How to turn lemons to lemonade

This is a true story of how I turn lemons to lemonade. Today it finally happened to me. I missed my flight and lost my ticket. I was scheduled to board a plane at 2pm today, however today for the first time in my life, I missed a flight. I normally arrive at the airport 2 hours ahead and have several hours to catch up on work but for some strange reason, today I wasn’t able to board the plane in time.

When I left the terminal and waited in front of the airport for my driver, I was thinking about what had happened and how I could avoid the same problem I had today. I’m the type of guy who doesn’t like to blame outside circumstances so in my mind, I had a whole list of ideas that I could of done that would enabled me to be on that plane.

Here were my ideas:

• I could of woken up 2 hours before my usual plan.
• I could of allocated another extra hour on top of traffic.
• I could of called the airport to notify them of the delay.
• I could of organized my time better.

After looking at the entire list of things I could of done, naturally I became frustrated because I just wasted a lot of money.

It was at this point, I became fed up of being frustrated and accepted the fact that the money is gone and to try to make the most out of the situation, or turn lemons into lemonade.

Have you ever been incredibly frustrated and all the wrong things begin to happen to you? 

I remember one time I was on a plane and there was a lady who was sitting across from me. I noticed that she was complaining about everything. She was angry, she was frustrated and nothing was good in her eyes.

Right where she was sitting, all of a sudden, water started leaking from the luggage area and onto her face while no one else had this problem. She became even more angrier I immediately thought to myself that she attracted that incident.

She complained as usual to the flight attendant so she moved from her seat to another spot. Meanwhile, another person asked if she could sit in her seat, the flight attendant looked puzzled but let her sit there anyway.

The other lady patched up the leaking water, adjusted her seat (this seat had extra leg room) and she fell straight to sleep, probably slept like a baby.

Meanwhile the other lady was crammed tight between two people and was still angry while  looking at the other lady sleeping like a baby.

I’ve found that in the past, if you were to carry a negative attitude, you’ll attract negative things, so being in that frustrated state of mind at the airport, I didn’t want to attract any more negative circumstances so I then came up with a new list of positive ideas that I began to focus on.

Even though I lost money today, here’s what I’m still grateful for:

• I still have cash flow coming in which will replace the wasted money.
• I still have a return ticket that I can use.
• The flight on the second day is cheaper online, I’ve just lost only 50% of the funds.
• I now have extra time to work on my business today.
• I’m still healthy, happy and motivated to do what I want to do.
• You never know but there could be a reason why I had to miss that flight, perhaps that flight could of put me in danger or if I arrived at my destination, something bad would happen. My feelings suggest this is so, perhaps I’ll find out one day.

After refocusing on the positive side of things, I managed to change my mood almost instantly. A few minutes after I changed my negative mindset to a positive mindset, I received a phone call from a friend who helped me find a better flight the next day.

He managed to find a flight that was 60% cheaper than the price set at the airport which I was very close to booking. He also managed to get a credit on the hotel booking so all my meals would now be paid for and I wouldn’t need to spend any additional cash.

The law of attraction is alive and well.

This experience has reinforced my belief of always looking for ways to turn lemons to lemonade in life and in business. Not only you find equal or greater opportunities, you’ll also attract more opportunities to help you.

It’s extremely important to maintain a positive mindset if you want the best opportunities to attract your way.

Here Are 5 Ways In Which You Can Turn Lemons Into Lemonade and Attract Opportunities Your Way

1. Always focus on the positive. Just force yourself to do this. This is a test and a challenge especially when all hell is breaking lose. When you’re pushed against the wall, try your best to maintain a positive attitude for it will help you attract better solutions.
2. Look at the worse case scenario and compare. Look at the worse thing that could of happened. If you lost money on something, what happens if you lost your business, lost your job, lost your family? There’s always a situation that’s worse.
3. Be grateful. Look at all the things you have and be grateful for it. You still have income coming in, you still have your health, you still have eyes, feet, arms, hands and can still bounce back.
4. Look at what you can so you’re ready next time. Look at all the things that you could do that will prevent you from making the same mistake in future. This will prepare you for next time.
5. List all the things you can now do. Since you’ve just encountered a lemon, it’s now time to turn it into lemonade. This is the fun part, focus on the list of things you can do to make it better. Can you go get a message? Go buy yourself something nice. Go do something incredibly crazy. Go reward yourself. Do something that will turn everything around so you can salvage the rest of the day.

I would also like to add that when I missed the flight today, I had extra time to catch up on some some sleep, finish a major project, indulge in some great food, watched a funny comedy movie and spend time with my girlfriend.

Even though I missed that flight, I still managed to turn lemons to lemonade and still made today a great day.

Good luck and let’s all turn lemons to lemonade!

Share your ideas on how you can turn lemons to lemonade in your life.

Khoa Bui

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About the Author Khoa Bui is a best selling author, international speaker, corporate trainer and entrepreneur. He has been featured on Entrepreneur Magazine, Channel 31, Global News Network and more. He has a passion for writing, traveling the world and building online businesses. Find out more about Khoa here.