Funny Story
I’d never done a live unboxing before, but just as I was going to go live for a chat in a Facebook group, I received a package from Amazon. It was the goose-neck clip for my iPhone that I’d ordered a few days prior, in order to do hands-free live videos.
Before I ordered said clip, I scoured through the product reviews. I didn’t want to spend a lot of money on this thing, but I wanted something decent. Most of the negative reviews I saw had to to with the goose-neck itself not being sturdy enough. So I kept my eyes out, and found one for $11 USD with a sturdy neck that fit an iPhone 7 plus. I thought I was good to go.
Fast Forward to the Live Video.
I was chatting with the people who joined the Live while I took the clip out of the box. I put the pieces of the clip together… and discovered that it didn’t fit around my phone. Because of my phone case, the clip was too narrow by just 3mm. 3MM!
I tried everything, and it just would not expand to fit my phone. (I tend to be a bit clumsy with my phone, so there was NO WAY I would take it out of the case in order to use the clip.)
At this point in the live video, I REALLY wanted to throw a sh*t-fit. Or just throw the non-fitting clip across the room. I was LIVID. I was SO CLOSE to the thing I ordered being exactly what I needed… but it just wouldn’t work.
Lucky for me, I watched the movie MEET THE ROBINSONS on TV two days before the live unboxing. It is an animated Disney movie about a boy inventor who is also an orphan who gets taken into the future by another boy who needs some help. In this future the inventor learns the motto “Keep Moving Forward” from a rather eccentric family.
They celebrate “failure” because failure is actually an opportunity to learn and grow. And every time you fail, you move one step closer to success.
Keep Moving Forward
That motto was just what I needed to have in my head. Rather than losing my cool and having a temper-tantrum, I took a deep breath and accepted that the clip wasn’t going to work. I did think about trying to rig something up to make the clip “work” but I let that go about 3 seconds after it occurred to me.
I knew if I did that, the goose-neck clip would just sit in my house gathering dust and make me mad every time I looked at it. So, I logged into Amazon, printed a return slip, packaged up the clip and put it in the mailbox. The whole drama was done and over with in under 60 minutes. I watched as the postal carrier took the package from my mailbox and out of my life.
It felt really good to have that behind me.
The Moral of the Story
After all that, I had to reflect and I realized two things:
- The lessons are everywhere. I took the lesson I learned from a Disney movie and applied it to my frustrating situation.
- Don’t let the small things trip you up. Deal with them head on, and then let them go!
I hope this helps you the next time you are faced with a frustrating situation. Feel it, face it, deal with it, and move on!
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