Read This Before You Decide to Stop Trying

My AWESOME Chicago Team with Autumn Calabrese (the creator of the 21 Day Fix)

It is really fascinating when I think about how easy it is to give up.

We give up on the little things, like when your kids keep asking for a cookie in the late afternoon, and finally you give in.

We give up on more important things, like nutrition. I failed once today and it would be easy to just throw in the towel all together.

We give up on dreams. After all, it is easier to stay where we are.

that much red lettering is not a good thing

But…. we sometimes don’t know just how close we are to success when we choose to quit trying. It is when you are convinced that you should give up that you ABSOLUTELY have to keep going. This much was clear from my adventures last week.

On Friday, I was scheduled to travel to Chicago on a 9 am flight and join my Rock Star Diamond Coaches for dinner that evening. On Saturday, I would attend a Team Beachbody sponsored quarterly Super Saturday event with them. I almost didn’t make it.

You may have heard on the news, but circumstances beyond my control contributed to both major Chicago airports being closed and all flights from Phoenix to Chicago were cancelled. I showed up to the airport to catch my morning flight to learn that I had been rescheduled to fly at 6:30pm Friday night.

Although I appreciated the airline proactively re-booking me for a later flight, taking that flight meant I would miss the dinner and have less than 24 hours in Chicago with my team. That really negated even making the trip. The gate agents at the airport were doing their absolute best to help me, they even looked for flights on other airlines. Unfortunately everything was either full or cancelled.

I didn’t want to accept that I wouldn’t be able to fulfill my commitment. So, I decided to walk over to another airline’s ticket counter to see what they could do for me. I got the same answer, there was NOTHING they could do for me. At this point I was texting some of my leaders on my team, letting them know what was going on. At the same time, I was receiving texts from other leaders urging me to figure out a way to get there.

Texts of encouragement from my team kept me looking for options

I called my husband and we discussed various options. For about 10 minutes, it sounded like the best choice was to turn back, find my car and head home. I would have to just accept that I couldn’t get there and hope the team would understand. That choice would have been easier on me and my family. The situation with the airports was beyond my control and it would have been logical to have settled for that. In fact, I was about to do that.

But you know what? Deep in my heart I just knew I had to make this trip happen. I didn’t know how and I sure didn’t know if it WOULD really happen, but I realized I had to try. Sitting there, knowing I was about to give up, didn’t feel right. For a few seconds, I had given up, but then I got another text telling me “YOU HAVE TO BE HERE. We are so excited to see you… Try flying into Milwaukee or Rockford. DO whatever it takes and just get here!”

How close are you to success?

Because I already had this uneasy feeling about walking away, combined with the texts from my team made me decide to go back to the ticket counter and ask about other options. I overheard the man standing next to me ask about the 7:45 am flight that was delayed (hmmm, I wasn’t aware of that flight earlier). The agent said she could put us on that flight but there would be no guarantees it would take off, but we should go to the gate and take it from there.

Turns out, I got one of the last seats on that flight and headed over to the gate. After about 45 minutes they began to board. WOW. This was really going to happen! And to think I had almost given up. At that moment, I was proud that of my choice to be persistent. I was thankful my team members had encouraged me to keep trying, no matter what.

When I got to Chicago there were more than a few people who couldn’t believe I made it there on Friday (see the Facebook posts below). I was pretty impressed as well.

This experience was a really tangible reminder that we have to do things that aren’t comfortable. As leaders this is especially true. When all of the chaos broke out at the airport it was really tempting to give up and say, “I can’t,” “It isn’t worth all of the hassle,” “My team doesn’t really need me.” But reality is, you never know what you’ll be able to accomplish if you just stick with it.