This week, something very unusual for me happened: I lost a scarf. And not just any scarf, one of my favorite scarves.
I knew exactly in what timeframe it disappeared. I remember picking it up when leaving a café, using the facilities, and then walking a little distance to my car. I noticed that it was gone when I parked at home, and was really rather upset.
This café was a bit of a drive away, I had met a friend at a half-way point, so it was a bit too far to just pop in again and collect it. And anyway, it was evening by now and everywhere would be closed.
I e-mailed the place asking if anyone had found it, and they replied quite promptly the next morning saying that they did not have it, but if anyone did hand it in they now knew to look out for it. I heard no more.
I rationalized that this was a scarf I’d had for years, that it had started showing its age, and that it had probably been time to replace it anyway. But I was still a bit sad about it.
On the weekend, my husband and I were running errands, and were headed in that direction. I thought: maybe it would be worth stopping by, maybe there still was a chance that someone had picked it up and handed it in. Wishful thinking…
We did go. I asked at the café, and they were very helpful, but the only scarf they had in their lost and found box was sadly not mine. I retraced my steps, looking around me with eagle eyes, but nothing. There was another staffed office very near where my car had been parked, so I thought it was worth asking if they might have seen it.
And there it was! Poking out of a basket, in the office! I was so thrilled to be reunited with my beloved piece, and the staff were happy to be able to return it.
At any point during this story I could have thought that it was not worth even trying to get it back, that it was gone, that it was foolish to even hope. But hope I did, and it paid off.
I realized that how we think about things has such a massive impact on how we are, what actions we choose to take, and how we view the world. I am an optimist and tend to be hopeful that things are possible and will work out well. And sometimes, that is exactly how they play out.
If on the other hand I had a view of the world where there was no way I could find my scarf again, I would not even have tried and as a result, of course I wouldn’t have found it again.
There will always be things around us that we can’t influence, but mindset, hope and positivity are attitudes that are in our gift to shape and own. So let’s de-clutter some of our negativity and catastrophe assumptions and create space for the possibility of good outcomes.
And if you want some help with this, 👉 get in touch and let’s chat.