When You'd Do Anything to Get Back on a Plateau

We've been discussing plateaus this month, and we've focused on continuing upward. But something happened on Monday that made me long for the comfort of my own plateau.



My laptop crashed. I'm talking completely shut-down. Luckily, I was able to restore it back to the manufacturer's settings, but in the process I lost every program, every blog I've bookmarked in my Favorites bar, and yes, every plotting note of my new book plus the first three chapters.

Normally, I'm obsessive about backing up my daily work to a memory stick, but I neglected the task for two weeks.

I would love to be back on the plateau I reached last Friday.

Sometimes things go wrong. Who knows why. Yes, I could pay a service to attempt to retrieve my files from the hard drive, but the costly and time-consuming job is not worth it to me. I can reproduce the work in less time.

It's natural to be upset when a strong gust of wind blows you from your plateau. I spent a full day restoring my laptop, and I was not in a good mood while I did it. But Tuesday dawned, and it no longer felt as important. In fact, the process of having a clean laptop has forced me to re-evaluate how I was approaching a few tasks.

I found Microsoft One Note and plan on trying it out for my plotting notes. The blogs linked in my Favorites bar? Well, it's high time I organize them in Google Reader. One of my goals is to spend more time reading blogs, and this will streamline it. And I finally signed up for an online data back-up service. I don't have to worry about losing important work again.

So when your progress gets thrown off a cliff, go ahead and fume for a little while, but then study the path back up. You might find a better foothold the next time.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

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