It’s Probably Not a Crisis. You Just Haven’t Learned How to Handle It Yet.

A black MacBook pro shows a 404 error message.

Earlier today, I typed this very website into my browser — https://danoshinsky.com — and nothing came up.

There was an error message on screen. So I typed in a different URL, and then a third. Those pages loaded correctly — it was just my website that wasn’t loading.

A decade ago, this would’ve been a crisis for me. I would’ve spiraled, and started frantically Googling stuff to figure out a fix. It would’ve ruined my afternoon.

But I’ve seen a few things at this point. I’ve had website errors; I’ve dealt with a few tech situations. I’m no IT person, but I can handle a few small things.

So I went through the options, and within about two minutes, had figured out the issue. I hopped on the phone with my hosting service, and three minutes later, my website was up and running again.

It’s nice to know that I can handle certain small issues like this. But it’s also a nice reminder: The older we get, and the more stuff we run into, the easier it is to handle problems like this.

The first time you run into something, it’s a crisis. But the third time you’ve dealt with it? The fifth? The tenth?

It’s not a crisis — it’s an issue. It’s something small you can handle.

You’ll learn how to handle it, and the next time, it won’t seem quite so bad.

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That photo of a 404 error page comes via Erik Mclean and Unsplash.