It’s a good question.

It’s also a good song from “Les Miserables”. That is sung by Jean Valjean. Which is a role that I’d love to play.

But I can’t sing it. Too freaking high….

…there, got the digression out of the way early…

But it’s a really good question. Because it’s easy to lose yourself. Which is a song by Eminem. Which I have no interest in singing, though I do like it…

…crap… another digression. Oh well…

I was reminded of this while stranded in the Baltimore airport yesterday.

Stranded might be too strong a term. The fine folk who handle travel for the company I now work for did a great job of setting things up. But then an airplane had an issue with it’s brakes. And if you’ve traveled a lot, you know that once travel plans start going bad, they tend to continue down that path. So a 9:45 am flight became a 4:30pm flight became a 10:45pm flight on a different airline. Again, the travel pros did a great job of getting 20-30 people rebooked on the fly, but it was a long travel day. We were flying to Detroit and then taking a 2 1/2 hour bus ride from Detroit to Grand Rapids. So we were looking at getting to our hotel around 3am.

Now, I used to travel a lot. All over the world. And when plans went astray I would have to improvise. Flights, buses, cars, group travel, lost guests, people doing dumb things. I would be part of the team that handled it all. I once had to talk a group of bikers out of beating up Taiwanese guests of mine who were posing for pictures on their Harleys. In short, dealing with “stuff”.

But it’s been a minute. And in the group I am now a part of, I tend to sit back. There are people in charge, and people who want to be in charge. I’d rather not contend for a leadership role that I’m not selected for. So, even if I think I have valuable information, that could help solve an issue, I have found it is easier for my life to keep it to myself. In Bob-speak, I don’t go to parties I’m not invited to.

If that makes any sense.

But yesterday, sitting in Baltimore airport at 2pm, looking at 8 hours until the next flight and 13-ish hours until the hotel in G.R., I suddenly remembered who I was. So..

• Check for an earlier flight to Detroit. Yup, 4:30 departure, 6:00pm arrival Detroit
• Car rental at Detroit airport, drop in Grand Rapids?? . Budget, got it.
• 2 1/2 hour drive time gets me to the hotel around 9:00pm. Hells yeah.

And that’s what I did. Looked at the issue, found a better option. Got it done.

I remembered myself. And that felt really, really good.

Sometimes I think we let other people dictate who and what we are. I tend to do that because I am easy going most of the time.

Yeah. I know. I said MOST of the time, OK?

But from time to time it’s healthy to assert yourself. To remind yourself that you exist. That you’re adaptable, capable, flexible, maybe even smart. If others notice, that’s not so bad either. Kind of a bonus. But mostly, it was for me. And no, I didn’t share the idea. Primarily because the folks who are in charge of group travel didn’t need someone advocating anarchy in the midst of their hard work and plans. I quietly told them what I was doing and they were cool with it. They are pretty cool in general. They didn’t deserve to have their plan for the group to turn into democracy, with everyone having an idea and a vote. It remained a benevolent dictatorship, which is what it should be.

So, the lesson here?

Remember yourself. Don’t let others dictate how you view yourself. In the great big world of health & wellness, I think that’s a valid philosophy.

Talk later,

Bob