Are you used to unexpected disruptions to plans? Can you take the hit? Or your emotions go wild? I recently had to deal with:
- 3 incidents with my cars leading to 7 months of insurance claims, repairs, and without vehicle.
- Team event which was postponed last moment causing me to cancel booked travel arrangements.
- Sat next to a customer, but was unable to extract crucial information to take strategic action.
- Baby repeatedly woke up early in mornings and interrupted my workouts.
- Boss asked to review slide deck and to be presented to internal team before I run it to client.
Ahhhh.. The mental energy I expended on keeping myself frustrated over shattered plans and disruptions outside my control. Like I would magically turn back the time and change the outcome.
But life continued as normal and what followed was interesting.
- 1st car was written off and replaced with a newer & fuel efficient car for my wife. Repairs to 2nd led to uncovery of issue not related with the incidents that would break the gearbox, and I had it fixed under warranty.
- More important meetup came up on the same date of the postponed event, and required other travel arrangements.
- The customer had already executed decision so I wouldn’t be able to take action regardless. Not pushing to get the info kept the good relationship.
- I found better time to exercise and instead read book next to the baby, minimizing interruption downtimes.
- The deck review led to improvements and I had a valuable mock presentation before meeting the client.
All situations ended with a better outcome than initially planned. I realized it was not life pushing me to take a wrong turn. It was life telling me something better awaits just around the corner.
Now I just remember the learning when affairs change. And then roll with the new direction. There’s no frustration, mental energy is saved, and things continue to turn out for the good. It’s hard as it requires self-control.. but life becomes better.. one small mindset adjustment at a time..
Do not force your desires as they’ll bring you to failure.
Set mindset that it’s not the right time. Imagine why it’s not.
Thank life for the signal.
Look forward to what will come next.
Reflect later if life was right. It will be.