Jackie Leavenworth shared this question on Saturday August 11th during a lecture I was attending at the Florida Association of Realtors conference.
When things are not going right always ask yourself this little question BEFORE reacting "Is this an inconvenience or a tragedy?"
And then just this morning I was reading something and there was the same piece of advice, worded slightly different but nonetheless the same concept! Is someone trying to tell me something?
If you are cool, calm and collected at all points in life then you are really lucky and I want to be like you! If things do rattle you everyday, sometimes, or occasionally perhaps this short and simple question may be able to bring you closer to being that cool calm and collected person you really aspire to be. Maybe post it up on your computer, or on your fridge...
Living in this busy busy world, there is lots to get done and lots going on. One thing goes wrong and it can really throw off your day can't it? Guess what folks, it really does not have to! And if you remember this question you may not be perfect all the time, but I bet it will save you a lot of wasted energy.
It helped me out huge just the day after I heard it - I think it was a test! On Sunday I left the hotel at 9.30am to arrive at the airport for 10am with lots of time for my 12.15pm flight, arrive in Nassau before 2pm and hit the beach with some friends! YAY! Had my bathing suit all ready and was really looking forward to a nice Sunday afternoon. That was my plan.
Only I arrived at the airport and found out the flight was already delayed until 2.15pm which would realistically put me in just before 4pm by the time I got my bags, so the beach was out. Filled with disappointment and emotions starting to build, I asked myself this key question - Is this an inconvenience or a tragedy? Simply an inconvenience. I thought, well I have all this work to do that I did not get the chance to do while in Orlando, I will find my gate and settle down to do that. I had a very productive day in the airport, enjoyed a starbucks and the use of the free internet and power socket... not what I had planned but it ended up being not all that bad. I felt great having put in several hours of work and I was also really proud for not overreacting and wasting energy. All in all I walked out of Nassau airport at 6pm - not my first choice on how to spend a Sunday, I mean for heavens sake I could have almost made it to London in that amount of time... but life happens and you have no control over it!
This scenario could have gone a whole lot differently - When things do not go our way we get upset, angry, say and do things we always end up regretting and lets face it - looking a little bit silly! We also exhaust ourselves with negative energy of stress, which is not good for us! It is stress that is killing us. When you are not at a sense of 'ease' you are in 'dis' ease... dis + ease = disease.
So when something goes 'wrong' and you start feeling those building emotions, before reacting ask yourself
"Is this an inconvenience or a tragedy?"
(Keeping in perspective that tragedy includes things like severe illness, loss of life, a disaster, 9/11, and other life changing events)
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