"Disappointment is a necessary exercise designed to strengthen your resilience" - Futurist Jim Carroll
There is never any progress without disappointment along the way! You'll never achieve anything if you never encounter a few hurdles in your path. As soon as you get your hopes up, you should always be in the right mindset to bounce back quickly in case those hopes are dashed!
Right about now, at the very moment I am writing this post, I should have been on this plane right about here.
I'm not.
Instead, I'm sitting on my deck at home, writing this post.
The backstory? I was set to keynote a major conference in the United Arab Emirates, and as things sometimes go, it was canceled at the very last minute. I mean, very last minute! That's actually kind of ironic because one of the slides in my deck references the idea that 'volatility is the new normal, uncertainty is our new reality, and resilience is our new agility.' Without going into any details, and after a Zoom conversation with the client, I certainly understand this unique situation and the reasons for the fast turn of events.
Even so, I'm pretty disappointed that my role in the event is not going ahead, but I've also learned how to take these types of things in stride and roll with the flow. Like any speaker, there are some pretty significant cancellation classes at play so I'm whole. And they are talking about bringing me back in February for another event, so there is that.
But still. It's a big disappointment. I love my time on stage, and I love the opportunity to share my insight on trends and tomorrow.
Instead, today, I'll golf.
This is not the first time this has happened to me - over my speaking career, with about 2,000 events in my roster, I've probably had 10 or 15 short-term cancellations at the last minute. That's a really small number - some have been critical last-minute events outside of the control of the client, while others have involved an illness or other circumstances. And then there was 9-11 and the pandemic. S*** happens.
In any type of career or executive role, we have to learn to roll with the punches. Doing that means getting into a mindset that doesn't let our disappointment with circumstances outweigh the pluses. So what are the pluses here? First, working with my client, we jointly developed a wonderful, 300-foot wide slide deck that captured my thinking on trends in the context of their issues in a new and different way - a brief sample here. This certainly gives me a lot of ideas on what I can do with my slide decks going forward. That's a plus!
Not only that but to focus on the issues the client was thinking about, I spent some time researching some fascinating new, critically important trends that will feed directly into another client engagement I just confirmed for later in the month. With that effort, I've developed a new appreciation for some key issues that organizations are thinking about. That's a big plus - when you are someone who shares insight on trends, it's always good to gain insight into other trends that people might be thinking about.
Plus, today I get to golf, in 20C temperatures. That's a plus.
Through the years, I've learned a little bit more about how to manage my disappointment, building up my resilience and agility to deal with the next set of unforeseen circumstances. Because after all, volatility is the new normal, uncertainty is our new reality, and resilience is our new ability.
That's the thing about disappointment - we can let it be negative, swirling around in our consciousness and setting us into a mood - or we can consciously decide to try to move on from it to focus on the positive things that came with the circumstance. In business and our personal lives, we are regularly going to find ourselves in situations that are less than optimal. We can bounce back, shape our mindset, and reinforce our optimistic attitude that will ensure our continued success and opportunity in the future. That's how you move forward, not back.
All in all, while it's a disappointing set of circumstances, overall it's a win.
At least I continue telling myself so.
So while I'm not currently on a jet setting off for a wonderful little speaking adventure, I have worked hard through my disappointment to see the silver linings through the noise!
Fore!
Futurist Jim Carroll will try to make sure he isn’t disappointed with his golf game today.