Here I am in Bangkok, and a new challenge surfaced with an agreement back in the States. I had to read the email repeatedly, which is pushing the timeline has once again, this time for up to 8 months. My immediate response was emotional, in that, in a flash, everything had just gone down the toilet.

Because of the time difference, the email came as I was closing out a long day in Bangkok, rather than the beginning of San Francisco’s day. Therefore, I went to bed with only the emotional response running through my head.

Waking after the best sleep in days, I read the email once more and then launched into Solution Thinking mode, where my immediate goal was to reduce the impact this change has on finance and logistics. I started by writing down three questions that I wanted to answer, which would guide the process.

What were those questions? Here they are, in the same order that they came out of my brain –

1.   How do I change the world?
2.  What’s the easiest way to replace the lost Projected Finances?
3.  If all else fails, what next?

It was clearly my rational mind speaking, and moving this problem from emotional to rational. After looking at what I wrote down, it was easy to recognize I wrote down the three questions that started the whole process of jumping away from the 9-to-5 routine. They are the questions that started the whole business plan. Because they are questions I ask and answer often, I was able to remove the negative thoughts and immediately shift into asking, “so what?”, “what’s the emergency?” and “what opportunities does this open up?”

In short. What initially seemed like a critical setback in a moment of panic and emotion, was quickly moved into a position of opportunity. This change is one of a hundred changes that will happen in the next quarter, and this does not carry enough weight to change my direction, and it very simply opened the door to go after opportunities that are sitting idle. The world is open.

Are you an emotional or rational decision maker?