Losing it!

Losing it!

© Allen Merritt (2016)

I lost it.

No doubt about it.

I simply lost it!

I wasn’t even trying to lose it, but I did.

That’s what happened.

I lost it.

I felt all of the old cliches come flooding into my life all at the same time. Needless-to-say, some are the very same comments my mother used to use on me as a child.

• You can’t even keep your head on straight.
• If it were a snake, it would have bitten you.
•  It’s probably right under your nose or on top of your head.
• If your head weren’t attached, you’d lose that, too!

Okay, here’s what happened. After a full day of working hard to catch up on one of my projects I had fallen behind on, I hit another wall because I couldn’t find a disk (or the information stored on the disk).

More specifically, an SD card, which held hours of video footage and represented hundreds of miles travel. Ouch!

My heart sank a bit and my body deflated as I searched everywhere, racking my brain, backtracking, reviewing all the material I had at my fingertips and tearing through a number of bags I had been using over the last few weeks. I literally, poured out a lot of junk from several bags and they were strewn all over the place. Get the picture? Ever been in this situation? You’re trying hard to make things go smoothly and then you find a monkey wrench, a hitch in your get along, a wall, a hurdle, an obstacle/challenge or whatever else you want to call it. No matter how you look at it you are face to face with a negative when you want to be chatting it up with a positive.

The result of losing it meant the possibility of having to re-shoot necessary material needed for the current project. I knew if worse came to worse I could do that and manage for the here and now, but what about other valuable irreplaceable material I captured somewhere out there in the world hundreds of miles away? I would never get that back. It felt like losing all your sentimental items in a house fire. You can’t get it back and you can’t take it with you. Yikes.

This put me into a temporary land of the lost moment, not quite “in a funk”, but wondering what to do to turn my situation around. Of course, I have to share the story, because it is a lesson in living life on a positive note.

Ultimately, as I am sure many others have experienced, I was not sure how to recover from this one. I was aware of my demeanor. I maintained a state of calm. I didn’t fly off the hand or throw a hissy fit. I simply considered my options.

Stop. Rest. Breathe. Contemplate. Pray. Prepare. Embrace the opportunity and hope the new material will be better than the old. I thought about how this was an opportunity to adapt and adjust, to let go in order to shine a light on the circumstances and on the positive possibilities.

Interestingly, as I wrote this blog I was reading a passage in a book I was in the middle of, which seemed to speak to me and appropriate to share. It read, “When we see things in a limited way, we leave ourselves vulnerable to nothing but hassle, pain and confusion.”¹

With this in mind, although I hadn’t found the lost item, I’m resolved not to get upset or beat myself up over it. Like I said, maybe some of the material will come out better in the long run. Stranger things have happened.

In any case, this is the situation I dare say many experience. And, it isn’t the same thing as saying, “The dog ate my homework.” Let’s face, sometimes we just lose it!

Our car keys

Our identification card

Twenty bucks

There is another interesting dichotomy to consider here in terms of “losing it.” This is the idea of losing it in the literal sense such as losing our temper or our mind. Generally, I can’t point to anything good that can come from that sort of losing it. Someone always gets hurt and winds up with the short end of a stick. That’s why I feel it’s s important to take our situations, put them in proper perspective and maintain a sense of balance/peace despite it all.

Sure! On some level I am saddened and wish I wasn’t in this predicament, but I do have a choice to keep my chin up and pull up my boot straps. Create and recreate. I have that power available to me, we all do. Adapt and adjust as needed. I guess I just talked myself into not wasting another minute worrying about it. Now, isn’t that a positive take on life? If my SD card shows up, great. If not, moving on. Life goes on. Just got to do it! Where there is a will there is away, right? 

I know! 

More clichés.

But consider this; any other attitude would lead to quitting or dropping out just as you are getting to the finish line. So why not go for it? Try not to lose it but if you do, remember you have power to keep recovering and keep on going.

By the way, the happy ending is I found it. I never really lost it. I just couldn’t find it right away. It was there all along. Mystery solved, but what a journey. Moments of doubt, hesitation and uncertainty.

If you find yourself losing it this week, take a step back and wait a while, then come back to it later and you might find it, whatever “it” might be. If not, adapt and adjust.

More power to ya!

Cheers!