Keeping a "Yes Attitude".

There are two books that have helped me through this past year, the Bible, my life time friend, and "Yes Attitude" by Jeffrey Gitomer.  My life has been a work in progress, building and helping my personality, trying to keep a more positive attitude, correcting and balancing areas in my life where I need it most.  My favorite book through the years, that has been the biggest help is Proverbs.  Reading one a day for each day of the month, 31 proverbs and 30 to 31 days in a month.   Proverbs 1 for day one, for the first day of the month, and so on.   Great system! 

The "Yes Attitude" book has a very direct approach at helping me with the ups and downs of everyday
life.  This book teaches you how to have a positive attitude and how to deal with those who don't.   The cover alone is a constant reminder to me to keep a Yes attitude.  It is a great sales book and I highly recommend it! 

This was put to the test on our trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan this year, where our transmission line broke on the truck.  This put me on an emotional roller coaster ride with the ultimate attitude test!  Having to get me on the right track quickly was a challenge, because we all know sales are better when we smile and feel good.  Right?

My husband, Lee, is always amazed to see the way I react to hard circumstances.  Especially when I battle through it and come out smiling.  I am so blessed because he is my biggest helper!  He is very good with dealing with people, customer service is his strength.

Looking for the positives in the middle of disaster can be seen if we look hard enough.  
The first positive was that truck broke down in the parking lot where we needed to pick up our parking pass and unload for the art festival.
The second positive was that the manager of the parking lot system had his men bring my tent and ceramics to the street where my booth was to be set up.
The third positive is that we have a  AAA membership which gives us a free tow.

OK, we are doing really well so far with the positives, and the opposite of positive is a negative, correct?  Because it was a dealership that we had the truck towed to, we had to wait our turn to get it looked at.  That is great if you live in town but not when you are seven hours from home.  This was a four day show, so I knew we had some time, but when they didn't look at it until Monday that was hard.

Then we found out...(Take a deep breath)...the parts were on back order and wouldn't be in for two weeks!

So going back to the beginning of the story, we were now without a ride and were camping a half an hour away.  We called Uber, a car transport system, and had a ride to our campsite Wednesday evening after setting up.  They also picked up the call on Thursday but on Friday no one would pick up the call.  The show started at 10:00am and I always like to be there and hour early.  So we called a taxi service and their car broke down on the way to pick us up!  So we called another taxi service and he insisted we pay with $50.00 cash.  After convincing him that I had the money he came and picked us up.  We were only 15 minutes late to open, a positive!

My husband had to walk to rent a car and I'm happy to say he only had to walk a mile, a positive!  He has bad knee! Also, he was able to get a SUV which was large enough to move everything from the art festival back to our campsite on Sunday night.

This whole adventure was a process on trying to figure things out as they unfolded, right down to how we were going to get everything back to the campsite when the show was over.  Because we didn't find out until late Tuesday about the status on the truck, we were able to enjoy a vacation day together.  Spending quality time with my husband was a treasure!  After we found out that it was going to be two weeks before we could get our truck back, we had to drive into Ann Arbor to rent a U Haul so we could  drive everything home.

Two weeks later, the truck was fixed.
I received another positive when my husband's boss needed him to deliver a broken part to be repaired by a shop in Michigan.  That shop was only 2 hours away from the car dealership. The rental car and our traveling expenses were paid for!

It was very hard watching the money that I just had earned fly out the window!  A very big negative!

But, there were many more positives as I ended my third season of outdoor art festivals.
I won Top Notch Booth Award at the Letchworth Art and Craft show in October.  Fun! 
I received a beautiful ribbon, $100.00 check, and a free booth for next year! 
I was also able to upgrade my tent,  where another artist was selling theirs.  This
was a huge cost savings!

The moral of the story is...

Life is hard but with a yes attitude it makes it so much sweeter!