Over the past weekend, I gave two workshops in Annapolis, MD. Unfortunately, when I flew from Montreal with my workshop folder I found when I got to my friend's house that my outline was not inside.
I probably could have sat down and written out a new one as this isn't the first workshop I've given but I have a lot of notes in my outline - things I want to remember to mention and anecdotes to tell. I knew it was on my computer at home and my friend, who has a copy of my key, lives a block away.
I emailed my friend and asked her to go to my place and call me when she got there, that I would walk her through sending it to me.
Keep in mind that I don't use any of the usual email clients or browsers, that I wasn't exactly sure where my document was on my computer and that this woman was never trained to use a computer by anyone but me.
I walked her through it step-by-step but, as I mentioned, none of my programs are the usual ones that people use and it got a lot more complicated than it would have been if I'd been able to do it myself. All this simply to say that, when we were done 45 minutes later, and I actually received the email with my outline in my inbox, I was about ready to pop with frustration.
I realize now that I probably should have tapped during the process because I was kind of sharp and not my most patient when dealing with my friend. I regret I didn't do that but I didn't.
Instead, when I rejoined my friends I just tapped the points (EB, SE, UE, N, CH, CB, UA, TH) as I told them my story:
"OMG, I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO frustrated! I was going crazy! It got so complicated and took so long. It should have been so simple. I know it's not her fault. She doesn't know that much about computers and when I was trying to tell her how to do things, because my programs don't work like hers, she was talking over me and suggesting things that I knew wouldn't work. I was ready to scream with frustration."
And, whoosh, aaahh, in the blink of an eye, it was gone. No more frustration and I turned my attention to spending a great evening with my friends. What a wonderful tool!
