Due to the recent inclement weather in New York, my flight home to San Diego was cancelled. Led by my instincts (and perhaps influenced by an old friend’s passing just three days before), I looked at the departures sign in the terminal and decided to go wherever the next available flight would take me where weather would not be an issue. Now on this occasion, that proved a bit more challenging than usual due to the Southeast being under a blanket of ice with more than 2,000 planes grounded as a result. But I finally found an opening — a Virgin American flight leaving for Las Vegas — and managed to get one of the few remaining seats.
As the plane took off, I breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to arrange some meetings with old business associates at my new destination. The meetings that resulted, I’m happy to say, went even better than expected, and opened up some promising new prospects. But what happened while I was on my way to my last one was uncharacteristic, because it required me to make yet another spur-of-the moment change in my plans. I noticed a sign that said “Michael Jackson ONE by Cirque du Soleil.” Intrigued, I stopped by the box office and bought a ticket for the 7 p.m. show — meaning I would have to stay over in Vegas rather than catch a flight home that evening.
Now, while Cirque du Soleil is always ‘over the top’ (and certainly miles over the Big Top) and never fails to amaze me, I have to say this particular performance just blew me away. From the lighting to the projection to the cables that swing people everywhere to the on-stage fireworks to the woofers in every seat that make your body vibrate with each note, it was a true technological marvel – and for me, the icing on the cake of what I considered a highly successful, if totally unanticipated excursion.
So here’s my “takeaway” from this experience: the next time you find your flight plans unexpectedly cancelled, don’t just sit there — transform adversity into adventure by going somewhere you had no intention of going. And that doesn’t just have to apply to traveling. Whenever you find any plan, activity or purpose you were intent on fulfilling suddenly put on hold, opt for a temporary change of course – something totally out of your normal routine (what’s meant by the old cliché about ‘turning a lemon into lemonade’).
You might find yourself pleasantly surprised or perhaps even amazed at where such a side trip into spontaneity can end up taking you – even if the source of the amazement is a spectacle you’ve never had the pleasure of witnessing before.
