Sometimes Your Shift Needs a Redo
I keep fretting about a mistake I made.
It’s 10:00 Sunday night. I’m already in bed. But I need to check my email just one more time. I pull my phone off my nightstand and tap the envelope icon.
Still no response from Google.
My problem started exactly 2 weeks ago when I’d signed up for a Google workspace account for a nonprofit disaster response group I volunteer with. There were a few hoops to jump through, but after reviewing my information for several days, Google approved our nonprofit status.
I set up our new email accounts and added them to our website. Everything was connected and worked great.
Until Sunday night around 8:00.
That’s when I receive the latest email from Google. They are letting me know that my 2-week trial period has expired. I can no longer log into our account.
What? I was in a 2-week trial period? I thought I was in for good.
I panic. I send a test email from my personal account to the new nonprofit address.
Delivery failed. Address not found.
I log into Google from a different account. I click the Help button. The answer? Start the whole process over. In 3-7 days, I’ll be notified whether our nonprofit is approved (again).
But what if someone needs us between now and then? Their email won’t go through.
I send a message to Google and hope it will land in the right inbox.
Still Nothing
At 10:10, I check my email again. Still no response. Nothing about my problem. Nothing about our approval.
I start wondering where I’d gone wrong. I had been distracted the past few weeks with many projects, including getting everything done quickly so I could take a week off and be fully present with my family at the beach. (Which, for the most part, I did.)
But I see that in my haste, I must have overlooked the “2-week trial” caveat I had signed up for. To make the account permanent, I needed to finish another registration page that I never went to.
And now I am paying the price for rushing.
A Monday Morning Shift
It’s Monday morning. 6:05.
Still nothing from Google.
I try to get curious about why this is bothering me so much. It’s not as if the nonprofit would be getting a lot of email in the next few days anyway. Or possibly any email.
But we are about to send a team to Florida to help with Hurricane Isaias cleanup, and someone might have a question. Our email is published on our website. And now the email account doesn’t work.
I eat breakfast and go for a walk. That’s when it hits me.
My word of the year is Shift, and my focus for October is starting over. The times that we have to go back to the beginning. Do something again because the first time didn’t work out.
It’s time for a redo.
I need to slow down. That was my focus last February: shift the pace. Intentionally move from one speed I want to go—quick!—to a slower gear. To be more present. To breathe more deeply. And to notice more details (like “2-week trial”).
Finding Relief
9:59 Monday morning. I check my email again.
Ahh, there it is. A mere 14 hours later, I receive the magic message from Google for Nonprofits informing me I have access again. I check our accounts. Everything is there.
Our information has been restored.
So has my peace.
But I want to continue the redo of February. Keep the shift in pace.
Slowing down won’t keep me from making mistakes. I’ll still overlook things, miss some important details, and need to redo some things altogether from time to time.
But maybe my peace won’t shift so drastically when those things happen.
Because sometimes going faster doesn’t mean you get more done. It just means more of you gets taken away.
And that’s a shift I want to avoid.
Share your thoughts in the comments.
