This morning I woke at 6:00 am, rose from bed at 6:23, showered at 6:26, then packed my suitcase and was standing on the curb in front of my house at 7:08 waiting to be picked up by a Lyft driver. Obviously I keep track of time.
But I had intended to leave at exactly 6:45, so I was already twenty-three minutes late for my eight-day vacation on Maui. More precisely, I was rushing to catch a Hawaiian Airlines flight from Los Angeles International Airport because I have never succeeded in convincing a Lyft driver to take me all the way to Maui. Once, when I asked, the driver made fun of me. “That’s further than New York. Do you have any idea what the cost of fuel would be? I’d have to charge you a fortune.” Ha ha.
As my current driver darted in and out of traffic, my GPS said we would arrive at 8:21, which would leave me very little time to go through security and get to the gate before my 8:45 departure.
Traffic, of course, seemed much heavier than usual. My GPS changed the arrival time to 8:22, then 8:24, and before we even reached Interstate 405 we were scheduled to arrive as late as 8:41. That would not give me enough time to make my flight.
I called the airline to change my reservation. Ha ha. After I waited on hold for twenty-one minutes the airline representative told me that for a substantial fee they could put me on the same flight tomorrow.
No thanks.
We made up some time on the freeway, but lost it in traffic at the airport. We arrived at 8:38. I leapt out of the gray Toyota, grabbed my suitcase with carpal-tunneled hands, and “excused” myself to the front of the security line. But of course, TSA selected my carry-on for a personal search.
I need to tell you that throughout this entire process I remained calm and relaxed. I’ll admit that when my GPS showed our arrival time as 8:41 I had tensed up just a bit. I might even have been angry or scared, but in my family fear was not an acceptable emotion so I usually turn it into anger (which feels better anyway). Rationalizations can be so comforting!
I was able to stay relaxed because I realized there was no effective action I could take to speed up my arrival at the airport. I would either get seated on my flight or not, so I sat back and sort of enjoyed the ride.
I arrived at the gate at 8:46 — one minute late, and the plane was already pushing back from the gate. If that flight crashed I would not be one of the victims. But unless I’m already on them, I hate it when planes leave on time.
For an additional fee that was more than the price of my original ticket, Hawaiian Airlines graciously waitlisted me for a flight to Honolulu leaving in hour with a waitlisted seat from there to Maui. As a back-up they confirmed my reservation on a direct flight to Maui that was leaving at 5pm.
The Honolulu wait list cleared, and I’m now at 40,000 feet. With luck, I’ll arrive at the Avis Car Rental on Maui only a little more than four hours late.
So I was rushing to… why? If I can’t change a situation, then why should I worry?
Perhaps you’ll agree that I got a pretty good blog out of the experience.
Alan
SHORT QUIZ:
- How many rationalizations can you spot in this blog?
- On a scale of one to ten, how useful are the rationalizations in your own life? I would give them at least an eight in mine.