You have to know what happened to me this morning, please read it, yes it is long but I promise, it is not boring ??.

I am a morning person so waking up early is not an issue and after my first cup of coffee ,I am all ready and good to go hoping for a wonderful and a blessed day. This morning my daily routine and positive vibes were disturbed the minute my phone rang, I am never prepared for early calls, they always freak me out, looked at my screen and saw it was one of my candidates to whom we have already given an offer, I got worried, knowing her, she would never call that early, instead, she would send a message so I assumed the worst.

Her screams and cries over the phone did not eliminate that feeling, my heart was beating so fast to a point I felt I could no longer breathe, but I had to pull myself together and ask the inevitable question: " what happened, please stop crying, I don't understand what you are saying, please talk to me". After several attempts, she managed to say :"

I can't believe this, I can't believe this, I lost my ...................." , I said in a higher impatient pitch " who, you lost who ???" She finally answered :?

"I lost…. MY PASSPORT"!!!!!

At that point in time, I only wished for one thing, to go back to being a child who expressed freely at all times without censoring one single word or thinking of consequences, but unfortunately I am no longer that child, I am a professional woman and the candidate's HR Business Partner, therefore, I had to pull the plug on my fuming feeling and said :?

" Alright, just please cool down, I am glad that you did not loose a person but I totally understand how critical this is and a dilemma. What happened has happened, crying your head off won't make it appear out of the blue or take you back in time to prevent it, let's just focus on finding a solution rather than wasting our energy on the dilemma itself. Walk me through the entire journey from the last time you saw it till you realized that it was lost".

Apparently, last night, the lady was preparing her documents for visa processing, got the passport and all were placed in a plastic folder. In the morning, she felt she should take copies of everything including the passport, that’s when it hit me, I immediately interrupted saying: " you must have left it on the printer", mystery solved, I thought.

She confirmed she didn’t and that once done copying, she put the passport back in the folder, left it on the table, got ready to leave in order to drop her documents to me and that’s when she noticed through the plastic folder that her passport is not visible. She searched every single corner in house, her nanny and husband joined as well but with no luck, the passport evaporated.

I was still scratching my head when she kept saying:’’ I am going crazy here, I even checked the printer again just to double check but didn’t find it, all I found was my daughter’s exercise book which I was copying for her as well’’. I am not delusional but I could swear that I saw a light bulb over my head ??, I asked her where she had placed the copies of the exercise book, she said they were put her daughter’s bag before going to school, before she managed to add an extra word, I asked: "did you by any chance check your daughter’s school bag ?"There was a moment of silence and I honestly couldn’t determine whether my question was logical or just gave her the impression that she might be stuck with a foolish HR Business Partner!

She admitted that it didn’t even cross her mind but definitely worth giving the school a call. She called me back after probably 15 minutes but felt like hours screaming out of joy, YUP, ?what a wonderful ending??.

This entire incident made me confirm my own belief that when faced by a problem, a disaster or any unpleasant situation both personally and professionally, we need to acknowledge the occurrence of the issue, walk past it and direct all our energy, emotions, resources and brains towards finding a solution or cracking a case. You cannot imagine the kind of energy flowing in once the decision of facing the challenge and figuring out a solution is taken.

At the end of the day, dark days do remain dark until we ACTUALLY decide to open the BLINDS ??..

Have a wonderful WIDE-OPEN BLINDS day to everyone ??..