Do you find technology frustrating? I know I do at times. I know what I want to do and think I have found a way to do.it. I then try putting that plan into action and it all goes wrong. this is exactly what happened to out web presence during April and May. working out what went wrong and putting it right was a nightmare. Talk about learning how to do things the hard way.
One result is that we have taken the material from two separate web sites to create the static pages for a new blog i.e. this one. Another is that the whole way that we set up online courses has been changed. We were going to use the same software as we had always done but when we wanted to move to a new hosting service we had to update to a new version of the software. This new version was so different that the quick and easy way of moving courses could not be used. If we had to move everything the hard way anyway we could take our pick from a number of other types of software that could do the same thing. We chose one that our customers are more familiar with and that can still hold all the material that we had already prepared or are in the process of preparing. There is less of a learning curve for everyone including ourselves. However because everything need to be reorganized it has not been the instantaneous process that we had hoped the change would be.
Ever seen one of those comedies where the cleaning crew comes in and everything they touch falls apart. They try and clean a window and the window frame falls out. They try and wash the paint work and the wall crumples into a heap of bricks and plaster. That is what our supposedly simple and seamless pack up and move process was like. Except at the time it felt more like a tragedy than a comedy. It it had worked out as it should have have done it would have taken a day or two as it was it took three weeks.
There is something to say for such experiences. We have the choice whether thy make us bitter or better. The challenge that arose could have led to the entire being abandoned. What did happen was that a way through the challenges was found. Some things have had to change as a result, mostly for the better. It has taken time, energy research etc, but we have come through to the other side stronger and better able to face the future.
Now what about you? it is unlikely that you will be caused mental distress from the same sort of problem. Yet most of us know what it is like to do something for the best of reasons only for the whole thing to collapse round about us and the end result to be disastrous. The thing about challenges like this is that they show us what our weaknesses are and if we are wise we will learn from the experience.
What weaknesses did I recognize in myself in this process? The most obvious was my tendency to act impetuously without doing the proper research or carrying out the appropriate checks. In other words I would do something and then when things did not go to plan realizing that I had done the wrong thing. One reason for this was that I had not done all the research that was needed so did things in the wrong way. Another cause of the problem was that were things that I did some things the right way but because I did not do the right checks at the right time I did not find out that the system I was using had not worked until it was too late to go back and redo the process. Annoying later when it was not so critical the same system worked really well.
The whole experience has given me some good compost. Err what? Compost. If you have you read our ebook Sowing and Growing Information Products you will understand. In the chapter on ways of improving the soil it talks about compost. The idea is that our mistakes are thrown onto the compost heap and then left to mature and change into a product that can be used to improve the soil. Plants that grow in ground that has had compost added to it or seedlings that are grown in just compost grow better, well they do until they have exhausted the nutrients in the compost.
Follow Us!