What CAN you do?

My wife and I were supposed to relax on Mallorca right now. We recently booked a ten day-trip to recharge after the excitement of our wedding. We have not had this kind of “sleeping in, not worrying about anything” vacation in years.

Our trip was cancelled less than 24 hours before our flight was supposed to take off.

Thomas Cook, the company we booked it with, entered “compulsory liquidation” this week. They are basically about to go bankrupt. The vacation we had been looking forward to for weeks vanished into thin air within hours because of something we had no control over. As of right now, we do not even know if we’ll see any of the 2500 Euro we paid for it ever again.

While this exact scenario is rare, you probably encounter similar situations at work. Something unforeseen happens, and it sucks. A product you relied on might shut down. An important client might take their business elsewhere. Your traffic might go down because of a change in Google’s algorithm. The only good reaction to those is one that gets you moving foward. What can you do with the cards you have been dealt?

Sure, we would much rather enjoy the weather on Mallorca right now, but that won’t happen. We could be sad, annoyed, or angry. We could even be furious about losing our money. None of that would change anything. Instead, we’re taking extended day-trips with our dog, painting our apartment, and bringing the vacation to us if we can’t go on vacation. We’re making the best of a bad situation, because that is the only reaction that makes sense.

I’d love to hear stories of something unforseen happening to you and how you reacted to it. You’d really make my week!