Happy March, 2019 along with a Happy St. Patrick’s Day to one and all wherever you may live.
Years ago when I was in college working towards my masters and living away from home for the first time, I took public transportation from San Jose, CA to San Francisco, CA to attend a large St. Patrick’s Day celebration. On the surface it seemed responsible to attend with my best friend and boyfriend while ensuring no one would have to drive the 45 minute route back to San Jose should we all partake of the various available libations.
Well…as I mentioned, it seemed responsible…that is until we arrived at the transportation station only to watch as our “last train home” left the station. Now don’t get me wrong, we did not miss the train. No, we were there to watch it open its doors to allow us in and close them as we stood and watched without entering the train.
How could three, educated young people commit such an error? Well, as you have probably heard, failing to plan is planning to fail. The missing component of an otherwise fail proof plan was that none of us bothered to look up the train schedule prior to jumping on earlier in the evening. If we had taken just a few minutes to “slow down to be quicker” we would have noticed that, at that hour, we would have to board that different train that would ultimately connect us with our train back to San Jose.
Lessons learned:
-Never take your only two emergency contacts with you on an ill-planned adventure; there is no one to call to pick you up!
-Never “assume” someone on your team has done the prep work necessary to ensure the project’s success; take the time to confirm all logistics are clearly defined and understood by an identified someone on the team!
In the end, my best friend had a co-worker who lived across the Bay in Oakland, CA who graciously came and picked us up at 2am after we aimlessly walked San Francisco for a couple of hours. As I lay on this gracious man’s living room floor in an attempt to fall asleep I never could have imagined the future trains that would be waiting for me to board. I’m happy to report I’ve never again stood and watched as my assigned train left without me. There was that one airplane I almost missed because I drove up the wrong freeway on the way to the airport (but heck, that’s a story for another time). How about you? Is there a train (work assignment or life experience) about to leave the station with or without you on board?
No matter what type of work you perform or the task you have ahead of you, I hope you’ll always board on time. Feel free to connect with me at info@DrMarilyn-EAW.com if you’d like a couple of travel tips…
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