My Wing Mirror Was Destroyed

First of all, I want to welcome all the staff who attended Masterclass 1 from my online Mental Resilience Programme for Pilkington Glass NSG Group this week. This was a dream come true as the NSG Group have over 22,000 staff worldwide and are one of the largest glass manufacturers in the world.
 
Thank you all for the amazing feedback from the two 1-hour sessions (one at 8am and one at 2pm to cover different time zones) as well as every one of you signing up to receive my weekly blogs. 
 
 
Attendees from across the world
 
Staff attended from across the world including China, Argentina, Brazil, Italy, Poland, Japan, UK, India, Finland, Sweden, Chile, USA, Germany and Malaysia. I want to personally thank John Wilgar the Chief Procurement Officer and Marcel Deveraux from Germany for believing in me and giving me this opportunity.
 
A couple of months ago I ran my Programme consisting of 3 x 1-hour Masterclasses to the Procurement Directors at NSG and on the back of that they have rolled the programme out to more staff. This is very exciting as these Masterclasses work very well across all parts of the world.
 
 
A great holiday
 
Two weeks ago, Julie and I had a wonderful holiday in Somerset and Devon with great weather and lots of day trips to amazing places not to mention the best Cream Tea we have ever eaten!
 
However, on this trip I learned a great lesson on mindset which will stay with me forever.
 
On the second day we set off to see a castle and some other great sites in Devon. I had pulled off the road to check my directions on my phone App. I was comfortably off the road when a lorry coming towards me slowed down for a tractor coming the other way to get past each other on the narrow road.
 
 
I couldn’t believe my eyes
 
As I sat there watching the tractor slowly move past my car, I thought that everything was ok then the machinery behind the tractor caught my wing mirror and ripped it off. Julie ran out and stopped the driver as we weren’t sure he had seen it.
 
Luckily for us the machinery didn’t touch the car and it was only the wing mirror which was destroyed. So, using the reframe technique of finding something good in every negative situation I realised it could have been a lot worse and at least the rest of the car was ok.
 
We ended up following the farmer to his farm where he taped up the mirror and gave me all his details. He has since paid for the new wing mirror which is being fitted next week.
 
 
Anger was building up
 
I stayed quite calm during this process as I was in a bit of shock, and we then set off to see the castle. However, it was playing on my mind, and I couldn’t let it go. I then let small things start to get to me and my anger was building up.
 
Those of you who have heard me speak about our emotions will know that once you start to get angry it can escalate and get worse and worse. This is exactly what happened, and Julie could see what was unfolding.
 
The day just got worse and worse ending with everything going wrong. Eventually we needed to find somewhere to eat, and a nice French restaurant was recommended by a lady in the coffee shop we were in. But because I was in a bad place, I ignored her suggestion and made a rash decision to eat somewhere else.
 
 
What a disaster
 
This turned out to be a disaster and the food was so bad that we got our money back and drove back to our hotel hungry.
 
The next day I had calmed down and Julie told me in no uncertain terms why everything had gone wrong. She said that I had created the events that occurred by having the negative angry attitude. My negativity drew in the negative things which lined up one by one. The worse it got the angrier I got and on it went. If I had been calm, I would have chosen the exquisite French restaurant!
 
This made me realise that this is the very principle I speak about in my Masterclasses, and I was ignoring my own advice. If you are positive, you bring positive things into your life and if you are negative, you draw negative things into your life.
 
 
A lesson learned
 
Last Sunday I had to go to see my mother with some shopping and do some chores in her house before I could go home and get through a long list of things I had to get done. It was a busy day which had the potential to go very wrong.
 
When I got near to my mum’s home, I saw queues of traffic in all directions on a Sunday! I couldn’t get near my mum’s home no matter how hard I tried. I then realised that it was the day of the Nottingham Marathon and the road giving me access to mum’s home was closed off. I had to find somewhere to park and walk a long way to get to her.
 
 
I was getting worse
 
Frustration was creeping in. I had a nice time with mum however and when finished I walked back to my car. I then tried to get back home, and I couldn’t. First, I was stuck in heavy traffic then I was faced with stationary traffic. I managed to do a U turn and then I was stuck again. The frustration and now anger was creeping in.
 
What on earth was going on? I was heading away from the Marathon but still in standing traffic. Then I could see the problem – there was a petrol station ahead and cars were queuing up in all directions and it was pandemonium. Yes, the petrol shortage was affecting me big time.
 
I could feel the red mist rising. I finally managed to find a way through, and I was very angry! I was driving a bit too fast then Julie’s words rang in my ears – “when you are negative you draw more negative things in.”
 
 
Then it all changed
 
I took a deep breath and drove home very slowly. I then took care of all the things I had to do calmly and relaxed. I could feel peace in the day, and I felt calm. This was a powerful demonstration of the mindset and how you deal with adversity.
 
That day in Devon I will never forget. The thing which I will always remember are the wise words from Julie and how my day spiralled out of control into a day of disaster. Fast forwarding to last Sunday a simple change in thinking changed my entire day.
 
 
Thoughts for the week 

1. How do you respond when things go wrong?
2. Do you sometimes lose your temper like I did?
3. If you, do it will get worse and worse.
4. This week be aware of your reactions to negative things happening and make the effort to take a deep breath and change your thinking then watch what happens. 

 
Well that’s it for this week have a wonderful weekend and stay positive.
 
Warm regards

John
 
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