The Rush Hour Reset

Bob* and Michele* both had careers which required 25% to 50% travel. Although they worked for different companies, they often ran into each other at business events where their differing markets converged, and quickly formed a working friendship.

One morning at the start of a busy trade show, Bob saw a smiling Michele striding purposefully toward the hospitality suite breakfast buffet. Carrying his overcoat over his arm, he headed in her direction, irritated that he had forgotten to leave the overcoat in his car. He might have done so, had he not been so frustrated with the traffic slowdowns and thoughtless drivers cutting him off every few miles. He had arrived almost half an hour early, but used up the first fifteen minutes trying to calm down. With fifteen minutes left he grabbed his phone and a small stack of promotional cards, shoving them into his jacket pockets, took a deep breath and headed into the building. He hoped he could shed his irritation before talking to any potential customers.

Now he was wondering how Michele could appear so calm and collected. He waved as she nodded in his direction. How the heck was she so Zen?

Once they were seated, Michele shared that she had hired a coach-therapist at Business Breakthrough Therapy who had been helping her get more enjoyment and productivity out of her time at work. Together they discovered that the parts of her work that she enjoyed the most, outside events and off-site customer meetings, were surprisingly also the source of most of her stress. Her coach-therapist dialed down on the situation until they had pinpointed that the greatest stress stemmed from the commute prior to the event.

Knowing how important this event was to her company, and how hideous the traffic could get on this one, Michele had scheduled a phone session with her coach-therapist ahead of time. She had finished it just before she walked in.

Bob wanted to know why the coach-therapist didn’t just give her some relaxation exercises to do on the drive.

Michele responded that she’d been given a lot of tools to manage the situation herself, but found that for her it was, as she said, “much easier to vent my frustrations, have her guide me through a short relaxation exercise, and then get advice on anything I’m worried about that might come up at the meeting or event.”

Bob was skeptical at first about the logistics, but he had to admit that Michele was definitely more relaxed and happy than he’d seen her in a long time.

A few weeks later, Bob scheduled a few appointments with a Business Breakthrough Therapy coach, and after successfully dealing with a few things that had been in the way of his progress at work, they decided to change Bob’s weekly coach-therapist appointments to coincide with the end of his most regular commutes.

It was a game changer for him, and not only improved his success at meetings, but greatly improved his ability to enjoy his work.