Speak to Me of Snow

Speak About The Positive Things

Wednesday is here and it is time to get ready to fly to Austin, Texas to speak to the Meeting Professionals International Texas Hill County Chapter. As I pulled myself out of bed my eye moved naturally toward the window. What? There has to be three, maybe four inches of snow on the ground.

In the past few days the weather reporters have been talking about some snow headed our way. It was not in the usual shrill tones they have forecasted in the last few times. I hardly ever pay much attention to weather forecasts unless it is going to have some impact on my ability to play golf.

So even though I am scheduled to be a speaker at this upcoming speaker showcase I did not pay much attention to what the weather people were saying. I was a little surprised to say the least. When my wife got up she gave me the skinny on the reports. She agreed that it seemed to be more than predicted.

It was a heavy, wet snow. It was so heavy that we could see tree branches down in many of the surrounding yards and in ours, as well. So, what to do?

Really there was nothing for me to do except pack for the trip. I was not scheduled to leave until 1:55 p.m. and that was hours from now. I was not scheduled to speak until tomorrow at 11:00 a.m.. So I went to the closet and pulled out the two suitcases I thought I would need for a four-day trip. One would have clothing and the other would have those things necessary to take a video of me while I speak.

My wife began to worry. I could hear it in her comments. She began to look at the future event (my flying out of St. Louis) and predicting all of the things that could go wrong. That is a natural reaction. She was having a fear response. She was so anxious about this opportunity to speak that she began to wry it wouldn’t happen. But as soon as she recognized it she changed her attitude to one of concern to one of acceptance.

This is a personal demonstration of the very thing I speak about to my audiences. Maybe I won’t get out on time, or at all today. But worrying about it is not going to do one thing to change the situation. Well, it will make the situation miserable.

Rather than worry about a future event, she decided to focus on the present and behave as though things were going to go off as planned. She jumped right in and started pulling various suits and sport coats from the closets and putting them together with shirts and ties.

Before long her worries about the weather transposed themselves to positive actions about my wardrobe for the weekend.

Within no time I was packed and ready to go. Because of her help we finished early and by that time the snow had stopped. There was only one thing to do: go to lunch.

The snow was beginning to melt and I was off to the airport. My flight left on time and here I am now in Austin.

Recognizing when fear is having an effect on you is important. That is one of the things I speak about. It can change your entire outlook. Learn to live beyond fear and great things will happen.

More tomorrow, after I speak.