When my wife Suzannah and I were planning our trip to South Africa, there were many things that we wanted to do. There were so many “must-dos” and “should-dos” that it was hard to choose what we would “actually-do.” Here is the story of one of our adventures.
It started out as a joke. One of us had done a search on Cape Town South Africa and found a video of someone paragliding off of a cliff. Paragliding involves gliding with a special UN-powered parachute off of someplace high. We shared initially it with the other as a joke, but then the idea began going back and forth until it actually seemed like a real option.
Once this idea became “real” to us we began looking at the pros and cons. Next we began to talk about pricing and value. At some point, we decided to do it. While we were a little nervous hiking up the mountain, the real moment of pause was when we reached the top and looked down. The “launchpad” was a simple blue mat stretched down an almost 45 degree down angle, high atop the “Lion’s Head” mountain. Yes, we could see the beautiful blue ocean, lovely homes and a white sandy beach. We could also see that these were over a thousand feet below us. To say that Lion’s Head mountain is steep is a massive understatement.
Soon we were strapped into the gear and being told, “When I tell you, run. Don’t stop, don’t pause, don’t try to brake or slow down, and don’t Jump. If you do any of those things in this kind of a headwind,” I was chided, “it could be very bad.” When you are standing on the top of a thousand foot cliff, you really don’t want to do anything that could be later described as “very bad.”
It was at this moment that this was not only very real, but also going to happen…now. I am not ashamed to tell you that I was experiencing something close to sheer terror.
When I heard the word “Run!” I was not ready, but I took a deep breath and did it anyway. The “runway” was slippery and it was all I could do to keep from falling. Naturally I did the following: I also tried to slow down, tried to break, and then paused a moment before jumping.
When my feet left the slippery blue tarp I was in the air and it was…amazing. Eventually, I exhaled and began to really take it all in. It was all so very worth it. At some point, high above Cape Town it occurred to me that I had just gone through a very dramatic version of the decision making process that almost every one of our customers is faced with before using our package tracking software.
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1. The idea of a change or decision. “can package logging be easier? Is there a better way?”
>2. “Fleshing out” that idea or change. “Can we get everyone on board with EZtrackIt
3. Weighing pros & cons “What would happen if…?”
4. Making the decision to move forward with< package tracking software “It is time to make our lives easier. Let’s start that pilot test.”
5. Taking actual steps to make it happen “Let’s get the equipment installed next week”
6. Small missteps along the way “What do you mean we forgot to tell him?”
>7. Successful change. “That was a lot easier than we thought”
I am not saying that using EZTrackIt package logging software to log your inbound packages will be as exciting as paragliding off of Lion’s Head Mountain, but I am saying that you will be very glad you did it. Be brave, take the first step and I promise that we will land you safely.
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