Keepin’ the Faith

I’ve been an Apple fan boy for many years. I bought into the ease of using devices that connected to each other in the Apple Universe. Phones, tablets, laptops… I love them. So, when the Apple Watch Series 4 came out, I added it to my arsenal.

One year and 25 days later, I dropped my beloved watch on the tile floor in my kitchen.

I picked up the watch and was relieved to see the glass was not broken. I raced off to work and it was more than an hour later that I noticed the watch was not ON. I tried rebooting it… I tried resetting it… Nothing. I took it to the Apple Store where they told me I was 25 days out of warranty and it would be $300 to fix it (without even knowing what might be wrong!).

Aside from the cost, I was furious that Apple wasn’t going to stand behind its product. 25 days out of warranty? Really?!

I took the watch home, determined to figure out a way to make it re-start. I charged it… I held buttons… I stuck a paperclip in the little hole on the side. Over… and over… and over again. Day after day. For months. Occasionally, I would see it start to boot up, but then nothing. It would just shut down again. I put the watch in a box in my closet, but every few weeks, I would get the urge to try just one more time. And was promptly disappointed. Every. Single. Time.

It’s not like a piece of technology just “heals itself”, right?

I recently upgraded my phone to the iPhone 11. Once I had it all set up, I started thinking about that stupid watch again. I held the buttons in different ways for different periods of time. I stuck that paperclip in it again. I put it on the charger and I went to bed. In the morning, I was shocked to see the face of the watch displaying the time… the correct time, no less!

I put the watch on and took my dog for our morning walk. The date on the watch was still November 19th even though this was the middle of July, but the watch was counting my steps! And, when I got back home and it connected to my wifi, the date magically updated, too. I have since been able to pair it with my phone and everything seems to be working correctly. Heck, I even updated the OS this morning.

So, what is the point of this story? It’s not an ode to Apple (‘cuz I’m still pretty ticked off about that $300 repair thing). It’s about believing in something and not giving up. I don’t believe the watch magically healed itself. I think I somehow stumbled across the right combination of buttons and rebooting and paperclips and charging. Somehow, it just worked. The watch was jump-started, so to speak.

I could have easily given up on this watch. Lord knows there were many times I was ready to throw it in the trash out of frustration. But I didn’t. The fact that it tried to come on was enough for me to keep trying… even when it looked hopeless.

How many times do we come across similar situations in our day-to-day lives? Where the “fix” just doesn’t seem possible. When we can’t see “how” to get where we’re trying to go. And we begin to question “why” we should even bother.

THIS is when we need to double-down our efforts. This is when we need to Keep the Faith. Sometimes stepping away for a minute really helps – put that watch in a box in the closet, out of sight, out of mind – before coming back to try one more time.

Don’t give up. Change how you have been approaching this and give it another try.