Why Didn't I Stay in Bed?

There's a Looney Tunes episode I remember watching as a kid where Bugs Bunny wakes up in the morning and stumbles his way to the ladder going up to the entrance of his rabbit hole. As he begins to climb, a rocket parks on the ground directly above him. In his sleepy stupor, Bugs keeps climbing up into the rocket.

You can probably guess what happens next. The rocket takes off with Bugs wondering why the climb is taking so long. He manages to unscrew the tip of the rocket and look out only to see planet Earth vanishing into the distance.

"Something tells me I should've stayed in bed." he mumbles.

I had one of those moments last week. I was up extra early on Monday to get a head start on the week. By mid-morning I somehow figured out how to PERMANENTLY DELETE my entire email distribution list I've been growing for 10 years now.

I remember thinking, "If I had just stayed in bed the entire day, it would've been a more productive use of my time!"

Everyone has a day like that from time to time. But I've tried my best to use my friend Dan Miller's breakthrough question in times like these:

"What opportunity does this setback create for us?"

The list is already growing:

• Move on from MailChimp (as soon as we can!) - seriously, its poor design makes it a risk for everyone. We would've had this issue sooner or later. It was probably better this happened now than in the future.
• Upgrade to a preferred email service
• Re-assess our email strategy (there's so much opportunity here!)
• Implement safeguards (beyond just email) that will better protect us in the future
• Create even more engaging leadership interactions

Don't get me wrong, the hours of rebuilding this email list, setting up a new service from scratch and paying extra $ to get back-to-business still sting. But I'm confident it won't be long at all that we'll look back on that Monday and say - I'm glad it happened because it led to better outcomes than we wouldn't gotten otherwise.

Btw - if you'd like to join my N|M Leadership email list, one way to subscribe is to download my 9 Ways to Be the Boss Everyone Wants to Work For resource!

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About Nathan

Nathan Magnuson the founder of?Leadership-in-a-Box?, a corporate training company with 60 minute leadership programs that are engaging, easy to facilitate, priced to scale and?"ridiculously?practical."

Nathan spent 12 years working in talent development leadership roles at Fortune 500 organizations such as Accenture, HCA Healthcare, Tenet Healthcare and MASCO before launching Leadership-in-a-Box. He's also a military veteran and author of?Stand Out!?and?Ignite Your Leadership Expertise?and over 300 articles posted on his website?NathanMagnuson.com?and in various leadership publications.

You can follow Nathan on?Facebook,?Twitter,?LinkedIn?or on?his website.