Technologically BOTCHED or is it BOTCHED by Technology?

Last night I had a Facebook Live Talk Show on Pandemic Fatigue scheduled for 19h30. By 19h15 I had done my meditation, was calm and in the right frame of mind to talk comfortably around my topic. I was ready to press Go Live at 19h29, but then nothing happened! Suddenly I was asked all sorts of questions which I was not ready for at all! I was so certain that the laptop version was exactly the same as the mobile version, but of course to my dismay, it wasn’t! I saw the camera come on and I thought, ok, well, everything must be different on the laptop version so lets get cracking!

I talked and talked and there were no uncomfortable “mmm’s or ah’s”, everything just flowed. I kept to my 30 minutes and after I had “signed off” I walked into the bedroom and asked my husband what he thought and he said that I had not been live! He heard me talking but assumed that maybe there was something wrong with his feed! He did send me a message to my phone to tell me, but of course that was off, and since I did tell him not to disturb me, he thought that he would just let me be since I would probably accuse him of trying to distract me, as he had joked about it earlier in the day!

My heart instantly sank and my body went cold. What on earth just happened? That was one of my best videos that I have ever done, but yet no one was able to see it! I started screaming at him, begging him to please help me, as I could not face disappointing those who wanted to join in on the conversation. We realized that the laptop version was indeed different to the mobile version when we tested it and against the advice of my husband, in a blind panic I started streaming 40minutes after the scheduled time from my mobile.

He wanted me to take a minute and just breath, but I insisted that the show must go on. I was all over the place. I “umm’d and ah’d” and needless to say it was not even close to the standard which I had produced just 30minutes earlier. I came across as flustered and not of the standard which I wanted!

Just earlier that afternoon I was in a meeting with fellow coaches and we discussed the importance of the “pause” before we respond, but in that moment my judge, controller and stickler won the battle and overpowered the thoughts that I should have had. Take a moment to breath, do a PQ rep and find your positive emotions, then go live.

In hindsight hubby was right. I should have “put a statement out”, find my positive emotions and reschedule, but nope my inner critic overpowered all my other senses, including good old “common sense”.

How often do things not go according to plan, but yet we insist on trying to fix it right then and there instead of stepping back until “sanity” and calm returns?

This was a very hard lesson for me to learn especially when it comes to using technology and how we should not take things at face value. Plus we all know that assumptions is the mother of all “disasters”. My positive emotions are telling me that every outcome and circumstance can be turned into a gift and opportunity to do better next time. I didn’t have a good nights’ sleep no matter how hard I tried. My husband pleaded that what ever I did next that it should not be a “knee-jerk reaction” and he is right.

Today I “played around” with Facebook Live and have figured it all out! I am ready to try this again.

There is a judge in all of us, whether we are judging ourselves, others or our circumstances. We should not give it power. Last night I gave my power away to all 3, but today I “see” the gift. I have gained knowledge, taken my power back, and hopefully I have inspired you by my story.

(Photo Credit to Mikhail Nilov from Pexels)

Are you able to see the gifts in your mistakes and shortcomings?

I know that I am being heavily criticized, but I have broad shoulders. Life is hard enough without me stressing about that too!

Until next time,

Light, love, value and GROWTH

Ophelia