Sometimes things happen beyond our control.
Although what is happening may be beyond our control, how we respond is. Always.
This blog is inspired by some of the posts and comments from entrepreneurs related to the Rogers outage.
In the days following the outage, I have read and listened to various responses to the event from business owners and entrepreneurs. The reactions have been interesting to me.
Do you know the concept of cause is greater than effect?
You are in effect when you blame, complain, justify, or feel sorry for yourself. When you are in effect, you look for reasons, attract drama, and are likely to repeat the same things over and over again. Think of someone saying, “why does this always happen to me?”
On the opposite side of effect is cause. When you are in cause, you are in creation, working towards results, and seeking peace by managing your response to the events around you.
It was interesting to see the response to the outage looking through the lens of cause and effect.
We can all be upset that the outage happened. We can be concerned that it took as long as it did for services to be restored. We can be worried that 911 was affected. We can even be upset with the business lost because of the event.
We can be upset.
However, how did you react? Were you in effect (blaming and complaining), or were you in cause (finding solutions and making the best of a bad situation)
I saw one article in which the business owner commented that he could do nothing but sit in his office and stare at the walls. I don’t know about anyone else, but I can always do something. Plan my week, write a blog or document a process, brainstorm, plan, and more. There is always something to do.
Another entrepreneur indicated that they decided to take the day off, including unplugging from social media. They thanked Rogers for the day of peace.
Depending on your business, it could have been a hard day.
But how we reacted to it was up to us.
The event is over.
Technology is always at risk of going down. This time it was Rogers, next time, it might be Bell. Or maybe a power outage. Whatever the reason for the disruption in our business, the question is, are you in effect or are you in cause right now?
Are you spending time blaming, complaining, and feeling sorry for yourself?
Or are you learning from this experience and determining your level of risk? Can your business afford to be down? For how long? Do you need a secondary provider? Do you need power backup? Do you have any way to recover lost revenue?
Are you asking yourself what you could be doing or not doing differently than you are doing right now?
Those that aren’t asking the question are in effect. Those that are asking are in cause.
Even if your answer is to change nothing, the important thing is to ask yourself the question.
If you identify something that needs to change, determine the priority of that change. Then plan accordingly.
Checking in with yourself regularly to see if you are in cause or effect is a good practice. When you realize that you are in effect, take steps to move from effect to cause.
We all slip into effect. The key is to check in with yourself and when you notice you are in effect, do what is necessary to move into cause.
The magic happens when we are in cause.
Are you in cause or effect right now?
Concern yourself more with accepting responsibility than with assigning blame. Let the possiblities inspire you more than the obstacles discourage you. RaLph Marston
Concern yourself more with accepting responsibility than with assigning blame. Let the possiblities inspire you more than the obstacles discourage you.
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