You always have a choice
When the unexpected happens....
Over the Easter weekend, I did what a lot of us did and visited family. I had a great couple of days and set off for the 2 hour drive back home on Easter Sunday.
Except it wasn’t 2 hours, it turned into 3 due to a crash on the motorway. Thanks to the power of Google Maps, there was a diversion, which took me round a very rural and picturesque area of the south of England. Me and what felt like hundreds of others on the same diversion.
I ended up down a one track road going up and up a hill past livery yards and farms with the occupants probably wondering what on earth was going on. I was glad there was a car in front of me, evidently on the same diverted route, as I would seriously have started questioning the tech and where it was taking me!
All was well, until we hit a long line of cars, no doubt all putting their trust into the map app and we hit a standstill and the estimated arrival time home kept extending and extending.
(Sunshiney photo because no-one wants to look at a queue of traffic!)
At that point, I wasn’t going anywhere and with at least an hour to go. I could have let frustration take over, I could have got annoyed at the situation, but there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t turn around, I couldn’t move forward, I was stuck in a queue with a lot of other drivers, all trying to make their way home.
...you always have a choice
What I chose to do in that moment, sat in the car, foot on the clutch (because every time I put the brake on and put the car into neutral we’d start crawling along again!), and aching legs, was to take the positives from the situation.
I was safe, I wasn’t in the middle of nowhere on my own, it was a nice day and the scenery was gorgeous and even some horses along the way!
So I embraced it, instead of letting frustration get the better of me. I felt gratitude for what I had and the situation I was in, and that felt better almost immediately.
Finding the glimmers is always within your control
Because there’s always a choice, and we’re in control of that choice whether we think we are or not.
The only thing that would have happened had I chosen to be frustrated with the situation I found myself in, is that I would have wound myself up. And only me. No-one else would have felt the impact, just me, sitting in my car. I would have been angry, frustrated, all the negatives that wouldn’t have served me.
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian psychiatrist, neurologist, and Holocaust survivor, surviving 4 concentration camps during WW2. In his book, Man’s Search For Meaning, he says,
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
I chose the better option – to see the positives – the glimmers in the situation. And I felt better, calm and relaxed.
By the time I got home, I was tired, but I was relaxed and glad to be home with a cuppa and the cats and I enjoyed the moment.
So I’ll leave you with this:
What choice could you make to make the best out of an unexpected situation?
What if you changed your perspective and your approach?
What could that change for you?
With love,
Nicky
English