#1807 Your Flight Is Delayed

I’m typing this from seat 6A on Southwest Airlines flight 480 that’s departing in 5 minutes from Tampa en route to Austin.

My morning was dominated.

Got up after less sleep than normal but with a Soul Force score of 101–still buzzing from the USSOCOM Awards ceremony the night before.

Skipped the normal AM meditation—saving it for the flight—and immediately started writing some +1s, connected with the Wifey and family, and then hammered a quick balcony-burpee workout before getting in my Uber and arriving at the airport 90 minutes before the scheduled departure at 12:30.

And…

The flight was delayed by three hours due to some weather issues.

My response?

PERFECT.

First of all, it really didn’t matter to me whether I spent those three hours in the hotel or in the airport.

And, I kinda sorta love it when little things like this go wrong as these little inconveniences are SUCH a perfect opportunity to practice my philosophy and strengthen my ability to step in between an undesired stimulus and a negative response and CHOOSE my best response to the situation.

I love doing this with the LITTLE things (like this!) so I can do it with the BIG things that inevitably and unexpectedly show up in life when we BETTER have gotten some reps so we have the capacity to step in between a REALLY negative stimuli and a REALLY negative response and use that challenge as an opportunity to forge some more antifragile confidence.

(Right?)

So…

After letting Alexandra know I’d be a little late, I IMMEDIATELY asked myself: “What’s my ideal response here?”

Then I systematically worked through a little protocol that went something like this…

First, as we discussed when I took another trip to Tampa, when I travel I LOVE to imagine taking the SAME trip 250 years ago.

This trip from Austin to Tampa is 1,000+ miles. That would have taken me MONTHS to do 250 years ago.

The three HOURS I’m going to be delayed?

PERFECT.

Then I reminded myself of what I already said: I really didn’t care whether I was at the hotel or the airport, I would be catching up on Heroic biz stuff anyway so that was a non-issue.

Then I figured I might as well get my 10,000 steps in by walking around outside the airport so I found a great little courtyard where I could walk back and forth.

It was hot and humid and I was basically all alone so I decided to get a little Vitamin D and some extra burpees in as I hammered out a few more sets of burpees to hit 143 burpees for the day after taking off the ol’ Heroic t-shirt and getting that bonus micro-workout in.

And…

That’s a VERY mundane example of how I used a little glitch to practice my philosophy—making it a game to see just how fast I could turn it around (speed is a force!) and use that micro-obstacle as fuel for the antifragile forge.

And…

That’s Today’s +1.

If you feel so inspired, the next time YOU face a little (or a big glitch!), see how fast YOU can step in between the stimulus and your old/less than Heroic response and CHOOSE THE BEST POSSIBLE RESPONSE.

Shirtless burpees optional. 😆

Day 1. All in.

Let’s go.

🙌 ✈️