Obstacle vs. Opportunity

I have one major flaw. I am a bit too goal oriented. When I establish a goal and someone or something chooses to interrupt that goal, I have very little patience. I reasses that goal and consider if I could be just as satisfied with a substitution. If I answer, "Yes", I set a different goal.

A couple of years ago a book came out entitled, Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson,MD. It is about is about change and how people react and respond to change. Briefly, the book talks about four people who find their way through a maze to a large cache of cheese. Each day they find their way back to the cheese and eat happily away. They become accustomed to finding the cheese in the same place, and come to expect it. One day, as you might have guessed, the cheese is gone. No more cheese. The four people, Sniff, Scurry, Hem and Haw, react quite differently to the new situation. As you read through the book, you see yourself in one or more of the people. It allows for some interesting reflection.

In my youth, I was "Scurry". I would panic and throw a bit of a fit. I was hoping to knock down the walls of the maze and any windmill in the way. Now, I do not waste my time. I reassess my goal and set my path down the new maze. In short, I change the obstacle to an opportunity.

I would have liked to have posted my classes for 2007 to the web weeks ago, but I have encountered obstacles. I have written material for some new classes and it frustrates me that I cannot even talk about them until the Department approves them.

I have encountered sales and catering at banquet facilities that never return calls or emails. I was going to use one recommended facility in Toledo, but after 6 days of non-returned calls and emails I chose the Wyndham. The director of sales was most accomodating on the phone (at 5:05pm) . This renovated riverside hotel looks charming on the internet. I am goin to give it a try.