To Sulk or Not To Sulk

by Kristi Willis

One of my favorite quotes is from Albert Einstein, “Many people are trapped in their every day habits – part numb, part frightened, part indifferent. We must keep choosing how we are living.” The other day I was reminded of exactly what he meant when he said this.

As you may have picked up from other posts, the trainers at The Effective Edge are on the road quite a bit. Typically, we are home by Friday, but a few weeks ago, I had to travel home on a Saturday.

To maximize my weekend, I took the first flight out of Boston which would get me in by 11:00 am on Saturday. I would get in early enough to go to the farmers market, get my chores done and be able to watch the Final Four basketball games with my friends.

The flight left on time and things were looking good. I sprinted through the Houston airport to catch my connection, rounded the corner to the gate and there they were, the dreaded words – DELAYED. The plane was coming in from somewhere else with bad weather and now my flight home was going to be 2 hours late.

I was devastated. I’d been gone all week, I was tired and I just wanted to go home. Going to the farmers market on Saturdays is one of my favorite things to do and now I was going to miss it. I could feel a full scale pout coming on. I wanted to throw myself in a chair and sulk.

And then I remembered Einstein’s words. I took a deep breath. I couldn’t control the flight or change when I was going to get home, but I did have a choice to make. I could choose to sulk and pout or make good use of my time in the airport.

With a roll of my eyes and shrug of my shoulders, I muttered under my breath, “Alright, I’ll be productive,” and grabbed my laptop. I looked through my list for any personal chores I could do online and got going. I put that book I want to read on hold at the library, found a shop by my dry cleaners where I could buy my new workout swim suit, and posted a new article to my personal blog.

By the end of the two hours, I had knocked six things off of my list and had condensed my home chore list down so that I could make very good use of my time once I got home. I didn’t get to go to the farmers market, but I did make it home safe and sound to a beautiful spring day in Austin. I had time to get the critical chores done and still made it to watch the game with friends.

I could have let that delayed flight ruin my day, but instead I think I made the right choice. Thanks Einstein.