Picture this: you’re
on a cruise visiting one of the most majestic islands in the world: Bermuda.
You laid the best plans to visit a quiet, secluded beach on the opposite
end of the island to spend the day frolicking in the gentle surf with your
family. Disembarking your ship, you head
straight to the ferry terminal to catch the first one only to find no one in
line.
“What? There are
6,000 people docked at this port and we are the only ones???” A nice gentleman with the Bermuda Tourism
agency told us the ferry dock was closed because the maintenance technicians
across the island were on strike. No ferries
for now…
We returned from our cruise to Bermuda this past
Sunday. We had planned different
excursions for each of the 3 days docked there.
Thursday was planned to timeliness perfection: Spend the day at Tobacco Bay Beach, our
favorite. We’d catch the 9:30 a.m. ferry
to St. George’s and then walk to the beach.
Catch the 3:30 p.m. ferry back to our ship where we had been invited to
dine with the Captain that evening.
Plenty of time to have fun and get ready for dinner. With the ferry strike going on, we decided we’d
take the bus only to find out where the other 6,000 passengers were! Plan A – strike! Plan B – Strike! We didn’t have a Plan C. Until we ran into our friends who wanted to
go to Elbow Bay Beach, one of the pink sand beaches of the south shore.
Our friends said, “Hey, let’s catch a cab…” I thought it was a good idea until I saw the
price: $60 one way! Yikes!
Well, since we’re splitting it with our friends, it wasn’t so bad. It could have been much worse, though. We could have become increasingly upset as
each unplanned incident led to another.
But, we had decided at the beginning of our vacation to simply take
things, “as they come and go with the flow.”
Ya’ know what? We had a
SPECTACULAR time!
When things disrupt your carefully laid plans, how do you
handle it? Do you fume and blame? Or, follow the flow. Have you ever had a speech interrupted? Loud noises, microphone cut-out, unexpected
audience participation? To be truly “in
the moment” of your speech, you must plan for these things. If you ignore the interruption or get
flustered, you’ll lose your audience.
Stay with it, acknowledge it, and keep going. You might even uncover some humor along the
way!
I once had an audience member shout out, “Yes!!!” during a
particular triumphant moment in my speech.
I didn’t let me get off track.
Instead, I simply said, “Thank you!” and moved on. The audience stayed with me and actually
chuckled.
Plan for interruptions, plan for derailments, plan for the
unexpected. And, when it happens, follow
the flow… just go with it!
