Anticipation. Sometimes it generates excitement. Other times it enhances frustration. Is there a way to emphasize the “good” part of waiting and diminish the less desirable aspects?
Building Excitement
The motivation behind my column this month is simple—very soon, we’re going to have a brand new website. Woo hoo! Yippee! I can hardly wait!
On the positive side: after a few false-starts, we found a company that could provide the development support we needed without breaking the bank. Oh sure, there are some incredibly enhanced websites out there, which bring a price tag to match. We don’t need 24-karat gold and diamonds—we need functional, modern, and user-friendly. Having it be a colorful and attractive site would be another plus.
On the negative side: I guess I like to forget how long it can take to communicate goals, hash out plans, revise expectations, review drafts, and continually balance what can be conceived with what can be produced effectively. Communicating ideas and expectations can be complicated, and miscommunication often creates additional rounds just to clarify comments, too.
Avoiding Frustration
I genuinely do not know the best way to avoid frustration. I think it is inevitable. So if anyone has any great tricks for seeing the promise over the pitfalls, please shout them out. I try to see the glass as half full, but some days that fill-line is lower than others! Those are the days when I don’t even look at the glass but just put my head down and keep working.
From big aspirations to trivial pursuits, we all struggle to balance the good part of the experience over the bad. I think it does get easier as we get older—we have WAY more things that have gone wrong to use in comparison. Those “remember when” times that you’d much rather forget are great for proving that, whatever you’re dealing with now, the situation is not nearly as bad as it could be.
Fortunately, what I’m seeing as we’re building this website is much more exciting than the process is frustrating. I really hope everyone else likes it as much as we do. It will be live…soon!