Handling Surprises

Early this morning I was deep in a restful sleep in a hotel room in Peoria, Illinois, home of Caterpillar and also of one of my clients. I was awakened by an early morning phone call on my iPhone. I didn't quite get to it in time, so I had to check on it.

It seems that my flight this evening -- that I had planned so I could take my favorite Boeing 777 airplane -- had been cancelled. United took all of its 777s out of service to inspect the cargo hold fire suppression system.

So a full plane flight from Chicago to Denver was cancelled. Lots of people woke up to a surprise this morning all around the world wherever United 777s fly!

United had rebooked me on a flight tomorrow morning, but I didn't like their choice, so I spent some time moving things around, extending my car rental, getting a room for the night, and so on before going into the office.

But I didn't get upset. "It is what it is." I can't change the situation, but I can decide how I'll respond to it. (I mention a bit about this in the book -- http://stephenhultquist.com/skiing.html) I decided to use the extra time to get some additional work done.

I am working on a second draft of the Time Shaving special report, so those of you who have ordered it can expect it soon. If you haven't, you have a bit longer to take advantage of the pre-publication special at http://stephenhultquist.com/shaving-book.html.

What about YOU?

How do YOU respond to surprises in your life? What reaction do you have when things don't go the way you expected them to go?

This is one of the measures of who you are.

Do you keep your good attitude? Do you find ways to keep moving in the direction you've chosen?

Many people get mad. You've seen them. I told a couple of the stories in the book of times where I have stepped in an intervened when people got upset (funny, one of those was about a United flight, too!). I've seen people yell at a gate agent when a flight doesn't go in the middle of a thunderstorm.

What are they thinking?

For you, you need to know what is important to you. You need to balance your life and keep moving towards that goal, even if something gets in the way.

One of the things I've done is to watch Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture". You can watch it here on Google video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5700431505846055184 You can also see my friend Ronald Lewis interviewed on the ABC news special about Randy and his lecture next week. If you haven't watched it, you might want to. It's insightful.

Are you dreaming?

Let's go!

Stephen Sven Hultquist

PS Don't forget to grab the pre-pub price on Time Shaving and learn why time management doesn't work. For the 21st Century... Time Shaving: http://stephenhultquist.com/shaving-book.html