Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Slow Your Roll... Don't Get Spun Up About Things Beyond Your Control

On a recent trip to MCB Camp Lejeune, I was reminded of how little regard Mother Nature has for our schedule. My flight departed Jacksonville, NC bound for Charlotte at approximately 3:00 PM. Due to the weather in Charlotte, our planned flight path was south along the coast with plans to change course at Charleston, SC and head back around the storm and arrive in Charlotte after it had passed. I must add that this was the Friday prior to Memorial Day weekend and the 70 passenger plane I was on had me, a couple of other "older guys" and 60 some young Marines VERY anxious to get home for the holiday weekend.

Approximately an hour or so into the flight, the captain informed us that the Charlotte Airport was now closed to all arrivals and we were landing in Charleston, SC to refuel and wait out the storm. The response from my fellow passengers to this news was less than joyful. Many of them began to voice their disapproval with the plan and place blame on the airline, etc. The next 2+ hours of sitting on the tarmac with the 30 minute update intervals was no more enjoyable and did nothing to reduce their discontent. Fortunately, I had a good book and was making good use of my "extra" travel time. We did get to deplane for about 20 minutes and I ran into an old friend Jack Daniels and we got a few minutes of "quality" time together prior to getting the call to re-board.

We did eventually get to Charlotte and my planned 7:00 PM arrival into DC turned into a 12:30 AM arrival. Good news is there was no traffic to deal with on the ride home!

The point of sharing this experience is to call out the fact that we often get caught in situations such as this that are well beyond our control and we get all spun up about it. My question is why? There is literally nothing that you can do so why fall victim to the spin? This is all about mindset and your ability to control how you respond. Jack Canfield, co-author of the Chicken Soup book series, uses the formula E + R = O to explain what I am talking about.  Events are going to happen in your life. How you choose to Respond will determine the Outcome. It's that simple. You are in charge of you and how you deal with what occurs in your life. Don't waste your valuable time and energy getting spun up about things that you have no control over!

Enjoy the ride...