I was relaying an experience I had the other day with a friend, and a few hours later, she emailed me an image from my book, Profit Domination. How Successful Women Get on Top and Stay There.
This one image she sent me, (straight out of my own book!) really put things in perspective after the hellish experience I had: “Be Grateful. Hard times are just life’s way of forcing you to put your big girl panties on.”
We’ve all heard that endearing phrase before, and possibly got a visual, but what does it really mean? Life happens, shit happens, stuff doesn’t always go the way we want! But we gotta suck it up and deal with it. Keep forging ahead.
Yup, we all have these moments, and those are the days that we need to put our BIG Girl Panties on.
Sometimes life feels like it is not on your side, or the stars and moon are colliding and your whole world is going to blow up. Our BIG Girl Panties are our shield to life’s shards of glass, to battling the villain. It’s our Kryptonite. Superman has nothing on us. And neither does my idol, Wonder Woman. Even she wore her big blue panties to fight crime! We are the REAL Wonder Women.
In business, it’s all about mindset – and I probably don’t have to paraphrase this again, but will anyways, when shit hits the fan, you gotta put your big girl panties on and make it to the finish line!
So recently I was forced to put my big girl panties on, not once, but at least 10 times during a 24-hour period! Here’s a story that you just can’t make up and it’s funny as hell. And it happened to me….
Have you ever had one of THOSE days? You know what I mean; nothing goes right from the moment you open your eyes to the moment you fall dead in bed.
I woke at 5 am, which is enough to kill me, to catch an early morning flight to the USA. I knew I was doomed the moment I jumped out of my skin when the 2nd alarm went off (I had to set 2 alarms just in case).
The night before I was waiting for an email that I needed to forward to my team by midnight the night before. The email didn’t come so I woke up hoping that maybe it came through that morning – maybe that was my first warning sign that everything was about to go downhill from there.
The email had come in but the document didn’t. Panic set in when I realized the Internet crashed somewhere between midnight and 5 am (why does this happen?). I texted the sender hoping and praying that she would get my cry for help before I left for the airport. I texted her home and probably woke the baby.
To my chagrin she was up, or was now! After several attempts to reboot the Internet and trying to get my butt out the door all at the same time, I was starting to sweat. I HAD to get out the door at 6 am to make the 60-minute deadline before the airline computers shut down. I had completed the online boarding info the night before but I still needed to check a bag. It was now 6:15.
Then the worst happened: my suitcase zipper got stuck! I was reefing on the thing, then cursed a few times, crawled into the crawl space to get another suitcase…it was now 6:20 am.
I quickly threw all my items into the other suitcase, threw the suitcase in the car, threw myself in the driver seat and peeled out of my driveway thinking I could still make it if I drove really fast.
There is not supposed to be traffic at 6:30 in the morning! “Crap,” I thought. “It’s stop and go. I am only 20 minutes from the airport and as I putter along, I am barely half way there…with 7 minutes to get to the check in counter.”
Shit! I’m not going to make it and it’s only a 24-hour quickie trip to shoot video…I have to get on that plane! I still need to park and jump on the shuttle to take me from the parking lot the airport.
I managed to find a parking spot as soon as I get into the parking and it was right by the entrance to where the bus was waiting. I squealed into the parking spot and screamed at the bus driver to WAIT!
When I get to the airport I run like my hair is on fire (and I have a sprained ankle!) to make that 60-minute deadline, pushing people out of my way. Picture a frazzled Meg Ryan.
The ticket guy is not-so-patiently waiting for this lady to finish her tyrant on why she missed her plane (after all, it was his fault).
I couldn’t take it anymore so I stopped her mid sentence and said; “Sorry to be rude but you already missed your plane, I don’t want to miss mine” and then I shoved my passport and boarding information into the ticket guy’s hand and said to him; “I have to get on this plane! I already have my ticket so here’s my bag! Hurry!”
His stare said it all; “Ma’am, you’re late by 3 minutes, the computer is closed”. Double damn. The first thought that went through my mind was; ‘wow, I made it and only 3 minutes late, how the heck did I do that?’ So not needing to think about that right then and there!
I wasn’t giving in or giving up. So I begged. I pleaded. I almost resorted to batting my eyelashes.
It worked! Check in guy took pity on me, so he said, and checked the bag, which was so not allowed from regulations Canada.
Phew, I’m in the know! I was still thinking; ‘I rock! How the hell do I manage to make it with only 3 minutes to spare?’
Anyway, I go through security and meet my friend and travel partner Karen on the other side. We decide to take a breather and chat (we are so good at that!)
My running with a sprained ankle days, however were so NOT over….“Odette Laurie and Karen Collauctt, please report to Gate A1. We are closing the doors in 1 minute.” Shit! Let’s run!
By the time we got to South Carolina I was done. I was exhausted, I was feeling grungy and I still hadn’t sent over the document that was due midnight the day before.
Everything worked out in the end. Document was provided 10 minutes before I shot the video (I was almost shot for that!) and off we were, 24 hours later, back to the airport.
If that wasn’t enough, we once again were called to the gate (geez, what is up with that?) only to wait 2 hours for a crippled plane to be fixed. I don’t know about you, but I don’t really want to get on plane that has ‘technical difficulties’. By this time we land in back home it’s 2;30 am and I am ready to hit the sheets….but oh no, for the first time in my life, my luggage was lost!
Seriously? You make us hurry up and wait, it’s a 24-hour trip I barely got on in the first place, and now I have no luggage.
I did get my luggage 2 days later and all was good with the world because I wore my BIG GIRL PANTIES the whole trip. Just like Wonder Woman.
If you want to wear your big girl panties, maybe it’s just time for some inspiration. Sign up here for my email coaching series Get Motivated. Take Action. Make Money. Moving You From Stuck to Successful!