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Excerpt
Hassles, Harleys and Happiness
“How to Make Tuesday Seem Like a Friday Night”
A few weeks back, as I showed up at the Kansas City airport to board my 12:10 flight to Boston to speak the next day, I was informed that I was “flightless.” The “Midwest Airlines confirmed” text that appeared in my PDA assured me that I was flying to Boston just as the Skycap fella assured me I was NOT. After recklessly undressing my rolling briefcase desperately in search of a confirmation number, I came up empty and soon realized that I blew it. Perhaps I didn’t press the “PAY FOR THE STINKING FLIGHT BY CLICKING HERE” Button on my favorite travel website. Either way, I had no reservation and was told that every flight from KC to Boston was booked for the day. After sprinting frantically from airline counter to airline counter, I was able to scoop up the last seat on a plane to Boston. Unfortunately, what was to be a three and a half hour journey would now become a ten hour marathon. “What a way to spend a Friday morning, afternoon and evening!” I thought.
Needless to say, I was grumpy, sweaty, and angry at my lack of flight preparation. After sitting in the KC airport for several hours, I eventually boarded my plane, smiled at nobody and did the “feel sorry for me” death march to my middle seat in the last row of fifth class. After squeezing by Shrek who was sitting in the aisle seat, I stuffed my bag under the seat and stared straight ahead in silence with squinty eyes and lips tightened as if I were trying to prevent my 20-month old daughter from trying to stick her finger in my mouth. “Well, at least I don’t have a long layover in Atlanta,” I thought.
Wrong! After arriving in Atlanta I was told that my flight was delayed for three more hours, and that it would not arrive in Boston until 12:30 am. Reassume pouting position, Sullivan! As I sat in a grey pleather chair gazing at airport CNN, I noticed that other people, delayed just like me, were smiling, laughing, and joking. How dare them! Didn’t they know what was happening to them? Were they living in the Matrix…for crying out loud? Unable to stand the positive energy, I marched to an airport restaurant to grab a bite and was aghast to find that the misguided happiness was present there also. I mean…utter strangers were shaking hands, having fun and buying each other drinks. “This is madness!” I thought. I turned to a wild man in full-blown Harley Davidson garb and asked, “What’s up with the party in here?” He said, “It’s Friday, regardless of where you are.”
Then it hit me. I felt like the Grinch who had just found the meaning of Christmas. Only my “Cindy Loo Who” had a ponytail, beard and a leather vest. After being “learned” the difference between a Road King Classic and a Fat Boy, my new friend looked down at his watch, laughed and then sprinted away from me as if he had just discovered he was having a drink with Senator Craig. But then three minutes later he came sprinting back laughing while he said, “Oh well, I just missed my flight. It left 20 minutes ago. I guess I was having too much fun. No big deal…now, where were we? Name’s Big John, by the way. Oh yea, my Fat Boy has chrome disc cast aluminum wheels with…” I stopped him and said, “Wait, aren’t you mad for missing your flight?” He said, “Nah, I told you, it’s Friday. But for me, everyday is Friday. There is something about people’s moods on Fridays. Look around; if this was Tuesday, people would be different. If everybody acted on Tuesday
like they did on Friday, we would all be a hell of a lot less ticked off all the time.”
For the next few hours, I received about four more lessons on life and each one of them felt “dead on.” And each was a reminder that being grumpy, frustrated, mad, jealous, negative and impatient was nothing more than, as Big John says, “A freakin’ waste of time.” He was beginning to sound a lot like Dale Carnegie who once said:
“Feeling sorry for yourself, and your present condition, is not only a waste of energy but the worst habit you could possibly have. –Dale Carnegie
Big John eventually caught his flight, and I made that flight to Boston. But this time, as I sandwiched my stubby Irish body into the middle seat on the back row, I felt a whole lot less “sorry for myself.” And by doing so, I was able to meet two new people, who just might end up becoming two new clients. Isn’t it funny how just a change in attitude can often create a change in income opportunities!
So this week, let’s make a deal. If we find ourselves sliding into the Monday morning blues and it’s Wednesday at 2:00, let’s press fast-forward on our attitude buttons and get our minds to Friday at 5:00. Because by living life a little more like Big John, we may find a lot more “freakin” happiness Monday through Thursday.
Copyright 2008 Brian Sullivan. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.
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