Brian Johnson recounts a travel day with multiple flight cancellations and describes how he intentionally applied his 'reactive discipline' philosophy to turn irritation into opportunity. The narrative includes concrete micro-actions (celebrating staff, finding adjacent agent line, movement/exercise, gratitude) and defines three disciplines (structural, reactive, expansive) with pointers to related Plus One episodes and Phil Stutz's book.
Chapters
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another heroic plus one. I started typing this on board a Delta plane, getting ready to head back home to Austin from Norfolk, Virginia via Nashville, Tennessee. My flight last night was canceled, which of course provided the perfect opportunity to practice our philosophy. Here's a rough snapshot of the last 18 hours. STEP 1 Flights canceled. Flip the switch. Invite the best version of myself to show up as I commit to stepping in between a negative stimulus, the flight being canceled, and a less than heroic response whining about it. Boom. Let's go. Michael and I checked into a hotel near the airport late. I got up early, one of the very few times I'll use an alarm this year, hammered the 11 minute 101 Burpee Hotel workout, which I absolutely love, and decided to find as many micro moments of awesome as possible this morning. The micro moment target fest started with the Uber driver, then the woman checking me in at the airport, then several TSA folks. I took a moment to celebrate the TSA supervisor for his great staff. He pointed to a sign with a QR code on it and asked me to do a quick survey as most people just complain. I said, roger that sir. And all of that wound up leading to some really special moments as I asked for his name and a couple of people on his team. Now it's hard to put into words just how powerful these simple intentional micro moments of awesome are for me. I'm buzzing, typing this feeling into the power of positivity resonance. Then literally as I typed that while sitting on the plane past the time we were supposed to take off, the pilot came on the airways and told us that unfortunately they had a mechanical issue and that flight was also being canceled. So of course I laughed. The heroic gods are so wonderfully clever, aren't they? Then I got off the plane. The new flight is in six hours. Perfect. I flipped the switch again and asked myself a simple question as I enjoyed a reactive discipline training session. Question what's the best possible response to this answer? Thank the heroic gods for their cleverness and have fun practicing your philosophy. Then I smiled. Then I thanked the heroic gods for another little opportunity to practice my philosophy as I reminded myself how long it would have taken me to make the same trip a couple hundred years ago and committed to not whining about six hours being tacked on to what would have been a six month trip. Then I found an agent to get me on the next best flight pro. Tip with that one. Don't stand in the line with the other hundred plus people at your gate go to an adjacent one where there is no line. Then I had an incredible interaction with the Delta agent who was remarkably calm and confident and diligent in getting me the next best option home. I thanked him and celebrated those virtues I admired. Target swipe. Micro moment of awesome. Target swipe. See virtues in action. Target swipe. Celebrate someone. Then I got another 15 minutes of movement in with my backpack ruck on to hit my 10,000 steps. Then I did some work. Then I facetimed the family and guess what happened? While I was walking back and forth to get some steps while connecting with the wifey and kids, that incredible Delta agent runs up behind me and taps me on the shoulder telling me I've been paging you, trying to let you know they fixed the plane and your flight is departing. I'm so happy I found you as I know how excited you were to get home to your family. I got goosebumps typing that and saying that right now and tears in my eyes when he did that. I couldn't hear him because I had my noise canceling headphones on at the time so he ran after me when he saw me to let me know and that's today's plus one. When life gives us a few little lemons, let's squeeze them for all the virtue juice they've got. It's day one. We're all in. Let's go little PS Here. Reactive discipline is a phrase I got from my Yoda. As we've discussed, Phil Stutz says there are three Structural discipline, reactive discipline, and expansive discipline. Structural discipline equals our protocol knowing who you are when you're at your best and doing those things with relentless consistency, especially when you don't feel like it. Reactive discipline equals what we just discussed, the ability to choose the best possible response to any situation. And expansive discipline is saying bring it on. When you feel the discomfort of being outside your comfort zone. It's basically courage in action. Learn more in some plus ones I link to in this one called the Three Disciplines and the Three Disciplines V. Stutz and check out our notes on Phil's latest book, Lessons for Living.
