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???????????? When it all goes wrong ????????????
I’m sitting at a church in Rockport, MO waiting for my dad to pick me up. It’s been a very long 14 hours…as I think I’ve gone from #medicoreroadwarrior to #veryterribleroadwarrior. Last night I needed to drive from LNK to KC to do a leadership training. The main highway was closed and I made the choice to take the backroads down.
That was a poor choice. About 10 miles outside my exit my rental car got stuck. I called roadside assistance and was told due to the horrible road conditions all tow trucks were cancelled and that I needed to call the police for assistance. I did, and was told that there were no officers able to assist at that time.
I. Was. Stuck. And. I. Was. Scared.
I had just listened to a podcast sent to me by a friend on hypothermia. So the good news is I knew I shouldn’t run because that would cause me to sweat and just make me colder. In full disclosure that seemed like superfluous advice as it would never occur to me to run…anywhere.
A stranger named Cody found me and offered me a lift into town. I called the police back and told them I found someone to give me a ride. They confirmed Cody was a good person so he took me to the local church where I slept on a cot. This morning I called highway patrol where they informed me that my car has been involved in an accident and was totaled (awesome). After making 795 calls I discovered the car wasn’t involved in an accident and was just sitting there…waiting for someone to do something.
So, to recap, I’m stuck in Rockport, my class was cancelled, and I have to catch a flight tonight at 8:00pm.
Here are my quick tips for what you can do when everything goes wrong.
1. Breath and find someone you can reach out to that can be your voice of reason. Last night a friend of mine texted with me for 2.5 hours and helped me trouble shoot. He looked up road conditions, rental car places near me, and hotels…things I wasn’t in a mental state to do.
2. After you breath ask yourself, what is my top priority right now. For me, it was getting to safety.
3. Ask yourself what are all the things you can do to make that happen and make a note about them in your phone. You want a visual to reference.
4. Start working your list. In this case I called the police back and asked for advice. Then when Stranger came along I called the police back…again… to confirm he wasn’t a murder.
5. Once the problem is ”kind of” resolved figure out what your next steps are. This will most likely involve asking questions. Ask lots of questions to figure out what needs to be done. My calls involved calling the client to see what they wanted me to do, calling the rental car agency to see what they needed me to do, and calling my insurance to advise on what I needed to do.
6. Once you’ve got the best information you can get ask yourself what’s the next best thing I can do to solve this. For me it was getting to KC to catch my flight out this evening. So I started working the phones and called in a favor.
7. Ask yourself what you can control. And if you can’t control it let it go. I can’t control what they do with my rental car. I can’t control if it’s damaged. I can’t control when and who is going to pick it up. I had to let all that worry go because I can’t control it.
8. Remind yourself it could have been worse and be grateful that you are safe. I could have been stuck all night. My puppy could have been with me. You know “could of” games you play. Recognize them and know it will all be ok. No matter what, all will be well.
❤️ #VeryTerribleRoadWarrior
