Sometimes it’s the smallest incidents in life that can cause an upset and throw you off balance. You don’t know when they’re going to happen and you can’t even plan for them happening and yet it’s really important to have some strategies for coping with little upsets, so that they don’t grow and grow into something much larger and spiral out of control.

I thought about this yesterday when I had one of those ‘little upsets’. I’d been happily working on my little netbook laptop in my lounge when I decided that I would take it upstairs to work. I currently have a bad back so I thought I would prop myself up in bed with lots of cushions for a couple of hours where I would be more comfortable.

So what happened? I unplugged the netbook which I’d been working on, carried it upstairs arranged everything to my satisfaction and then decided to plug it in. The next moment there was the most almighty bang, and a load of sparks and for a brief second I thought my last moment had come. The dog shot under the bed, my husband appeared asking what was wrong and the television, the fan and lights that were being used were blown and we were plunged into darkness.

Well of course I had to deal with the practical things first. I hobbled down two flights of stairs to the garage to flick the automatic switch on the fuse box, ever grateful that the days when you have to struggle to find a fuse and change it are long gone.

It was only when I'd returned to my bedroom, I realised that the power cable and adapter for the netbook were of course defunct. And then it struck me that this was a bit of problem. My netbook needs a new battery so it can’t run without mains power. I was going to be without internet access. I immediately thought of my phone, but really they’re not practical for working on the internet and I also had a old pc which I hadn't used because the internet access was sporadic. It was then I wanted to cry. I didn’t but I did indulge in a good half hour of negative self talk before I pulled myself together and decided that tomorrow was another day. I have to admit that I spent half the night dreaming about it and worrying how I was going to sort it out.

First thing this morning I tried to get on the internet on my pc. I did but it kept saying there was a problem and kept closing. I had the wrong service pack, the wrong browser, no anti-virus cover. I kept trying to download a new service pack and kept going round and round saying it wasn’t possible. It’s a good thing that I’m not a violent person or I’m sure the pc would have gone out the window.

Then I decided to be sensible and sat down to look at my options realising that I had to stop focusing on the problem but look at the solutions.

• Go and work in an internet café
• Wait for the power cable to arrive and work on something else
• Take a break and clear my mind
• See the situation as an opportunity
• Consider other possibilities to sorting out the computer issues

I decided against the internet café option because of the bad back, but the others were all good ideas and I implemented them all in one way or another throughout the day.

The good thing is that I now have accomplished some work that I wouldn’t have done if this hadn’t happened, I took a break and enjoyed some much needed down time and pampering, I took the opportunity to brainstorm some ideas for a project I’m working on and when I was ready I realised that there were other options to my computer problems – all of which I have now sorted.

So what’s my recipe for coping with little upsets? Be flexible, be patient, cut out the negative self talk and adopt a can do attitude towards finding a solution. Oh and it also helps if you can laugh a bit too.