An hour before we were scheduled to land in St. Lucia for this year’s It’s Possible Retreat, the pilot gave us the update that the St. Lucian airport was still closed but expected to reopen at 3:00 p.m. Clean-up from tropical storm Bret was expected to be completed by then. He further stated that if airport officials weren’t ready, we would fly around for about 15 minutes or so until they were.
Then twenty minutes before we were to land, he announced that it was officially opened (loud clapping!) … we landed at 3:05 p.m. EDT.
Lucky us!
There wasn’t another airplane in sight, and immigration was a walk through.
Delta Airlines (and maybe others) had canceled their flights for that day as well – leaving hundreds of passengers both in the U.S. and St. Lucia stranded for two days in a row.
Each airline made the decision they felt was best. No judgment there.
And I was happy to be on St. Lucian soil rather than stuck in an airport, and took this lesson from the experience:
We face unknowns every day – and there is a wide range of risks that we calculate, and measure, based upon the information before us. It doesn’t suggest we be reckless and throw caution to the wind – rather it’s about finding the sweet spot that makes enough sense for you to take action.
The well-known phrase ‘leap and the net will appear’ encourages us to not let fear of failure stop us from making intelligent decisions …
Do I take a tiny, calculated step forward even whilst nursing my fears? Or is it time to take that bigger step or quantum leap?
Sometimes we reach out to others, perhaps they have a professional opinion we need or value. Other times, we bring ourselves to relax into the wisdom of our inner power.
Go on … make your move!
