My house sits on the Colorado prairie, still within view of the Rocky Mountain foothills and not far from where the plains begin. I went out late this evening for the dog’s last walk and stood under the big sky, lit by the half moon and spectacular reflections from a few surrounding clouds.

I could hear the crickets and the whistling sounds of late-night ground squirrels…probaly warning each other about our crazy dog. The wind has finally died down and the stars sing their silent song with their blinking light show.

I waited outside…waited for tomorrow to appear…not in its fullness, but in hints…in little bursts of ideas that will have to wait until morning for their full revelation. And I ponder…how many others stand under the canopy of lights…how many others in semi-light wait outside for flashes of revelation from the Heavens…

Marketing online offers tremendous opportunities to develop a natural rhythm of daily life where, according to your goals, priorities and situation on the learning curve (and your bank account!), you really can achieve a certain level of balance between family/social life, your business pursuits and your other passions. But there are times where no amount of scheduling with your Blackberry, Palm device or other PDA can compensate for urgent needs and emergencies that simply must take precedence, for a season, over everything else.

My father passed away on January 30, just a couple of months ago. For 7 years, he had been living with me, my dear husband, 5 kids, 3 dogs and various other short-lived small hamsters, guinea pigs and goldfish (not to mention a couple white mice we bought at the pet shop and a few quickly reproducing field mice that got in the house somehow! Yikes!). He had been ill for several years and just “wore out.” The final month, we had a hospice service come and assist us and he died peacefully at home with us.

Backing up a bit…, just after Christmas, it had become apparent that Dad would not be with us much longer. At the same time, I was in the pre-launch phase of a new online business, complete with this shiny new business blogging system, great coaches and some solid marketing strategies I was itching to try out. If the business had already been up and running, there would have been ways to delegate a big chunk of the work I needed to complete. But that wasn’t the case. So here I was, needing to shut off the engine to a rocket that was already on the launch pad.

While relatives and friends came to visit and nurses pattered in and out from time to time, I tried to just “maintain” the foundational progress I felt I had made so far. Although I posted on a couple of forums where I was quite active and I added a few MySpace friends and tried to figure out Facebook a little more, my business was quite glued to the ground. Most of my attention was with my family and all the activities surrounding getting our life ready for someone dear to leave it.

After my father passed away, we had a couple more months of adjusting to a new rhythm of life. We no longer had to take him in for medical care (Kidney dialysis–>4 hour sessions) 3 times a week. In fact, it seemed like we went in circles for awhile, quite unsure what to do with all that extra time after all these years of caring for my dad! One would think that we’d immediately notice all that free time and use it to jump right back into business. But that’s not the way it worked out for us….It was, and still is to some degree, a slow transition back to “normal”…a different kind of “normal” than we’d ever had as a family. It was almost like the whole family had to reassess our lives, our relationships, our business decisions, our goals and our schedule.

Well, here we are 10 weeks later and I’m ready to get “back in the game”. There were some other losses and significant changes in the process of going through this season of life. I’ve made several course corrections and modifications to my business, key partnerships and long-term strategic plans. I have added clarity, focus and direction. I’ve shaken off some old mindsets that held me back. What a great day!

So here are a few pointers I can offer from my own very recent setbacks.

1. When you are going through life crises and business setbacks, don’t make too many critical business choices in the midst of the crises. Focus on dealing with the immediate needs of your business where you must, delegate where you are able, and get extra help if you can. Things will look very different when the crisis has past.

2. If you are already up and running in your online business, especially if you’ve taken the time to develop a solid new media marketing network, talk to those you have connected with and you may be surprised at your online friends’ desire to assist in any way they can. Put your pride aside and accept their offers of assistance. Down the road, they may need your help.

3. Be patient, especially with yourself.

4. If your business suffers because of what is going on, deal with it head-on with grace and dignity, not with shame. Everyone faces challenges and setbacks. How you recover from them determines your future. Determine to recover and get back in the game. Once you are back up again, look for opportunities to encourage others facing similar challenges, setbacks and potential failure.

And remember that failure is not in the act of falling, but in the act of refusing to get back up.

I’m back up and back in the game. How can I help you?

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Disagree or have an opinion to share? Leave a comment…

Expect success!

Stevie Knight