I don’t believe in Murphy’s Law. Nevertheless, I also know that I am not God and there will be times when life will zig when I was expecting a zag.

Like when your Mac hard drive crashes and you’re hoping to finish your next blog post, work on your website and do a little search engine optimization while you’re at it.

Yes, we had a couple of power outages last week, which is rare for us, and the second time I went down in the middle of running an application. The next couple of days I thought I heard a new ‘click’ from the hard drive and by the weekday it wouldn’t boot up.

At first I couldn’t believe it.

Then I was pissed.

If you’ve ever been here, you know how quickly your emotional response can take over. Anger can push out rational thought. Despair can sap any strength for action. Fear can freeze.

So how can we deal with difficulties that drop out of the sky?

1.    Go ahead and feel what you feel…but not too long.

We all have emotional reactions to surprises that cause us difficulty. It’s okay to have those feelings but don’t let them control you for too long. Cry, curse, complain…grant your emotions their outlet only enough to get past it.

I was mad for about five hours, a little longer than I would’ve liked. This was partly due to cognitive distortions (see next point). Today I’m good and back on track.

2.    Avoid cognitive distortions.

Often our minds run off and create issues that are much larger than the actual problem at hand. These cognitive distortions build alternate realities that cause even more stress. Here are a couple that wanted to take me down but I worked to avoid:

- Magnification: Magnifying imperfections to conclusions that support a belief of inferiority. The critical voice in my head wanted me to take the hard drive crash and magnify it into the failure of my career.

- Catastrophizing: Exaggerating one event of concern to the level of creating a fearful state. There was also the temptation to imagine that the problem equates a complete loss of information and the need to purchase a new computer.

Other distortions include all-or-nothing thinking, negative prediction and overgeneralization, to name a few. In the above examples it took awareness of my thought patterns, knowing they were distortions and focusing on the reality of the situation to quickly return to rational thought before any more damage was done.

3.    Take a break if you can.

Sometimes it helps to get our minds off the situation, to change tracks for a while and come back with a fresh perspective. Sure, sometimes there are time sensitivities that force us into action immediately. However, most times we can take an afternoon or day to come back to an emotionally stable and logically clear place.

I knew that I wouldn’t be able to start resolving the issue until this afternoon so I had a break forced on me, which worked anyway. This morning church focused me on completely different matters, which did enable me to return to my I.T. issue reenergized.

4.    Get help if needed.

Friends, family and other professionals can provide support and advice when in need. Whether it’s technical support or simply a listening ear, getting help can be a major relief.

A few friends listened as I told them me woes and an Apple tech give me the information I needed.

5.    Come up with an action strategy.

Once you’re on an even emotional keel and are ready, put together your plan of action. It’s often beneficial to know other options if your first attempt doesn’t pan out as you hope.

I figured that I could take my iMac to an Apple Store and they’d look at it. I also guessed I could find a number on the Mac website to call first. For me, that was enough as I was fairly sure either of those options would be my path to a solution. If not, I’d figure that out when I got there. Tuesday morning I’ll be transporting my beautiful baby to the Mac store for diagnosis.

6.    Keep on doing what you can.

There are times when we let our problems stop us from doing activities that don’t have anything to do with our area of difficulty. Make sure you keep on working in areas not affected by the issue and take pride in your ability to get things done.

Without my Mac I could still read. I skimmed through one book on blogging, read some fiction and checked to see what I could do with my laptop (which doesn’t have all my files or my password retrieval program). At least I could write this and post it through the laptop. And I have more books to study, business factors to work on and people to call.

7.    Treat yourself right.

Don’t get caught up in negativity and punish yourself. Make sure you keep positive messages and influences around yourself. There are times a special treat is called for to reward yourself for how well you handled the situation! (When isn’t a special treat called for?)

As I write this, I am sitting besides a wonderful fire, sipping a glass of red wine. Tuesday, after dropping off my iMac, I think a 30-minute massage (around the corner from the Apple store) might be in order.

No matter how good we are or how hard we try, life will keep surprising us with problems and difficulties. Nevertheless, we don’t have to let them stop us. By working through the above steps you can resolve each issue. Sometimes you might even find a solution that improves your situation!

Take Aim at Positive Change!