I’m not sure how I feel about this saying to be honest! It seems so overused and somewhat cliché. So this year I haven’t set a New Year’s Resolution as such. I’ve got various rules and habits that I live by and a recent event really influenced me to make a daily change in my own mindset which I would like to share:
A shift in mindset
There is a saying that to succeed you need a role model. On my coaching journey, I have many role models such as the famous Tony Robbins and another of my favourite inspirational leadership coaches Jean-Pierre De Villiers. JP was in London this week doing a speaking event for the first time in London in 2 years and I was very excited to go to it. I posted a video on my Instagram feed @bethinkcoaching about how excited I was. I wore a nice outfit and did my make-up nicely for it. I allowed enough time to get to the central London location which was the beautiful Bloomsbury Hotel and I was in an energised, happy mood because I’d had a really good work out and productive day earlier that day.
Now what happened was, when I got to the train station, my train was cancelled. Delaying me by half an hour which was in turn going to make me what I thought was about 15 mins late. For anyone that knows me, you’ll know that I HATE being late to anything let alone something I’m really passionate about. For me, lateness just gives the wrong message. I’m a performance coach, big on time management and value. I also see it as a sign of disrespect to turn up late to a presentation or talk or event, it’s distracting for the audience and just isn’t how I like to show up.
Knowing that I was going to be late for someone who was very influential in my coaching journey was unacceptable for me. I felt stressed and annoyed at the train company. I was also stressed because it would reflect badly for my business as well if I turned up late. So when the next train did finally arrive, I was in a terrible mood. All my positive energy had drained out of me. I had an unenjoyable journey into central London and then I ran…literally ran to the tube. I was conscious I was being rude to other people by running past them, but this was so important to me I had to show up! I had to commit!
When I finally got to the hotel, and found the meeting room for the event, a funny thing happened. They told me…don’t worry, you’re 45 minutes early. The event time was printed incorrectly on the ticket and everyone is early! Obviously, I was even more frustrated, but it taught me a valuable lesson which I will carry with me for the next 354 days…
What did I learn from this experience?
I already know this, but I learned that shit happens and that’s ok! It’s how you deal with it that matters. I also learned that NOTHING happens as a coincidence. Do I think it was a coincidence that the one day I was late (considering I’m rarely late!!) the time was wrong – NO…I think it was meant to teach the valuable lesson for me of 2019.
The lesson was NEVER let external factors dim your light! Let the negativity lie with the negativity because it isn’t something I need to let penetrate me and negativity shouldn’t dim your light either!
Wishing you all the best for this year ahead – to 2019 – a year of lessons, dreams and ACTION.