On the road again

I’m headed out on the road again. This time I’ll be in Atlanta for the ASMP SB2 event next weekend (2/21-24), doing one-on-one Test Drive meetings on 2/25, then visiting with some friends and family in that fair city until I head to Philadelphia and the third SB2 event there in early March (and on-site Test Drives there too–sign up now!).

Yes, I’ll be out of the office for some time and, because I travel by train, my connection with the world will be somewhat limited. There are places where even the iPhone won’t work. But that’s okay. I’m not going to ruin my business by being out of touch a bit here and there.

The Dalai Lama said that whenever you have a problem either you can solve it or your can’t; and either way, worrying about it isn’t logical because either you can solve it or you can’t. I take the same attitude about being out of touch. If I can’t help someone because I’m out of touch, then I can’t help them and worrying about it isn’t going to make it any better. Besides, it is extremely rare when there is any issue or problem that really needs to be solved right this very second.

We put a lot of power and importance on some of our issues when, in the big scheme, they really just aren’t that important. For example, getting any one client or project. We often put all of our mental eggs in one basket when we have the chance to get a project, turning just another project into the most important thing in the world. Like if we don’t get this one project, our business will fail. In almost all cases, that is just not the truth. Sure, it sucks not to get a project, but you’re not going to end up on the street if you don’t get one project (and if you are, then you have deeper biz issues than getting clients).

Some psychologists call that “globalizing”–thinking that one thing equals all things, in this case one failure makes you a total failure–and it is not the most healthy way to think. If you don’t get this one project, what are the REAL chances the phone will never ring again? Really, really teeny. Infinitesimal, I would wager.

And that’s the way I think about my being out of touch a bit when I travel. If someone can’t wait to work with me, then I can live with that. I hate not getting a client as much as the next person, but I can’t be on 24/7 anyway and so I’m going to lose one here and there. That’s okay.

Anyway, enough of the psycho-babble. 🙂

I will be in touch as much as I can, including Jotting some of my blog postings from the train. Please forgive any typos or odd bits of language in those posts–Jott is great, but it’s not perfect.

And, as Stuart Smalley says, that’s okay. 🙂