I had a bit of excitement today. I arrived at London Heathrow at 11:30am ready to fly to Berlin at 1:40pm to start working with a new client. Exciting, huh? But then…the heart stopping moment when I realised…I don’t have my passport!!!
After a few seconds of what felt like my heart stopping and dropping into my gut, it was time for action since even minutes of delay could cost me making the flight!
1. Get the driver to take me the 90 minute round trip back home to get the passport.
2. Call the airline elite number (a definite perk for loyalty) and let them know what happened, but that I’m hoping to be back 30 min before takeoff. “Don’t leave without me!!” (Like that works…but worth a shot!)
3. Repack my bag while in the taxi so I don’t have to check the bag. Removing anything that’s not essential or must be checked. (Knowing that even if I make the flight there’s a slim chance a checked bag would!!)
4. Deep breathing exercises in the taxi. Trying not to stress about something I can’t control.
5. Get the passport, drop the excess liquids, and check in online for a mobile boarding pass. Every minute counts!
6. Be extra kind to the driver who’s just calmly done his best to get me back in time. (Gave him my card and he’ll now pick me up at the airport upon my return. So more work for the guy who made it happen, despite getting stuck in traffic and behind a Learning driver along the way.)
7. Be patient and breathe again as I’m randomly selected for additional screening at airport security. (Today of all days!!)
8. Pause for a brief glass of celebratory bubbly before buying a client gift on my way to the gate as boarding closes.
9. Board the plane with a huge sigh of relief! (Gosh, I need a nap now!)
10. Seize the moment to write a blog about my mishap. There has to be a lesson in there somewhere, right? 🙂
I was so thankful everything turned out well in the end. But as with any mistakes, failures, or setbacks, the key is reflecting on the lessons and applying them going forward.
So what lessons did I learn from my “Oh Sh*t!” moment?
1. Be kind to yourself. We all make mistakes and forget things. Beating ourselves up doesn’t help! It only creates more stress. And how we talk to and treat ourselves has a huge impact on our self-esteem and confidence going forward. Bashing it now only worsens it later!
2. Be kind to others involved as well. Taking our frustrations out on someone else makes the situation worse. (The taxi driver did his best to help so pressuring him to drive faster would have only irritated him. The security screeners were simply doing their jobs…complaining to them wouldn’t encourage them to move faster. And, let’s face it, they get enough abuse from travellers without me adding to it! As the penguins in Madagascar so finely put it, “smile and wave…”
3. Arrive early for important meetings, travel, etc., as you never know what delays may happen. Having a little extra time makes things a bit more relaxed when needing to resolve issues.
4. Understand how the mishap happened and how to prevent it from happening again. In my case…remove what got in the way! (My passport is always in exactly the same place where I can’t miss it. However, I had placed a photograph on top of it so didn’t see it when gathering my things to leave. Safe to assume that photo has been moved elsewhere.)
5. Breathe! In stressful situations, we often hold our breath and tense our bodies. That simply constricts our muscles and prevents the energy from flowing as freely. Our brains also go into the mode of problem-solving, overanalysing, and even fight, flight or freeze. When that happens we tend to operate from a primal place of irrational thought. However, when we breathe it helps to relax our nervous system and think more clearly. So breathe, breathe, breathe!
6. Take control and act on what you can, then let go of what you can’t control and accept that things don’t always go according to plan. Despite our best efforts to plan, organise and keep things under control, there will be times things don’t go as planned. Quite simply…that’s life! Stressing about the things we can’t control doesn’t help us avoid them. It just causes more tension in the body…(see point 5 for what happens when we do that!).
7. Laugh at the randomness of life and enjoy the small joys and successes along the way! (Hence my celebratory bubbly before boarding.)
Life is too short. Sh*t will happen! It’s how we react, learn and respond that makes the difference.