Temper Tantrum or Learning Opportunity?

Saturday morning my wife called from the school where she teaches, asking me to bring her cell phone, which she had forgotten. It was essential for the lesson she was teaching.

Not being a dummy, I said, "Sure, honey."

Before getting in the car, I had two options:

Option #1: I could have viewed this 25-minute roundtrip drive as a huge inconvenience, wrecking my plans to liesurely read the newspaper over coffee. I probably would have arrived at her school in a foul mood and put my wife in a foul mood, making for a rotten rest of the morning for both of us.

Option #2: I could have viewed the unplanned errand as an opportunity to listen to an old Brian Tracy audio, "Executive Time Management," that I found the other day in the back of my closet. With 25 minutes of drive time, I could listen to half the audio and absorb a few lessons.

I chose Option #2.

And I'm glad.

Not only did I avoid wrecking my morning and my wife's with a temper tantrum, I learned something extremely valuable from Brian's audio -- something I might have never discovered otherwise.

Specifically, Brian's explanation of a PERT chart (see below) gave me a crucial insight that will help me finish a project that's been languishing for 3 weeks.

PERT Chart example

It's no exaggeration to say I may have reclaimed 2-4 weeks of effort and more than $20,000 in revenue, all based on one insight from an audio I would have otherwise not listened to had I not had to make an unplanned drive to school to bring my wife her cell phone.

What made the difference between temper tantrum (Option #1) and learning opportunity (Option #2)?

Attitude.

Instead of seeing the chore that dropped into my lap as an interruption, I saw it as a chance to learn something. And it made my morning infinitely more productive than reading the newspaper.

(Also, it led to this blog post, which is nice.)

You'll find more ideas like these in my Free Report, Guaranteed Marketing.