If You Listen

Sometimes, clients will ask me what I think they “should be” working on.  Last week, during the tail end of Mercury Retrograde, I had enough snafus to prove to myself that my standard answer to that question is very good advice:  if there is something that is your/my next learning edge, it will present itself.  We don’t need to go digging into the past, OR the present, in order to clearly see what our next growth opportunity is.

I’ll tell you a story, even though it’s fairly embarrassing, of what pointed me in the direction I need to be going right now.  As many of you know, funky things happen during Mercury Retrograde.  One week ago, a comedy of errors happened in my life- or, more accurately, I created them. They weren’t really errors.  And they didn’t really happen “to” me.

I had just gotten a brand new monthly retainer client (yay!), so I went home in the afternoon to send her out some paperwork online and kick off our working together.  This was definitely a priority for me that day.  Except when I got home and turned on my computer, I couldn’t get it to connect to the internet.  I googled a few things on my phone and it appeared that my hard drive was either dying or dead (boo!).  And guess what?  I hadn’t backed up my computer.

That was breadcrumb number one.  I was extremely calm about it, though, and decided to do what I could to send out the documents to my new client despite this road block.  So I tried to access some of my data from my phone.

Well, that didn’t go so well either.  I am terminally convincing myself that I will remember my passwords to things- I know, that is so funny, isn’t it?  So naturally, I don’t have some of my passwords written down.  Which is usually not a problem, when my desktop computer is working…except it wasn’t.  Breadcrumb number two.

So I decided to call GoDaddy customer service.  They are always so helpful!  And they were; the only new problem was that it took so long that suddenly I looked at the clock and realized I was about to be late for my next client….I grabbed my coat and bags and ran out the door.  I was about to jump in my car, when I noticed it didn’t make that nice beeping noise it usually does when I walk up to it and it automatically unlocks for me, BECA– USE THE KEYS ARE IN MY POCKET.  Yup, you guessed it.  The car didn’t open because I had left the keys in the house, in my rush to arrive on time for my client.  Hmmmm, breadcrumb number three.

I called my client who literally picked me up and brought me to my own office so she could have her session.  (Good thing I had left my office door open, or we would have been locked out of there, too!)  After I was done at the office, I calmly called a locksmith service, who calmly picked me up and then calmly brought me to my house, where they calmly opened the door for me and then slapped me a bill for $150.  Never did hide that spare key outside….Breadcrumb number four!

Wonder where all these breadcrumbs are leading?  Probably not.  They all led me to the fact that I am a hot mess.  I need to seriously get my shit together!

Yes, I am the person who wrote last week about how I am so organized.  And it’s true, I am, in some respects.  In terms of doing things I don’t enjoy doing, like writing down passwords and mastering technological stuff- not so much.  Boy, do I have neat closets though!  😉

There you have it.  We don’t need to search to find out areas we need to work on.  They’re right in front of our faces.  Funny thing about that, too, if we miss the breadcrumbs for a long time, they get more and more like loaves of bread.  I’d say that was enough for me to notice!

Here’s the good news- a) I barely even got flustered or upset about any of this the entire time, it was more like curiously watching myself in amazement, and b) this week, I have been ridiculously good at organization, and going back and taking care of so many of the things I had neglected for so long.  I am happier and have freed up so much energy by doing this.

Hopefully, you can learn from my mistakes and listen earlier in the process so you can avoid having embarrassing stories like that.  But you probably won’t.  People learn from experiences, not from words.  And it’s okay.  I never expected either one of us to be perfect.

 

 

 

 

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