How To Overcome Speed Bumps

Speed bumps.

Distractions.

Disasters.

Screw-ups.

Mistakes.

Acts-of-God.

Whatever you may call them, we’ve all experienced things that cause us “lag.”

They take even the most streamlined and aerodynamic plans and find a way to slow them down, but it’s our job as operators to face them and overcome the resistance that they’re pushing onto us.

I recently moved into a new apartment which was perfect timing as I have a new job and am starting several new projects.

New. New. New. “The only thing that stays the same is that everything changes.” — Time Marches On by Tracy Lawrence — Great song.

Change opens the door for entropy.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that entropy increases as time goes on.

What is entropy? Simply put, chaos and disorder.

Entropy increases except in idealized cases.

For the sake of this point let’s say that if we keep a watchful eye and tackle problems proactively that our day-to-day life & business operations can be “idealized cases.”

(Sorry I’m taking the long way around to make my point but it needs pretext.)

I moved into my new apartment nearly a week early, so that I didn’t have to go to my hometown for a whole week and miss work or any great opportunities that the college town I live in had to offer (I’ve been known to have a stroke of genius from time to time).

Well I moved in and realized that my apartment’s internet hadn’t been set up yet.

Entropy. Bummer.

Now, I accept full responsibility because I know had I stayed on my landlords about it and made sure that my apartment had internet that this problem would not have came about.

But sometimes I’m eager like most people are from time to time, and I jumped wholeheartedly into the water without checking to see if it was too cold to swim in.

I should have internet at home tomorrow, but until then I’m in the coffee shop 5 minutes away for the 5th day in a row.

Another great example of entropy is how students (myself included) love to wait till the last minute to turn something in, and they log on to their computers only for it to install updates for 2.5 hours.

Or your WiFi is out.

Or the website just won’t load.

Or the upload link’s broken.

These are all speed bumps that we could easily avoid and/or handle, but maybe we turned the corner too fast and it sent us flying.

Or maybe we just weren’t paying attention and now we think it’s destroyed our proverbial car.

Entropy. Make sure you keep a watchful eye and attack problems proactively, or they might just sideline you.

But don’t develop “analysis paralysis.” You still have to take action, which you can read about here.

Long-winded rambling tirade over,

-Ryan F.