Happy new year to you. May 2019 be a positive year of growth for you in every sense of the word.
Our family was lucky to get away for a few days to Holland over the Christmas and we were due to travel back to Ireland on New Year’s Eve evening.
But all did not go as planned…
We entered Departure area 3 in Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam ready to return to Dublin. At the same time about 100m away a man decided to walk into the same area and shout ‘I have a bomb’.
Cue a very serious armed response from the police as they neutralised the offender and proceeded with their emergency lock-down procedures – which meant evacuating the terminal.
Our 2 kids were with us and everyone was shaken – the youngest, Sam (9), in particular, was very upset. Armed police shouting orders to people is not the easiest thing to process, even for adults!
2 things occurred to me in the minutes that followed:
- I was very grateful for the protection of the police and security staff.
- My mindset went into hyper-protection mode and I would have walked through walls to protect my family. It’s an animalistic feeling I haven’t felt in a long time. My focus was completely one-directional.
What we subsequently discovered was that the police in Holland and Germany were on alert as they had intelligence that a terrorist attack was possible on NY’s eve.
Thankfully, the man didn’t have a bomb but his actions did cause major disruption.
All of which meant we missed our flight and ended up celebrating the new year together in a hotel room inside the airport – but we eventually got flight backs to Dublin the next day, safe and sound.
At this time of the year, it’s typical to think about goals for your life and work.
But when it comes to your life this year, I wonder would you walk through walls for your goals? The top of which I would hope is your quality of life.
Most people don’t really know what they’re capable of until they’re put into a crisis or an extreme situation.
But wouldn’t it be nice to bring that level of Schiphol Airport Determination to your number one goal this year?
What do you think/feel is needed to achieve that state?
A good starting point is to connect with all of the reasons why it’s worth pursuing in the first place.
