The other day I attended our annual company (SNC) focus meeting for 2010, which we had a guest speaker John Miller who wrote “QBQ! The Question Behind The Question” which turned out to be very entertaining with a message of self accountability. He had a lot of great examples about his family and work life. One of his messages was turn a bad situation into a good one by showing compassion and displaying positive actions when no one else would. Today I had the chance to use this when I took my family out to Macaroni Grill restaurant and a waiter clumsily spilled a full large glass of coke on my sports coat (fresh out of the cleaners) and some on my son Josh from the runoff of the table. Accident of course, but you could tell he was completely embarrassed as customers from nearby tables witnessed the fine display of coke and ice splattered all about. At first the blood rushed to my head as rage was the first emotion I experienced. Thankfully, I took a deep breath and paused for a second before letting my emotions fly in an ill verbal manor. I put myself in his position and thought how bad he must have felt. Then I assured him in a calm voice that all was ok, nothing that can’t be cleaned-up, and to please bring some extra napkins. My wife even put a positive spin on the situation and said with a chuckle thanks for taking the brunt of it for she was sitting on the inside with a new dress. The four of us could not help but to laugh a little as the host moved us to a dryer table. We assured the waiter again that all was fine and that we will first order rain gear before drinks as we got him out of his apologetic attitude and got him to laugh with us. The rest of the meal went great, and we left him with an awesome tip. We could have left leaving the waiter in a bad position which may have set the tone for the rest of his day, but we turned a bad situation around and made a positive, entertaining, experience for him and us. This stuff really does work!
Training: My last hard week of training ended with 90 miles and a lot of great quality runs. I had back to back to back 15 mile runs, 10 mile tempo run, weight training, and hill repeats. My long run went well except the balls of my feet started to get sore towards the end which I account to the high mileage (hopefully). I didn’t have this problem on previous long runs and all I did different on this one was break in a new pair of shoes. Now it’s taper time, which I need to cut back on my food consumption with my activity level lowering. This is a tough time because my energy level goes out the roof with fewer miles on the feet, and the race starts to consume every thought as the days near. Also, this will be my first race without my crew so I will be doing a little more planning with my drop bags then usual. They were looking forward to TX but our schedule got really busy and the opportunity was not there. Nonetheless, I feel strong and positive about TX and look forward to the solo challenge as I get my mind wrapped around what lies ahead.
A word of thanks to all you that visit my blog, and all the inspiring thoughts and vibs you leave. I greatly appreciate it and look forward to seeing what is developing in your world.
9 comments:
It's always good to take a breath before reacting. Recently my son dropped a full jug (plastic) of juice on our new carpet. The jug broke in the process and instead of yelling (which would be my usual MO) I handed him a sponge a told him it was a pity that the jug had broken because I'd left it to him in my will. (I did mention that it was plastic - cheap plastic and almost 20 years old). We all laughed.
Good luck with the taper and don't think too much.
It is so easy to see or be negative. Finding the positive and/or being compassionate sometimes takes more work. Awesome of you to take a minute and let the accident pass. I am sure you made the waiters day that much more bearable.
Thanks so much for the great post. I've been searching for blogs like this now for 30 minutes and i finall found one
that's worthwhile. I'm really into video games, do you have any information on the new Call of Duty? I know this
is off topic, but I thought I'd ask. Thanks...oh also, I have some video game writings if you want to check them
out. Here are a few of them
Magic The Gathering Tournament
Magic The Gathering Ravnica
Play Video Games
Making the effort to be positive really does make things better off in the long run. I've been working on this for the last few years -it's still a work in progress, but worth it.
Try to enjoy your taper... it is almost February!
i LOVED this! i have been trying to work on having a more positive attitude, though some days are better than others.
i absolutely love how you took a deep breath and then brushed it off. it was just soda - easy to clean up like you said, and the waiter obviously didn't do it intentionally. not only did it keep his day from drowning but i am sure it also saved yours/your family's too!
also had to laugh at char's story with her heirloom jug!
Congrats on the taper...concerning your comment...how long do I need to bike or do the stair stepper to make it an equilvalent run?
Have a great time in TX!
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