A couple of months ago, I created a situation for myself that caused me to laugh out loud at myself in an empty parking lot and ended up with me a little lighter in the wallet. I share this humourous story with you in the hope that you can find some humour in it too, and perhaps see behind the story itself and learn how we all have a choice on how to act when things go wrong.
Most mornings at my home, I find myself leaving the house while my wife gets a few minutes of extra time under the covers easing into her day. My routine is usually to shower, dress, breakfast and then don coat and shoes and drive to work. On this day however, my wife rose early and started watching the news on television. As I stood at the doorway, I was interested in the news story being covered, and kept my eyes on the screen as I slipped on my shoes at the door. One shoe slipped on effortlessly, the second needed a little wiggling, but soon slipped on. I kissed my wife goodbye, put out the garbage and recycling, got into the car and drove the 1 hour to work – a trip of some 95 km’s.
It was only when I parked my car at work and stepped out that I saw my footwear for the first time. One black shoe and one brown one! AND that’s not the most amazing thing. The brown shoe was the slip on variety and the black one was a lace up shoe I hadn’t bothered to untie the night before! Right there in the parking lot, I laughed aloud at my situation. Going home to change sure wasn’t an option at this point.
Up in my office I looked up on the computer to see when the local shoe store would open and found that it opened at 9:30a.m. It was now 7:40a.m. I decided not to get annoyed with myself having no one to blame but myself. I immediately started speaking with my Supervisor and co-workers who did not immediately notice my faux pas. When I pointed this out to them and told them the story, they burst out laughing WITH me, not at me. I found out that several of the women I work with keep alternative shoes at work; some have runners for walking, some have pumps if the heels get too much etc. Not me.
I ended up taking my mid morning break at 9:30 sharp, and in less than 15 minutes, had left, gone to the store, bought a pair and returned to work. The $69.99 shoes I wanted were unavailable in my size, but in the ‘last pair’ section, I found a pair of leather slip on shoes originally $99.99 marked down to $19.99 in my size only! I guess the gods, just like me, were smiling that day.
When I went to the counter to pay, I told the clerk I’d just wear them out of the store and asked for a bag for my old ones. She knew it had been raining and asked if my old shoes had leaked. I told her it was far worse than that and just help up the mismatched pair for her to see. She laughed too.
My misfortune of the morning cost me $19.99. I learned to laugh at myself, and brought laughter to my colleagues, a stranger, and one client. All in all, that’s a trade off I’d make any day…but I do check my footwear each morning just a little bit better….!
Employment Counselling with Kelly Mitchell 