I know what you need today.  You need encouragement and confidence.  I am a coach and partner on Service Roundtable, and I hear the same message every week from contractors across the nation: it is slow, the weather did not help, the economy sucks, my business is off already, and summer is almost gone.

I understand that there are some things we can't do much about: weather, politics (we can vote!), the economy, and how fair life is.  Just when we get our feet planted firmly, life has the ability to know that and knock us into next Sunday.  That comes from a Garfield comic, just wanted to throw it in.  Life isn't fair.  Only three kinds of fair: World's Fair, State Fair and County Fair, the guy that told you life was fair lied about other things too. 

What we can control is our response to these things we can't do anything about.  We can make a decision to enjoy life and all it brings us, even the occasional bumps in the road.  Now, here are a couple of ideas on how to make this work. 

First, a disclaimer.  So I'm not a therapist, psychologist, or anything close.  What gives me the right to tell you how to handle life and its bumps?  I'm old.  Older than most of you.  Not Jim Donley old, but Steve Howard old.  And I have been married a long time.  You don't stay married a long time (like Jim Donley and Steve Howard) if you haven't figured out some things.  Here they are.

1)            Activity helps you cope with the bump.  If you are not sure what to do, start moving in any direction.  The fact that you are doing something, anything will help you feel better.  So let's say you loose a big job, nothing for the guys to do next week.  It's Friday, and payday, looking grim for the next week.  Call all the old quotes.  Call all the people who put in part of a system and need the other part.  Call everyone who has a maintenance agreement with you.  Call until you get someone to say, yes, I'll do it.  What may surprise you is while you are calling, someone may contact you that is completely unexpected.  Out of the blue.  I will guarantee, activity will make you luckier. 

2)            Don't believe it is the end of the world.  Use the ice ball theory.  That says that when the earth is an ice ball, the sun has died, will we remember any of this.  Nope, it will all be forgotten.  Someone said that which doesn't kill makes you stronger.  Not an especially uplifting saying, but true, we do get stronger by going through the tough times.  Let's be clear, we are not in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize.  Nor are we negotiating for nuclear disarmament.  We are just a group of people who are trying to make a living, some days it is harder than others.  One the other hand, we do get the flip side of the coin now and again.  Things go amazingly smooth without any effort on our part and we certainly don't get what we deserve most of the time

3)            Upon reflection, we should rejoice in the fact that we can and do make people's lives better.  We should remember the victories, the successes.  The times when other companies told a customer, it can't be done, and we did it.  That what is great about doing a home show.  I know, it is a tough job.  On your feet 10 hours a day for three days straight.  Eating those rice bowls that may contain roasted pigeon.  With a bag of pork rinds for a chaser.  Talking to an idiot that is building a 5000 square foot home and wants to use a solar powered 3 ton unit (but I won't be in all of the home at the same time), been there, got the hat!  What makes the home show great is when a customer comes by and says "You changed our lives completely.  My son had not slept through a night in the first five years of his life.  After you finished installing the system, he is sleeping all night, and we are too!"  I don't want to go Oprah on ya, but it is a fact.  We feel better knowing that sometimes we sink a 30 foot putt.  That's what keeps us going back to the golf course.   It's ok to relive the good times; they can help us through the tough times.

4)            You need someone to talk to.  Talk it out on the days when something goes wrong.  Not when you have lumpy oatmeal for breakfast, but when you have a lump in your arm that wasn't there two weeks ago.  When the IRS tells you they are doing a tax audit.  When an ex-employee sues for something that is ridiculous, but still needs your full attention.  I would suggest that you need two someones to talk to.  Your significant other, and God.  I debated about saying higher power, and if that makes you feel more politically correct, go with that.  I'm going with God, he who hung the earth and stars, and is involved in my life daily.  Talk to him, he is interested in what's going on in your life, and will give you full attention.  I mean complete. 

5)            Finally, realize that there may be a purpose for what you are going through.  There may be a lesson that you can't get by reading about it.  It may be something as simple as being an example to others that you can get through tough times, you just don't quit.  Or it may be that we are so stubborn, the only way to see how this works out is to live it completely.  There may be warnings along the way, we tend to ignore them.  We (and I am speaking from real heart-felt experience) feel like it can't happen to us.  It can.  And will, usually at the worst time.  So the signs were there all along, we just didn't heed them.

Now, are we feeling better yet?  OK, so this is not exactly a warm and fuzzy type of message, but one I felt compelled to write.  So here I have presented my five points on how to cope with the disappointments life sometimes deals us.  You know, it is kind of a warm message after all, one that we can take inspiration from.  And gain confidence in the following facts: knowing that it is not our fault in most cases, that life just works out that way, and that we can get through it if we hang on just one more day/week/month.

So I hope you are having a great year.  And I wish the best for your company, family and your life.  Try not to let life get you down, understand that many have been through exactly what you are going through, and many more will after you.  As my sons and I believe when we are on a Harley trip, it ain't about the destination, it's about the ride.

Thanks for listening, we'll talk later