When Elon Musk ruins your Zoom call & it all goes downhill from there.

Happy Tuesday Friend,

Last week Thursday at approximately 12:24pm, I hit my breaking point.

No, not with my kids or my husband or my workload, or with life, thank goodness (although it has been a crazy season), but with our internet.

When we moved to our farm in the country six months ago, we got Starlink, as it was really the only decent option for high speed internet, which is kind-of essential when you work from home.

And at first it was great, but then it started getting spottier and spottier, cutting out for 10 seconds here or 20 seconds there.

For a long time, I tried to ignore it. I don’t know about you, but I hate dealing with tech challenges, and I really hate having to contact customer service for anything.

I kept hoping it would get better. Instead it got worse. And everything I tried to do—writing an email, posting on social media, recording a podcast episode…started taking much, much longer than it should have.

But still I didn’t bother taking action to fix the problem.

That is, until an embarrassing zoom call last Thursday, where I cut out so much that the whole meeting was useless and I had to cancel the rest of my calls for the day. 

I finally realized enough was enough.

So I contacted Starlink support.

And then I waited. And waited. And waited.

I sent more messages to customer support. I angry tweeted Elon Musk. 

And I waited some more.

And for two straight days, all I got back were AI messages, none of which were either apologetic or helpful in actually resolving the issue.

Until finally, out of sheer frustration, I sent a message with my phone number requesting that an actual PERSON please call me, even though I knew it was probably just wishful thinking.

So imagine my surprise when, about 24 hours later, someone did call.

Dominic, my Starlink hero. 

And he was so nice, and so helpful, and so empathetic to my plight that all my anger and frustration immediately dissipated, and I was just grateful to finally have someone who seemed to care.

He helped me find the fastest possible solution, and then called back the next day to make sure everything was working okay.

And now, after fighting with my internet for months, it suddenly works like a dream.

Problem solved.

So why am I sharing this saga with you?

Well, I guess because I actually had two big takeaways from this experience:

1. It made me realize how often we probably make our lives so much harder when we avoid doing that one simple—albeit painful—thing we know we need to do to actually fix the problem.
   
   When I think about how much time I wasted over the past few months trying to work around slow, spotty internet, when I should’ve just ripped off the band-aid and reached out for help sooner, I could kick myself. Because in the end, I had to do it anyway.

But how many other areas of our life do we do this, whether it’s a difficult conversation we know we need to have, or not fixing some broken appliance because it seems easier to just work around it, or not applying to that dream job, or not starting the new eating plan because you feel like you’re too busy.

Sometimes you just gotta suck it up and do the thing.

2. It reminded me how important it is for people to just feel listened to and heard. At the end of the day, all most of us really want is to just feel like someone else actually cares. It doesn’t actually take that much to say, “I hear you, I understand, and I’m so sorry.”

Even if Dominic hadn’t been able to resolve my problem, just the fact that he recognized my frustration and apologized for it went a really long way.

But how often do we forget that when it comes to the people in our life, whether it’s our kids or our spouse, or a friend who’s going through a hard time. Sometimes just saying, “I get it” is enough.

Helen Keller once said, “life is a succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood.” Along those same lines, Idowu Koyenikan noted that, “there are certain life lessons that you can only learn in the struggle.”

In other words? You never know when life is going to hand you an opportunity to learn and grow.

And so, my two challenges for you this week are to 1.) stop procrastinating and just do the thing. Whatever little annoying task you’ve been avoiding that’s actually causing you prolonged stress and aggravation—just do it. It might be painful for a minute, but I promise you’ll be glad when it’s over. And 2.) remember that sometimes the people around you just need to feel heard and seen. So let them know you get it, even if you can’t fix it.

Live with purpose, friends, and have a wonderful week!

xoxo, Ruth

P.S. Have you heard the news? Our new Thinlicious™ App is FINALLY available! Be sure to check it out HERE.

This week’s podcast episode…

What’s cooking in my kitchen…

Here’s the recipe I shared this past week:

The latest from my Instagram…

One of my goals this year is to be more consistent on social media, so I’ve committed to sharing at least one post a day on Instagram. If you’re there, I’d love to connect with you—find me at @RuthSoukup 

What’s Happening Around RSO…