Not everything happens just as you’ve planned it – we both know this.
But I don’t really like the whole “plan B” thing… If I don’t truly believe that my plan A is going to work out, then why am I doing it in the first place?
Don’t get me wrong – I’m an OVER-preparer, and what I DO like is the whole “pivot” thing: essentially, being prepared to change course if / when necessary.
Working hard, minus the results
You know when you work really hard for something – you spend a ton of time and energy creating something, preparing for something, putting something together – and then the results you were expecting don’t come through?
Not too long ago I was prepping for a flight from San Diego, CA to Portland, ME – not a quick trip, but one I’ve made several times.
I had spent the week leading up to my trip preparing for the whole airport / check in / travel deal, and also getting ahead with my content since I knew I would be away from my computer for longer than normal.
I made sure I had plenty of time to get to the airport (I’m the one who shows up 2 hours early even though I’m TSA pre-check approved AND have secured boarding in Group A via Southwest), and upon arriving at my gate, I noticed there was going to be a slight delay.
Being prepared to change course (pivot)
I typically don’t let this sort of stuff throw me off…
“No biggie, I’ll make it to Portland regardless, so there’s no reason to panic or be upset.”
But as the delays kept on coming, I decided to check my TripIt app and saw the following notification:
“WARNING! Connection in danger!”
See, I was connecting through Baltimore on the 9:35pm flight to Portland, ME, and when my 55 minute layover quickly dipped to a 35 minute layover, TripIt got concerned.
Ok – let’s be honest – I was getting concerned, too!
I started thinking about what it would look like if I missed my connection: spending the night in Baltimore, having to get a hotel, trying to book an alternate flight…
Like I said, I love being prepared, and so naturally, I just did a quick check to see about alternate flights – just in case I had to change course.
Here’s what I found out: given the time of night, there were no alternates flights from Baltimore to Portland – if I missed my connection, I was definitely stuck for the night.
At this point, my wheel were really turning – how could I change course to prevent missing my connection?
AH-HA! I was at the airport 2 hours early for my flight… Maybe there was another flight leaving San Diego and going to Baltimore that wasn’t delayed that I could jump on?
Oh yeahhhh…
I found a flight going to Baltimore – leaving in 15 minutes – and I was feeling mighty flexible: ready to pivot all the way to my new departure gate…
FULL FLIGHT – with a waiting list in full effect.
No go.
My last hope was to sit tight and hope that we’d make up time in the air.
I had exhausted my options for changing course; I immediately brought myself back to the present and insisted on not trying to predict the future: everything would be fine.
Things aren’t always as they seem
We landed in Baltimore at 9pm, giving me 35 minutes to make my connection- or so I thought.
Once we landed, the pilot made the announcement that we didn’t have a gate to pull into, and that because of other delays, he wasn’t sure how long we would have to wait…
At this point in time, I could hear the clock ticking in my head.
20 minutes passed, and we were still sitting. Waiting.
That’s when I realized the situation I was in: everything I had done to prepare for this trip – everything I had gone through and planned out just right to get myself to Portland, ME that night – was very likely going to change.
The situation was quickly turning out nothing like I had planned or expected it to.
Trips are kind of like business: Unpredictable until you start
You can plan, prepare, try and predict all you want, but when it comes down to it, you’ll never know until you JUST START.
There’s nothing I wanted more as we sat there on that plane than to just pull into a gate – any gate – and walk over to my next gate. That was what my roadmap looked like for the day: prep, get to airport, board plane, layover in Baltimore, board plane, land in Portland.
Lucky for me, that’s exactly what ended up happening. Turns out, even though we didn’t pull into a gate until well after my flight to Portland was supposed to leave, that flight had also been delayed.
I made it!
But that feeling of not knowing was tough. All I wanted was that feeling of knowing my roadmap would take me exactly where I wanted to go – where I had planned and expected to end up.
Do you ever feel this way with your business? Like you wish you had a roadmap that you knew would guide you in the right direction to creating and growing your online business?
I have it for you.
Now make no mistake: this is only a roadmap – not a guarantee that you will have a successful business in X amount of months.
YOU have to take action and JUST START in order to find out whether or not your business will work – but that’s just it: you’ll never find out until you start.
This roadmap that I have for you is called The Fire Path Roadmap, and it’s a free, 6 day email course that will serve as your step-by-step guide to creating your online business. This is not theory – it’s the exact steps every entrepreneur needs to take in order to create a successful and sustainable business.
So if you’re ready to take allll the guesswork out of creating your online business, then sign up today to gain access to The Fire Path Roadmap course!
