00 When Something Abruptly Changes ... Rewind

What do I mean ...

• In today's tech world, things don't happen without a cause
• In personal relationships, people's behaviors don't change suddenly 'just because' 
• Nine times out of ten there was an event, conversation, action or non-action that caused a reaction

We like to use the expression "it's a coincidence" and move on. In many situations, that may be enough when the situation is minor or not related to personal relationships. However, when there are potential financial impacts, relations going sour if not addressed or a desire to learn and prevent that same situation repeating itself it's time to 'rewind'. My defintion of 'rewind' simply means rolling or winding back the old movie film or tape in time - an hour, a day, a week earlier. As you 'rewind' think about a point in time prior to the situation when things went crazy or failed and ask yourslef the following:

• when was everything okay
• (for relationships) what events, news, statements became visible before things changed?
• (for relationships) did I say or do anything that may have been misinterpreted?
• (for tech) was there a storm, power surge or interruption that was unusual?
• (for tech) was there any sound, unusual operation or new noise observed

 Here are real examples: the underlined text shows what I considered before things went wrong

GP Mac computer could not log onto the internet ... hmmm
... in the morning a storm came through and we lost power; although the router was 'green' meaning on, the modem also was affected. I rebooted both and internet was back.

I called Molly to come inside and she won't ... hmmm
... the previous night it was raining and I opened the slider only a little to avoid getting wet. When Molly wedged through the slider I close the slider a little too early and hit her in the back - she was now scared to squeeze through the door unless it was open wide

GM and GP had friends over and after some talking and joking GM did not look 'happy' ... hmmm
... we were sitting around and joking when GP shared an old joke about when GM and I met. The joke was about GM height and she did not really like be the center of any joke