Canceled!
Tim Richardson
The Power of the Pause/Exceptional Service keynotes, workshops, and panel discussion facilitator. Speaker, author, husband, father, outdoor enthusiast, and aspiring jazz pianist.
“Tim, I am so very sorry. We must cancel our event today.”
Just as I arrived onsite to prepare for a presentation, my phone rang, and I heard those words.
The venue had the wrong date for my speaking event. My client told me that there was no way that the event facility could set up the room and serve lunch in time.
?I have been speaking for more than 30 years and I have never had a cancelation on the day of an event. My client was sincerely apologetic and seemingly embarrassed about not following up to ensure that everything was set.
“It’s not a problem,” I told her. “I will happily reschedule at a mutually convenient time.”
My client seemed relieved, and she and her team quickly went to work communicating the change to all the attendees.
Fortunately, this was a local event - a rarity for me. As I drove back home, I started thinking about the positives to this situation:
1)??There were a few prospective clients that I had invited to hear me speak and all had conflicts that prevented them from attending.
2) ?One of my professional speaking colleagues was speaking and facilitating a panel with top experts in the same industry as this group a few days AFTER this event. He could share his experience and what he learned with me before the rescheduled, new date.
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3) I didn’t feel 100% that day, having not slept well the night before.
4)?The extra time allowed me to regain some margin in a day that was very packed.
5) Having more time would afford me the opportunity to strengthen my presentation.
Later that week, I stumbled upon a clip of one of my favorite Seinfeld episodes called The Opposite. One of the themes in the episode, is how everything always works out for Jerry. He lost a comedy job and then later that day he got another one paying the same amount. He missed the train and almost immediately caught a bus instead. He had a TV appearance that was canceled, and another opportunity appeared.
I know that life is not like that for all of us all the time, but I do believe that opportunity that can appear in the face of challenges or adversity.
Perhaps you have lost a job before and only because of the loss something better came along. Or maybe you trip you were looking forward cancelled give you time to be present for someone who needed you. Or maybe you found the perfect house, and someone outbid you, only to find even a better one later. Or maybe you were passed over for a promotion and later an even better opportunity arose
The challenging part is being willing in the moment to recognize the good that can come from a situation that may not be positive in the moment.
Try to look for the good in everything and in everything you will almost always find some good.
Musician - Cartoonist
5 个月"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." Dolly Parton
Senior Director,Global Accounts, HelmsBriscoe
6 个月Stay optimistic and flexible and expect your unexpected good!
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6 个月Attitude is everything!
Musician - Cartoonist
6 个月When some plan of mine crashes, I usually find it difficult to orient my thinking to the potential good that might be in that situation, and what good there is doesn't make itself known right away. However, there is often a positive factor which we will never find if we don't look for it or even acknowledge that it might exist. For years, I thought that positive thinking was just a feel-good denial of reality; but eventually, I realized that being positive gives us a much more useful point of departure and often yields positive results. Recently, my family had to sell a vacation home that we had owned for 20 years with the intention to relocate there upon retirement. Numerous unexpected changes happened during that 20 years and when we reached retirement, the move was impractical and unaffordable. However, we have started to see that such a move now would cause more problems than it would solve. It is useful to get past emotions of disappointment and frustration and to re-frame our approach to unexpected/unwanted outcomes by looking for new opportunities in the new situation.
Singer-songwriter and Storyteller
6 个月Thanks for sharing these encouraging words, Tim!