Greg vs the donut…
I was driving up and down the Garden State Parkway yesterday, and I was reminded of a story that I wanted to share with you all. I think it’s a good one!
In early Spring, Greg and I were driving from the Jersey Shore to Manhattan; and it ended up being quite an amusing car ride.
I usually drive the first half, and then we stop at a rest stop to “check out water and oil” and get a coffee or something, then he drives the rest of the way. When I was getting into the passenger side, I thought I saw a lady toss some liquid out of her window onto my front tire. I went up there to look and noticed a giant bubble that had split on that tire! (The lady had not thrown liquid on my car…but I’m sure glad I thought she did. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have seen the busted tire and proceeded on driving at least 80mph!) I said to Greg, “uh…we have a problem”. He came up and looked at it, and we decided that it was definitely better to put the spare on than risk it.
Well, when we opened the trunk, we realized that we didn’t have a complete spare; we had a donut. “That’s ok,” I said “It will get us home!” So, Greg started to change the tire….and in that time period, the weather went from sunny and super windy to cloudy and super windy….to all of a sudden flurrying all around us! WTF!? There wasn’t ANY precipitation in the forecast at all!!!
So, he gets the donut on without incident…and then notices the sticker on it. The sticker said not to go over 50mph! He looked at me in horror! “50!! I can’t go over 50!?” He was not happy, but he knew there wasn’t anything else we could do. (This was a “problem” because we were going from one state highway to another, and the speed limit was 60mph…but most people do 80-90mph.) So, we got back into the car, and he started driving.
50 feels REALLY slow when on a state highway, and you are getting passed by EVERYONE! I wish I had taken a picture of him driving because his face was just so funny! I couldn’t look at him without busting out laughing!! Driving that slow and being passed by everyone was so hard for him!!! He wasn’t mad; he kept making jokes…..”Anyone out there that ever wanted to cut in front of me…today is your day! I’m not going to fight with you!” He was not trusting that little donut…he swore it was going to blow at any moment!
I seriously was laughing so hard!! We finally did make it back to our garage safe and sound…and made an appointment to take it in to get a new tire.
Why am I telling this story?
Well, #1…if you knew my husband, you would know that this was definitely an uncomfortable situation for him! He does NOT like to go slow and does not like to be passed.
#2- This is a very good example of how he has been listening and paying attention to what I have been doing with my coach and in my coaching business. In the past, from the moment I told him about that tire, he would have been flipping the fuck out! He would’ve been so mad at this situation….and therefore would have been really nasty to me. I would’ve tried to diffuse the situation, and he would’ve just gotten angrier.
This would’ve continued into the night, and we both would have been miserable. Not a fun Sunday night at all!! The fact that that didn't happen shows me that he has been coaching himself (I’m not sure if he was aware that he was doing that, but he sure was!).
He most definitely has been working on his thoughts and realizing that those thoughts create feelings, which drive actions…which lead to your result.
He decided to think that he could handle this, he decided to make jokes, and he decided to have thoughts/feelings/actions that resulted in us making jokes and just laughing and laughing! This is an example of me doing this work without expecting him to do any of it and without expecting him to change. He has made those decisions all on his own. It’s a beautiful thing!
I can help you make changes like this in your life! Reach out to me; I’d love to help you!
