Irresponsibility can be an addiction as strong as drugs or alcohol,

Failure has become the greatest Taboo of our generation.

The obsession of our modern society with winning (being competitive if you want more subtlety), has created a whole generation of human beings that measure their success in quantifiable terms: Account statements, Increments in Percentages and KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).

I admit I’m a big fan of data, as a Project Manager i know it’s very hard to control, review or improve things that cannot be measured…I am a data junkie and my work at 42 Soluciones reflects that.

But it’s important to recognize the difference between valuable data and actually trying to measure success; Trying to define life in that way leads to ignoring key factors like the smile of a loved one, the joy of being with friends, and the amazing value of failure.

In Agile Software Development, the experts say: “Fail fast, fail often, and learn quickly”.

I love the agile approach to development, and consider that the same principles can be applied to anything; implementing “Agile Living” is fun and gives you a lot of breathing room: Treat everything as if it were simple, and see failure as a chance to learn.

But, sometimes things go wrong.

There will be days when the chaos is so large that even thinking of organization makes you laugh.

When this happens, the solution is simple: Don’t worry about your system. Sometimes you simply have to adopt the necessary flexibility to get to the end of the day, keep calm and remember that your notebooks and lists will be there tomorrow morning when the storm passes.

There is one thing you should do though: Get at least 2 minutes (even if you need to lock yourself in the bathroom), to take a breather and consider if any of your previous commitments are completely vital today; if so, set up and alarm in your cell phone… do not trust your memory in any way! Days like these are full of children forgotten at school, credit card payments overdue and anniversary gifts waiting in the stores.

There will also be days when you find out your plan had a fundamental flaw and that you have been working in the wrong direction for an important amount of time, the sense of failure will lead you to not wanting to do anything anymore.

These days it’s important to understand the cyclical nature of life, for every “good” moment you will live a “bad” one, by learning that only you define those terms, the good can be found in every bad and the joy in every sorrow. It’s much more than simple optimism; it’s the comprehension that every instant we are surrounded by blessings and messages that can only be seen by keeping calm during the storm.