Ever Have One of Those Days

Just yesterday, I was traveling from Indy to West Palm Beach Florida because I was invited to spend an afternoon and dinner with my mentor, John Maxwell. What a huge honor to be invited to have some time with and be interviewed by John Maxwell himself. So, needless to say, I was excited and a little scared at the same time.

I arranged my own flight, and scheduled it to leave Indy at 6:37 am … why? I have no earthly idea… it was darn early. As I parked my car in the Economy Lot, the transport bus was a stop or two away and I found a place close to booth thirteen.

I made it to the booth and on the shuttle… and then it happened… two stops away from booth thirteen, I realized I had left my phone (at the time it was labeled, my damn phone) in the car. I asked the driver to please stop, grabbed my luggage and headed off to find the car. Just so you know, at 5:30 in the morning, it’s still dark and the Economy Parking Lot is a bit confusing… I wondered around for five or ten minutes and finally found the car and grabbed my phone.

As I hurried back to booth thirteen to catch the next shuttle, I realized that it was 5:40 and after a ride past all the remaining eight booths, I might have a challenge. I finally made it to the ticket counter and asked to speak to an agent. Apparently, the airlines have a rule that if your checked bags aren’t checked within 45 minutes of the scheduled flight time… you can’t check your luggage. To complicate things just a little more, my bag was too large for carry on.

Kathleen at the ticket counter was willing to help and I told her that I believed that she was a miracle worker. She doubted that she was the miracle worker that I needed and told me so but I was relentless in my belief in her and her abilities.

Kathleen successfully got me on another flight and when I got to my seat I had more leg room than I have ever experienced on a flight.

Here’s the point. I was temped when I realized that I had left my phone in the car and found out that I couldn’t get on my original scheduled flight to just give up and let the Maxwell Team know that I couldn’t make it. Have you ever wanted to give up? What did you do?

After that initial panic thought I become more determined to make the day work out and to get to West Palm to visit with John Maxwell. I realized that stuff like that happens all the time and it would be how I responded that would make the difference in how the day worked out.