Blow up your Computer for Personal Growth

I’m a firm believer in the fact that the universe always brings us what we ask for, so I found myself in the unusual position of wondering just what it was that I asked for when the hard drive on my laptop crashed and burned!

I work almost exclusively on the Internet, and my laptop is my only computer, so when my hard drive first stuttered, then ultimately fell apart completely, I found myself in the rare position of needing to tell myself:

DON’T PANIC!

Just because my sole means of income had suddenly turned into a 15lb pile of useless metal was no reason to lose my head, right? Well, as it turns out, it certainly wasn’t, and to be honest, I never doubted that everything would turn out okay.

I stayed focused on the positive, I did NOT think about the negative, and I just dealt with each stage of my computer’s demise in a calm and controlled manner. Although I am still picking up all of the pieces, it is very clear that everything is going to be just fine.

In fact, although I lost about 2 days worth of data (I have back ups before then), and I also burned through at least 3 days while trying to fix the problems, I learned a lot along the way, and things are actually going to be better than ever when all is said and done. (Que the 6 Million Dollar Man intro…”We have the technology – We can rebuild him!”)

It’s Nice to be Nice

The first personal growth lesson that I learned from this experience is that “it’s nice to be nice”. What I mean by that is that whenever you lead a life of being nice to other people, other people tend to also be nice to you.

My hard drive actually breathed its last breath on a Sunday night while I had my laptop at someone else’s house, and I was suddenly faced with beginning a work week without any way to get to work!

As with all technical problems, a solution is just a matter of getting a hold of the proper tools and expertise, which of course I immediately set out to do. Unfortunately, one of the tools needed to fix this problem (in addition to buying a new hard drive) was a disk that my computer manufacturer had to send me…through the postal service!

ACK – talk about the Dark Ages! Who has time to wait for the mailman whenever absolutely no work can be done for 5 days until the package is delivered? Well, the person that I was with works a regular day shift job away from home and she made the magnanimous offer of allowing me to stay at her house and use her computer until I get mine repaired.

It’s good to have friends, and quality people like that only come about in our lives by us being quality people ourselves. Refer to the tagline at the top of this page:

Success is Something you Attract by the Person you Become

‘Nuff said.

Don’t be afraid to make a fresh start

I don’t spend a lot of time thinking that my life is ordained by the stars but I do believe in some basics surrounding the Zodiac philosophies, and my Zodiac sign is Capricorn (and proud of it, baby!).

Well, Capricorns tend to be…uh…how shall I put this? They like to be in control. I’ll just leave it at that.

My computing environment is certainly set up in a very logical and reasonable manner, and everything is nice and controlled – just the way I like it. Unfortunately, when a hard drive crashes, everything goes away. All files, all settings, all programs, all customizations – it’s all gone.

Initially, the Capricorn in me wanted to weep great tears at the loss of the painstakingly put together computer world that I had set up on my laptop. However, as I started to rebuild that environment, I had a most glorious revelation:

I have the opportunity to start all over again!

After having spent the last 18 months building my online business ventures, to say that somethings were pieced together precariously would certainly be an accurate statement – I’m not afraid to admit that.

So, although I would not recommend that people run around sabotaging their computers intentionally, I would recommend that if the opportunity presents itself to start fresh – do it! Between “pseudo-working” via web-based interfaces since my computer is not yet fixed, and also rebuilding the computing environment on my laptop, things will actually be cleaner, smoother, faster, and more efficient than they ever were before.

Are there any areas in your life where cleaner, smoother, faster, or more efficient would be beneficial? If so, don’t wait for your computer to crash to make those positive changes. Make a fresh start – you might be surprised how great it feels!

If you don’t miss it, you probably never needed it

I have lots of files. Lots and LOTS of files! And, thanks to the regular practice of backing up my files onto my iPod, I still have most of them, even after my hard drive crashed.

What’s weird, however, is that I don’t miss most of them! I miss my list of bookmarks on the Internet, and I miss some archived login information for some of the sites that I frequent. Overall, however, I have found to my surprise that I can do almost 100% of my work on the ‘net without even having access to the over 80 GB’s of files that were stored on my laptop.

Will I embrace having access to some of those files when I finally get to the point of restoring them to my new hard drive? Sure I will. Some of them are necessary, some have sentimental value, and some are just part of the day to day routine of working on the ‘net.

However, this experience has taught me that, as I indicated in the personal growth lessons learned while moving post, the majority of my files are just not that important. If they went away completely, it really wouldn’t have that big of an impact on my life.

This same concept can be applied to physical possessions, electronic documents, or even (especially?) the mental files that you keep up there in your head. How many pieces of the past have you been lugging around – possibly for years – that you simply don’t need?

Cut that baggage loose. Be free. Move forward with your life and only take what you can easily carry with you. If something is weighing you down – literally or figuratively – give it a shove and get rid of it. You probably either never needed it, or you have outgrown your need for it, so free yourself of it.

The overall message here? Unexpected things sometimes happen, and sometimes they are unpleasant. However, you can choose to have a negative emotional reaction, or you can choose to learn and grow from the experience, and to look at how much brighter your future can be as a result of what you have gone through.

Personally, I choose to grow.