A Case Study in Outsmarting Resistance

Those of us who met Sandy Dempsey at Compelling Storytelling last June, have watched with delight as she’s begun moving in the direction of her dreams. Part of that is her The Dreaming Cafe blog which included this part of her story this week.

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I have been sitting on the fence for months, undecided whether to attend the Follow Through Camp hosted by Barbara Winter and Alice Barry May 15th and 16th in Dodge City, Kansas.

Part of me desperately wanted to go and the other part had every excuse in the book…Dodge City is two hours from the nearest airport…Kansas has never been on my list of places to visit…it’s tornado season…I don’t want to spend the money when my job could be eliminated any day…I’m not ready for this step…and on and on.

Monday a friend and I were playing around with business ideas for both of us, when I said I needed to take things to the next level in my entrepreneurial quest. Then I began telling him about the Follow Through Camp. He said, “It sounds like just want you need right now regardless of what happens here.”

You know what? He was right. I have several business ideas and have been starting to move in the direction I want to go, but I need to take it to the next level. The energy, enthusiasm and support I will receive from attending the Follow Through Camp is just what I need right now. I have so much I want to do and I am so ready to take the next steps.

Monday night after work I made the decision. Within an hour of arriving home I made my hotel reservations at The Dodge House, made my flight reservations and a car reservation and submitted my workshop registration.

But  the story doesn’t end there.

When I had difficulty making my reservations online for The Dodge House I called the hotel to make them over the phone. But, I forgot to ask for my reservation number and they forgot to give it me. Instead of calling, I went back online to send a request for it to be emailed or faxed to me. I must have entered my email address incorrectly because the next day Charla Swift, the owner, called to tell me my confirmation kept bouncing back and could I confirm my email address.

I was very impressed with her friendliness and professionalism. I never had the owner of a hotel call me personally before. We had a nice conversation and I discovered she was actually calling from Colorado where she was visiting her sons, for the holiday.

Now, where she was calling from didn’t really mean a whole lot until later that night when I received Barbara’s Joyfully Jobless Newsletter. The newsletter closed with an invitation to attend Barbara’s ‘Making a Living Without a Job’ and ‘Establish Yourself as an Expert’ workshops in, can you guess, COLORADO! Both workshops were being held in Denver at the Colarado Free University on Saturday April 18th.

It was too much of a coincidence to let go, so just for fun I went to Travelocity to check airfares. I could hardly believe my eyes when I discovered they were having a special..Philadelphia to Denver, $218, round-trip, non-stop! I could hardly believe it myself, but since it was late I decided to sleep on it.

By morning I couldn’t forget it and told my husband about it. He said, “Is that why you are so happy this morning?” I couldn’t stop grinning.

I went online again and  there was the same deal. I didn’t have time to sit on the fence and ponder this decision. So, guess I’m headed to Denver, Colorado next weekend!!

Decisions are like dominoes, sometimes. Once the first one falls, more follow. My decision on Monday to attend the Follow Through Camp in Dodge City, Kansas, was the first domino to fall.The second domino fell  with my decision to follow the signs, invest in myself, and attend two more Barbara Winter workshops in Denver, Colorado.

I am kind of curious now…what will be the next domino to fall, the next decision, the next step in building my dream?

Most of the time we don’t see the obvious opportunity–if you intentionally create the connections, you’ll get more of them, and better ones too. ~ Seth Godin