Yesterday, I was emailing back and forth with Toby Ward of www.HealthyCanada.com (I'm a health and wellness expert for their site), and when I mentioned that Hurricane Norbert was barreling its way up the coast, headed straight for us, here in Cabo, he told me I should "blog from the eye of the storm". The hurricane's still about a hundred miles away right now, and looks like it'll just miss us, but I thought this would be an opportune moment to address what happens to so many of us: how can you manage to stay calm, focused and content, when everything around you seems to be going wrong or out of control?
I have a Mediterranean background, and it can show up pretty easily under pressure- I can have quite the temper. I'm also an ultra-planner and hyper-organizer of my time, so when someone throws a wrench into my plans, watch out! After all, don't I know best how to spend my time? How dare someone go and change things on me!
This has been one of the busiest months of my life, in a wonderful way. I have speaking engagements, coaching clients, media appearances and wonderful new opportunities coming out my ears - which is fabulous. But I'm having to organize my time like never before, and some days it seems like there's no way I'll get it all done. I had a business trip planned for this week, which I prepared for all weekend, and I was just about finished packing when I got the phone call - trip cancelled! I was livid. How could this happen? All this planning, organizing, all-out work to get everything done in time to leave. How could I have "wasted" so much time, when I already had so little time, as it was? It seemed so incredibly unfair. I felt like I was standing there, in the eye of the hurricane, while all my emotions, stresses, pressures and commitments swirled around and around me.
And then it dawned on me. Trip cancelled - that would mean three more days of life with my husband, here in Mexico. Writing deadlines gotten out of the way this weekend, to prepare for the trip - that would mean I could use the extra time to catch up on other things. And then, hours later, the news of the impending hurricane. If I'd been out of town these days, I might not have been able to fly back in today, as scheduled. During a storm, I like to be here at home in Mexico, to ride things out and be here with my husband.
My point is this: if everything around you seems to be going wrong, or someone comes in and throws a huge wrench in your plans, take a breath before you go off the deep end in anger or frustration. Ask yourself this: what might be good about this? Why might I be glad about all this, someday?
If you can't see the good in it right now, you probably will, in the future. Then, like I did, you might feel silly that you got so annoyed or angry, and wasted precious time walking around in a huff.
There really is a good (and I mean good) reason for everything that happens. Don't you just love that? I do.
Yesterday, I was emailing back and forth with Toby Ward of www.HealthyCanada.com (I'm a health and wellness expert for their site), and when I mentioned that Hurricane Norbert was barreling its way up the coast, headed straight for us, here in Cabo, he told me I should "blog from the eye of the storm". The hurricane's still about a hundred miles away right now, and looks like it'll just miss us, but I thought this would be an opportune moment to address what happens to so many of us: how can you manage to stay calm, focused and content, when everything around you seems to be going wrong or out of control?
I have a Mediterranean background, and it can show up pretty easily under pressure- I can have quite the temper. I'm also an ultra-planner and hyper-organizer of my time, so when someone throws a wrench into my plans, watch out! After all, don't I know best how to spend my time? How dare someone go and change things on me!
This has been one of the busiest months of my life, in a wonderful way. I have speaking engagements, coaching clients, media appearances and wonderful new opportunities coming out my ears - which is fabulous. But I'm having to organize my time like never before, and some days it seems like there's no way I'll get it all done. I had a business trip planned for this week, which I prepared for all weekend, and I was just about finished packing when I got the phone call - trip cancelled! I was livid. How could this happen? All this planning, organizing, all-out work to get everything done in time to leave. How could I have "wasted" so much time, when I already had so little time, as it was? It seemed so incredibly unfair. I felt like I was standing there, in the eye of the hurricane, while all my emotions, stresses, pressures and commitments swirled around and around me.
And then it dawned on me. Trip cancelled - that would mean three more days of life with my husband, here in Mexico. Writing deadlines gotten out of the way this weekend, to prepare for the trip - that would mean I could use the extra time to catch up on other things. And then, hours later, the news of the impending hurricane. If I'd been out of town these days, I might not have been able to fly back in today, as scheduled. During a storm, I like to be here at home in Mexico, to ride things out and be here with my husband.
My point is this: if everything around you seems to be going wrong, or someone comes in and throws a huge wrench in your plans, take a breath before you go off the deep end in anger or frustration. Ask yourself this: what might be good about this? Why might I be glad about all this, someday?
If you can't see the good in it right now, you probably will, in the future. Then, like I did, you might feel silly that you got so annoyed or angry, and wasted precious time walking around in a huff.
There really is a good (and I mean good) reason for everything that happens. Don't you just love that? I do.