Reacting Vs. Overreacting

Good morning readers!

We are in the process of booking a trip to the Dominican Republic! Very exciting and a very thoughtful and wonderful birthday surprise from my sweetie. We are fortunate that the recent onslaught of hurricane action skipped over our island (and are so fortunate compared to the poor individuals who were not missed by Irma/Harvey/the other 10 hurricanes).

While I am so excited and can’t wait to be sipping a drink on a tropical beach, I haven’t been out of the county in many, many years so our trip preparation has me a little stressed. It seems as though at every turn I am encountering some type of road block. Renovations on the pool at the resort for part of our stay causing potential disturbance of our relaxation, general flight confusion, which resort to even stay at (we are being offered an alternative due to said reno). And we are leaving in about 10 days. Eek! As a low-key perfectionist and detail oriented person I am experiencing waves of anxiety about the unknown aspects of our trip, and it doesn’t help that everyone I have talked to seems unwilling to be of any help or exhibit any kind of helpful solution to the extent of not even returning my emails.

Before you roll your eyes and think, “Oh, lord she’s one of those nightmare customers who is never satisfied and wants everything delivered on a silver platter.” Well, to a degree that is true. However before I dig myself a whole I can’t climb out of, I must inform you that I too work in customer service and have for my entire adult life, starting at the age of 16. I have worked in sales, hotels, and predominately restaurants pretty much non-stop for the past nine years and therefore I am used to consumers such as myself. We are not bad people. We just want something that we believe is congruent with what we are paying for and we want it delivered in a friendly way.

I try every day to deliver what I consider to be excellent customer service because it is what I would want to receive, even when I want to across the bar and tackle the high-maintenance patron to the floor.

So what does this have to do with Pilates, you might ask? Everything. I believe this subject actually pertains to every aspect of life. I believe it is just and fair to receive what we give in return. In teaching, I hope to give 1000% to my clients, as I would hope to receive from any instructor I may have (I have been lucky in this thus far :)). However sometimes you just don’t. Sometimes you encounter someone who is just not having it. So what do we do in this instance? Do we accept that we are not going to receive what we believe is appropriate? Do we continue talking to this unpleasant person, or do we ask to speak to someone else?

Where is the line between an acceptable response to something like this and a response that is just completely over the top? When does a simple reaction to a poor situation turn into an overreaction? 

I do not have an answer to any of these questions. All I know is that we must try to give all we can, and if we find that impossible it might be a good idea to look for a different career. People get burnt out, it’s happened to me. But what I did not do was hold on to the thing that was making me unhappy. I moved on, I found a new passion. Perhaps I am being narrow-minded because I have had the luxury of being able to move on, where other may not have. And this brings me back to my original question; Do we factor in these if’s, and’s and but’s when we have an unsatisfying encounter? Or do we hold to our standards and have a reaction? 

Still, I know all of this will seem like silliness when I am laying on that beach 🙂

❤ Cammy