𝐏𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨 𝐏𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝐆𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐞𝐭 𝐄𝐚𝐬𝐭

This morning the air on the patio is heavy. The weather forecasters blame Corn Sweat. I call it good old Midwest humidity. My coffee is strong and is helping get my thoughts moving.

As I sit here watching the sun rise and reflect off the heavy dew on the plants, I’m thinking about a simple inconvenience I experienced yesterday.

My son is in the middle of Band Camp this week, and I treated him to a fast food lunch yesterday. On the way home from delivering the midday meal, one of the roads to our house was closed as the county chip-and-sealed it, a compromise between gravel and full paving. I simply kept going, planning to take the next road.

As I crested a hill, I saw a train blocking both the road I was on and the road I had intended to use to get home.

Because of the stopped train, I had to go west to go east. My route home took me through our hometown, where I was further delayed: more construction, dump trucks, and temporary traffic control. In all, the detour added over five miles and almost twenty minutes to my trip home.

As I sit here this morning, I’m thinking back to how I reacted. I simply found the next option to make the trip home. It took me longer, but I eventually got there.

I could have easily stopped and accosted the county workers who were blocking the road at the original obstacle. I could have had a temper tantrum when the train blocked my path. The challenges in Grabill could have spawned a road rage incident before I finally had open road for the last leg of my short trip home.

I can’t help but relate this to how we react to obstacles in our work lives; whether it’s an objection during a sales call, a change of direction for a marketing campaign, or a myriad of other unforeseen hindrances to our well-crafted plans.

Maybe it’s a bit of maturity or experience that caused me to just roll with the punches yesterday. Maybe I’ve just resigned myself to the fact that I’m not in control. Or maybe I just took the detour as an opportunity to see different scenery on my trip home.

How do you react to challenges; the roadblocks that threaten to derail your plans?