Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Error: Your Desire Could Not Be Processed

Today screamed by like an atomic clock on nuclear steroids. I woke up at 5:30 to the hotel wake-up call and haven't stopped for long since. It's 9:30 pm now and I just got back to my room half an hour ago.

Granted, the last four hours were spent at a reception where I drank too much white wine and ate too many helpings of made to order Chinese stir-fry, but the day still seemed like a blur.

After spending quite alot of time and energy logging in to my computer at the office and downloading files and updated data, I participated in a couple of high-stress meetings that I would just as soon have avoided. But, of course, had I done that, I wouldn't have had a reason to be here and would not have the client. You adjust your priorities when the need arises.

It occurred to me during a conversation at the reception, that I have failed to communicate, in the least, with the panelists I enlisted to participate in a conversation about emergency preparedness for businesses for which I will serve as moderator. That's a great example of how not to prepare for an emergency; put off all your communication about what's next.

So, I spent a bit of time talking to one guy, saying in effect, "I don't want this to seem rehearsed; I won't ask any really tough or embarrassing questions, I just want the responses to seem unrehearsed. This is going to be a real dialog, not a canned presentation." Right. It will be that, indeed. I haven't spoken to the other two panelists. Have I lost my interest in this, or what?

The thing is, the topic is really of interest to me. Why haven't I prepared to moderate the session? I don't know. I really don't know.

A woman I saw tonight said she had heard that I planned to retire soon. What a wonderful wish. I don't know who told her and she "didn't recall" where she heard it. Maybe I'm being weeded out. Oh, such desire.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I'm with you on the unpreparedness. I've NEVER been able to get interested in preparing for a speech, debate, reading, whatever. Ms. Ad Lib, that's me.

Keep thinking to yourself: "this is the last time I'm gonna do this" and you'll do it differently.

;-D

FA