Today’s blog post is from Beth Carter of Carter Consultants Ltd. Beth is a Fairfield-based career and life coach.
Our lives can take unexpected turns and it is not necessarily the event that can affect us as much as our reaction to it. Last week I was asked to speak at a career workshop at Bryant University in Rhode Island. I had a meeting earlier in the day in Norwalk and had planned on taking a leisurely drive in the afternoon to get there in plenty of time for the evening meeting. After leaving Mystic, there was dead stop traffic on I-95 for over twenty minutes. At this point, we all had shut our cars off and people were chatting with others on the road. All of a sudden, we started up again and I never saw a police officer or any signs of an accident. I figured it was just a fluke thing.
The next day I was heading back around 11:00 am. I had heard there may be scattered showers but the sun was out and all was well. Not much later as I was approaching Connecticut, the rain came down hard and there was thunder, lightning and hail. Many of us pulled over to the side of the road and my car shook with the winds. I worried a bit that a tree may fall down on my car. It soon let up a little and I got back on the road. I barely made it to the McDonald’s in Mystic. Zero visibility and flooding now everywhere.
As the only one in a suit and looking like a drowned rat, I got an early lunch and figured I would wait out the storm. I started having conversations at the nearby tables learning where others had traveled from and where they were headed. An hour later, I wanted to get going but the storm was not letting up. I had called my mother and she suggested I visit her friend the next town over in Noank.
I made a dash to my car and drove 15 miles per hour all the way to her house. I took the route that had the most hills going up thinking I would miss the flooding but there were several patches that were very bad and I thought my car was going to float away. When I got to her house, my hands were shaking. I had not seen her in years and spent two wonderful hours catching up. I left her at 3:00 and did not hit one drop of rain all the way back to Fairfield.
I learned a lesson that day. In the past, I would have been angry that my day “was wasted” but instead I saw it as a time to take a break from my normal life and be thankful that I was able to get home safely. I also was treated to some special time with a special person who I did not realize how much I missed. Life throws us all curveballs so it is important to remember that sometimes you have to give up control of the situation and “go with the flow” (or in my case rain). This is important not only in our personal lives but our professional lives as well. In the latter, it may make sense sometimes to let others take the lead and to realize that it can be a learning experience because they see and/or do a project, speech, etc. differently than you. Whatever situation you are in that you can’t control, step back, breathe and remind yourself that the next McDonald’s or friend’s house is right around the corner.
Great points. Recently it was suggested to me that I read the book “The Alchemest” by Paulo Coelho. I think that it’s a book that EVERYONE should read. It really made me think about the path that I am on and to be more appreciative of everything, because it’s all supposed to happen.
good suggestion, I need to put that book on my reading list