Staying Positive When Things Blow Up

I had just arrived at an 8:30 am meeting when my cell phone rang. It was one of my branch chiefs, saying that the security guards wouldn't let a consultant we had hired into the building because they had a drivers license from Maine and no other ID.

We had all the staff scheduled to start a two day writing workshop at 9:00, and the teacher couldn't get into the building, due to a new law that required IDs to be compliant with new federal security standards, which several States have decided not to follow.

I'll let be for the time being the issue of the absurdities of our security state, that prohibit access to government buildings by U.S. citizens that the government has contracted with to provide training to its staff.

The crisis at hand was that if we couldn't get the contractor into the building, we'd have to cancel the training.  My initial reaction was, "I don't know if there's a solution, but I'll see what I can do."   A key to not being pulled down the stress and anxiety hole was accepting that there might not be a solution, and we'd have to cancel the training.

I reminded myself of my intention to be positive in all things, and that this was a good test of my ability to live out that intention.

By the time I had walked down the stairs two floors to my office level, I had remembered that there was a conference room outside the security area.  I walked down to let the staff know that there might be a change of plans, then went back up a floor to the desk of the woman who schedules that room.  I explained our dilemma and was happy to find that the room was not scheduled, and that we could use it for both days.

We were able to proceed with the training as planned, other than starting a few minutes late.  This positive outcome was by no means guaranteed.  The room could have been in use, or the key staff needed to work it out could have been unavailable on such short notice.  Being willing to accept both outcomes - the one I preferred and the one I didn't - made it much easier to stay positive and work through the situation.