Can’t change it? Change your attitude

One of the most valuable (and sometimes most difficult) lessons I’ve learnt over the years is to limit the time I spend worrying about things I can’t control or change. Unfortunately, this isn’t something that comes naturally to me – not in the bid room and not at home – but it is something I’m trying to get better at.

How many times have you been in the throes of an intense bid, only to have the client, or worse your own management team, pull the rug out from under you? Or hey, remember when that global pandemic hit and threw all our professional and personal plans out the window? I think that taught us all a valuable lesson about accepting things we can’t control, as well as a few others.

Over the years, I’ve come across some incredibly insightful and inspiring words of wisdom, but these simple, yet effective, words from Maya Angelou have helped me adjust my mindset when dealing with these situations:

‘If you don’t like something, change it.
If you can’t change it, change your attitude.’

So, when waking up this morning, only to hear that the client had delayed the release of a the major RFT we’d been working towards, I forced myself to repeat these words a few times.

The result was a subtle shift in mindset, which allowed me to refocus my attention on how this unexpected change could be leveraged to our advantage. Were there any little tasks niggling in the back of my mind that I could now tackle to ensure we were even better positioned once the RFT was released? Did this delay mean I could actually meet the team in person, rather than via Zoom, before the RFT was released? In truth, there’s always something, right?

So next time that inevitable (and it is inevitable) curve ball comes hurtling your way, take a moment to step back and ask yourself:

·      Can I change or control this decision/event?

·      Can I influence it to drive a better outcome for me/the team?

·      Can I change my attitude and leverage it in an unexpected but valuable way?

Answering these simple questions is a step in the right direction to not only accepting what you can’t control, but actually identifying ways in which you can use it to your advantage.