How One Minute Can Change Your Life

Though I have been earning a living via the Internet for the past 14 years, I am by no means a computer geek. Competent to a degree? I can go along with that but a career with Microsoft is not in my future.

When the network went down last night, needless to say, I was not very happy. Leaving aside the fact that it was Sunday. . . and Sunday night football. . . . when you do earn a living on the Internet and the system goes down, it needs to be addressed ASAP.

5 hours of work led to zero progress. Awaking early this morning, another 2 hours and more frustration, but no answers. My wife, seeing how I was not so slowly unraveling asked if she could help. Let me pause here a moment. By her own account, she despises computers and has taken little time to learn much about them. We divide “jobs” in our business and anything computer related is my responsibility.

OK, now back to the show. I decided to hop in the shower. Given the fact I was putting in so much effort and getting no where, it seemed as good a strategy as anything else I tried. Little did I know.

Somewhere in between toweling off and wondering how far I could throw the computer out the window, Lisa came in and informed me that everything is now working.

Leaving aside feeling stunned and elated, my first question was a loud “HOW?!” Mind you, this was as much as accusation as it was a question. 95% of the “how,” was “How you do this?”did while the balance was “how” as in “How dare you?!” The joys of being human.

Her response was as simple as the solution. “I unplugged everything, then re-plugged.” And there you have it. Simple. Effective. Obvious (to everyone else by me of course).

After the wave, actually tsuname of release subsided, I released how this situation was so reflective of my life. I spend an enormous amount of time, creativity, experience and work resolving about 99% of the problem. What I did not do was exercise one more minute of patience to reboot the system.

One minute. The difference between almost and completed. The difference between frustration and success. The difference between what I have been experiencing in many areas of my life and what I could be experiencing in many areas of my life.

Today is the day I make a new choice, a new commitment — complete the task, all the time practicing patience.

How long does it take to drastically improve your life? One minute.