Smiling through the pain

Posted by Peter F on March 17 2007 in Personal. There are 4 comments. Add yours!

This past week has been one disaster after another. First, while in Austin, my back went out – way out. Then I got the flu, and missed the last day of SXSW (yes, it’s the “real” flu, not the “OMG I drank too much redbull and vodka” flu). Then, my plane broke down and my flight was canceled. Then my replacement flight the next day broke down, and I missed my connection. Then my business partner had a horrible dental thing happen – I’ll spare you the details, but it involves the words “wisdom tooth” and “really bad infection”. Then my flu got worse. Then today, my laptop died. Dead. As in nothing happens when you turn it on.

Through it all though, my business has been more or less functioning as normal. Yes, we’ve definitely dropped the ball a bit this week. But good work is being done. New contracts have been signed. And clients are mostly happy. Hell, I’m happy. Sure, I’m miserable. But happy too.

This is such a testament to the effectiveness of centering yourself in the moment. There have been hundreds of reasons this week why I could have just thrown up my arms in an exasperated wail of “Woe is me!”. I’ll admit that when my laptop died I felt just the slightest desire to throw it against the wall. But that’s it!

A few weeks ago on Almost Cool I posted a short thing about being in the moment. In it, I wrote “Repeat that simple exercise a couple of times per day for a week, and watch what happens.” Well hallelujah brothers and sisters! It works, and no one is more amazed than me.