Throughout life we every now and then end up in situations where we “are sure” of the outcome. We can almost guarantee it’s going to go a certain way. More often than not when we exclaim as such it’s the bad outcome, not the good one, we usually have in mind.
Back in March when I checked in for my flight from New York to London I debated with my friend and her mum whether I should stick to the seat that British Airways had pre-placed me in and thereby recommended me. It was one of those seats with a cot in front of it and we argued that if one seat was taken but the other one was free, hopefully it wouldn’t be a problem. We were optimistically thinking that most people that travel with cot needing kids do so in pairs so fingers crossed the seat next to me would be child free. After all it was a good seat with extra leg room. Not that I per se need it with my 166cm, but I do get restless legs when flying and it was a night flight between New York and London, and I had a full day of work ahead of me. So, I trusted BA’s pre-selected recommendation, which is normally very good, and stuck with my seat.
The day after I boarded the plane and got to my seat only to find that next to me sat a mother with her very young child in her lap. I tried not to let the loud “Crap” I thought to myself show. Whether or not I managed to hide it I don’t know but I put on a smile, said hi and paid a compliment to the baby, who was very cute.
I absolutely adore babies and in any other circumstance I’d be thrilled to have a baby next to me, but now, with a night flight and a day of work ahead of me… I wasn’t thrilled. I was thinking about the lack of sleep I was going to get. How the baby was going to cry, the mum keep getting up, me having to move and not be able to stretch out my legs, or sleep undisturbed. I was pretty much thinking how painful my flight home and the next day was going to be, as well as how the work I had to do just wasn’t going to flow as a result. And I was thinking about how much I really wanted to sleep but wouldn’t be able to. I painted the worse possible picture in my head and I might have commented on Facebook and posted a tweet about my luck, or rather lack there of, too.
I didn’t get a second of sleep on the flight home from New York but it had nothing to do with the baby, or the mother. The baby slept from before we took off until we stood up and walked off the plane. It was a baby boy, just three months old and throughout the whole flight he just laid there peacefully on his mothers chest. Without making a sound. The mother and I ended up having a lovely time together and it was probably one of the nicest flights I’ve ever had. She was a real inspiration and we had some great conversations which left me wishing I’d taken her details so that we could keep in touch.
So. Neither the mother, nor the baby boy was to blame for my lack of sleep. Perhaps it was a result of me initially thinking too much about how I wasn’t going to sleep. Or perhaps it was down to my usual excitement that comes with long hauls. Or the fact that I was simply having such a good time. I don’t know. But I do know that I wasted time and energy thinking how the mother and the child were going to ruin my flight. In fact I owe them an apology for thinking so. And I definitely shouldn’t have posted my Facebook-update-and-tweet-for-sympathy about my luck, or rather lack there of in terms of seating on the plane. Though it was fairly light hearted, it was a complaint in a shabby looking and smelly disguise.
Life doesn’t always turn out the way we think we “know” it will. It goes for the good and the bad. But, we always have a choice in how we approach the situations we are faced with in life. Be they at work or outside. There are simply better things that we can be spending our time on than complaining, particularly when we don’t actually have anything to complain about yet. Like me and the baby on the flight.
It’s worth thinking twice about how everything we share verbally or through social media spreads. Both as a reflection of ourselves, but also in terms of how our attitudes and what we have to say affects others. Venting negative comments or attitudes about situations does nothing but spread that negativity, and in a workplace as well as outside of work our attitudes and comments are infectious. It’s easy to drag other people into a circle of negativity but slightly harder to get out of it.
So, the thing I want to leave you with is this: Next time you end up in a situation where you think “I just know how this is going to turn out” try to keep an open mind and remember this:
If you have positive and happy expectations, the worst that can happen is that you have been happy unnecessarily
Besides, I’m not sure there is such a thing as being happy unnecessarily.
Image source: www.flickr.com/photos/jphilipson/5227829933
