Yesterday, I had a triathlon booked in the diary, but, I didn’t do it! The weather was predicted to be terrible and even the event organisers had send a warning about high winds so there was a chance the swim would be cancelled and the triathlon would become a duathlon.
On Friday evening Tony (My mate doing the triathlon with me) and I decided to not attend the event and we opted for a training day on Saturday. We went sea swimming, at a leisurely 10am, followed by the slowest transition ever, because of the coffee we had at Tony’s house, and then we went cycling for a couple of hours.
The weather was ok and we stayed dry, but you could tell the forecasters had got it right for the Sunday. The wind started to pick up and the rain came, later in the day. On Saturday the email arrived confirming the change from triathlon to duathlon so our decision turned out to be a good one.
This then freed me up to go with my wife to see her Dad and give him his card and present for Father’s day. It all worked out well and we spent a couple of hours having lunch and a couple of beers at the pub, which went down well.
I’m a big believer that all things happen for a reason and the skill is to make things work for the best, whenever possible. The original saying that “When life gives you lemons” has a ring of truth to it and it’s a good strategy to make the most of every situation, but it’s not always easy to do, in reality. There is not always a ‘silver lining’ and sometimes bad things happen, so it would be naive to expect everything to run to plan, all of the time.
Having a ‘plan B’ or being able to flex and adapt, when things change, is something that we all have to develop. This skill is becoming a standard requirement for employers when they are looking at recruiting new staff. It’s rare to ‘plug and play’ at work, there is always a need to think, negotiate, influence and collaborate.
This makes, the world of work, a very interesting place to be in and, at times, very challenging. I can’t imagine two of my days being exactly the same and I love the diversity that surrounds my life but, there are times I like the fact that some things are predictable.
The weather is one of those things that can change plans and I felt really bad for the people who had organised the triathlon. After months and months of planning, marketing, sales and communicating, everything changed at the last minute. They did really well to run the event, albeit a duathlon, and loads of people still turned up and enjoyed the challenge. I made a different choice but still enjoyed my swim and cycle, although there was no medal at the end ????
So, life is not perfect and I like the fact it isn’t. Having to make choices, decide what to do, how to do it and when to do it, makes life interesting, challenging and exciting. Don’t get me wrong, I do like stability and having some predictable, stable things in my life. I like my comfort zone, as much as the next person and I can get a bit too comfortable which is why I plan some events.
These challenge me, test my fitness and give me a reason to train, in the first place, they take me out of my comfort zone. I wouldn’t want to do an event every weekend though!
Everything in life requires a choice / decision to be made. If life is good, keep making those decisions but, if there are parts of your life that you don’t like or are not good, it might be time to make different decisions (to get different results).
Enjoy your week and the unpredictability of the UK weather!