despite not putting any effort in.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I had laid the foundations for this project in November.  I just hadn't really done much else.

If I had remembered to be more of an optimist (good things will come) I might have weathered the storm a little more stoically.  Oh well, lesson learned.  Next time I'll get a chance to be better... that's me being an optimalist, not a perfectionist (I should've got it right the first time).

I suspect a great many people will be suffering both directly and indirectly form the flood.  The second group are vulnerable as there is less focus and support provided to this group.  If you or anyone you know finds themselves in a position where their happiness is being affected by these events I'd like to remind them that even dark clouds have silver linings, and the true measure of a person is not whether they get knocked down or not, but what they do when they do get knocked down.

Till next time,

Be Happy.
:-)