First Monday of the New Year and I was feeling jazzed. I am looking forward to a huge year.
To me there’s no better way to start the year than by getting on an early morning flight to do a keynote to open up a company’s annual sales meeting.
It was 6 a.m. We had boarded the plan, they had closed the door and we were getting ready to push back from the gate.
Did I mention how jazzed I was with the new year starting?! The tarmac is covered with snow, it’s a brisk 6 degrees outside, and we are getting ready to go!
And then. We wait. And we wait.
After nearly a 50-minute delay, finally a de-icing truck shows up.
Sixty-five minutes after pulling away from the gate, we’re finally heading to the runway. I’m laughing to myself, because earlier I had been thinking about how fast I was expecting things to gear up for the year and I’m already experiencing a flight delay.
After landing at O’Hare late, the captain came on and apologized for being late. Then he said we had a medical emergency and upon arrival at the gate, we needed to remain seated to make way for EMTs to board.
Naturally I began to wonder what the emergency was and I prayed it wasn’t something serious. I admit I didn’t notice anything during the flight, but then again, as my wife always reminds me, I never notice anything on flights because I’m too busy working.
As the door opens, EMTs come on and surprise, the emergency is the person sitting directly across the aisle from me. It seems the person had become quite ill during the flight and they needed to remove him immediately.
Yes, another 10-minute delay for the medics and finally I’m off the plane. Yes, I’m certainly hoping the person is OK and the delays really began to seem irrelevant, all things considered.
There are so many ironies about the flight from which I can learn.
One, regardless of what you expect, stuff happens. Two, some things you notice and others you don’t. Many of the things you don’t notice are because of your own failure to see what’s happening around you.
For me I was too engrossed in my work to notice the fellow passenger enduring a medical condition.
Three, it’s important to be flexible and not let things around you determine your day. It was my decision as to how to respond to the “minor details.” The last thing I was going to do was allow myself to react the way a passenger behind me chose to react by throwing a fit about the delay in de-icing.
The year ahead is going to be good. I believe that with everything in me! Sure, there are a lot of unknowns, but I’m determined that regardless of what happens, I’m going to make it a good year.
What about you? How determined are you that this will be a good year?
Copyright 2015, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog. Mark Hunter is the author of High-Profit Selling: Win the Sale Without Compromising on Price.
