I reached my hotel room at 1AM and wondered what the next day was going to hold for me. It had been the end of an extremely long day. I had left Milwaukee that morning on (what I thought) was going to be a short flight to Oklahoma City to work with veterans that had recently returned from deployment. When I left my house, little did I know that storms were ravaging the southern states and that I would spend 4 hours on the tarmac in Austin and even more time in the Houston airport waiting in line – only to find out that they didn’t know if I was going to go anywhere else that weekend. As I lay there in bed with my mind racing, I knew I had a choice to make. I could choose to stay in a whirlwind of craziness and let my emotions get the best of me or I could choose something else. I chose to focus on coffee. That’s all I wanted the next day – a decent cup of coffee. It didn’t even have to be great – just decent. We all have days that go awry. Changing our attitude can make it all go a bit smoother. Here’s how it worked for me. Here are three focus points to help you.
FOCUS POINT 1: CHANGE YOUR FOCUS
Looking forward to that cup of coffee helped me ch’lax – a term I got from my 4 children that is a combination of chilling and relaxing. Each of us has something that can help us ch’lax. It can be looking forward to a cup of coffee or it could be a myriad of other things – listening to music, deep breathing, going for a swim, or reading (the possibilities are endless!). There are no parameters set on what you decide to use – that’s up to you. At the end of the day, it’s about best case and worst case. Best case, you get what you want. Worst case, you don’t. With that in mind, anything is possible! So, CH’LAX!
FOCUS POINT 2: FIND THE HUMOR
Looking forward to that cup of coffee helped me find the humor in my day. Truly, it was a pretty funny day. Yes, it was frustrating at times, but there were some pretty great moments. Without the worry about what was coming next, I was able to see them with more clarity. Most of those moments came from thinking about the people I had met during that day – like the group that was on their way to Las Vegas and had started the party as soon as we left Milwaukee. Or, how the bags of pretzels keep getting smaller and that if I had only brought a bag of candy bars I would’ve been able to pay for my flight by auctioning them off. When we change our focus, we can see the humor in just about anything.
FOCUS POINT 3: BE GRATEFUL
Looking forward to that cup of coffee helped me be grateful for the things that, sometimes, can be overlooked. For example: Even though the day was long, I had my carry-on luggage (with toothbrush), a phone, music, and was able to find a place to sleep for a few hours before the next adventure would begin. This hit home a little harder the next morning when I saw many sleeping quite uncomfortably all over the airport. Regardless of the situation, there are always things we can be thankful for. When in a tight spot, try running through the things that are “right” in your life. When I think of my wife’s smile or one of our children’s smiles, I can’t help but feel blessed. What is it for you?
The next morning I got up early and headed towards the airport. Yes, I was still focused on my cup of coffee but, at this point, I was feeling so good that my happiness didn’t hinge on whether I got it or not. But, I did get it! The yummy goodness of that cup-‘o-Joe percolated through my entire system! Still semi-euphoric from its effect, I walked up to the counter to get started waiting in line but I didn’t have to wait – I was the first person there! The rest of my day went even better! Where before I might have had to stay in Houston all weekend, now there was a new flight and I got a seat. When I got to Oklahoma City, my baggage was there and a taxi was waiting to take me to my program on time. If anything was wrong, I would not have noticed. Everything changed because I changed. That’s how life works, isn’t it? All of life is made up of moments – good moments and, to put it mildly, not so good moments. But, it is also made up of moments of choice – where we can choose how we are going to deal with the things that can batter us around. I chose coffee and it helped me change my perspective, ch’lax, and be thankful for the things that were going right. When you get hit, what are you going to choose?
