A funny thing happened last week, although it was actually far from funny. I was checking emails a few hours prior to taking a red-eye home from where I’d been working in Sacramento, CA. Suddenly an email pops up that my flight has been cancelled for Wednesday evening, and rescheduled for Friday morning. After the initial shock I found a different route home, as long as I went from California to Utah to Georgia to Florida.
I started my journey in a middle seat (of which I’m happy to have) when a young man on my right asked what I do. I told him and he immediately said fate must have brought us together since he needed help dealing with a difficult boss. I smiled and thought to myself, “Damn, I just wanted to get a bit of sleep to survive the crazy path I’m taking to get home.” However, he seemed to genuinely need help so once we got to Salt Lake, I listened to him tell me how his boss had unjustly accused him of something and he had to have a conversation with this boss on Friday. What, he wanted to know, should he do.
We talked, I gave him advice, and he later told me that things went well and he appreciated my input. My point in sharing this story is that all of are going to have challenges every week; it’s inevitable and the human condition. Stuff will always happen.
What we do about it is the key. Decide right now that when something happens that throws you for a loop (like discovering at the last minute your flight has vanished) to remind yourself you have choices—always. Misery is optional, so is joy. People and scenarios will continue to surprise us—sometimes in positive ways and sometimes not—and the more we simply pause and realize we’re in control of the story, and put it in perspective, we can weather just about anything. As one of my ex-military students said once regarding overcoming life’s every-day challenges. As long as nobody died today, it’s fixable.” And it always is.
