“you gotta be kidding me”

My mate’s words as we approached the hall for our chess tournament.

Only it wasn’t a hall…

It was a Chinese restaurant.

More on that in a second.

See, we were in Prague for a weekend of chess.

For those who don’t know, chess tournaments are usually played in big halls.

With neatly laid out tables…

And so quiet you can hear a pin drop.

But not this chess tournament.

As we walked through the door I was shaking my head…

And a waft of sesame toast hit my nostrils.

Not what I was expecting.

Turned out the tournament flyer wasn’t as clear as it could’ve been.

But we had to play on…

And it became one of the more surreal weekends of my life.

Playing the first few moves of the French Defence while a couple nearby ordered crispy fried duck…

Calculating my moves while the restaurant door “ding dinged” relentlessly…

And pressing my clock as a family on the same table slurped their chicken and sweetcorn soup.

Crazy right?

Not the ideal environment for playing chess.

(although we did get free Chinese food all weekend)

Anyway…

I can almost hear you thinking…

“Where’s Tom going with this?”

Well, here’s the point:

There are always things we can control…

And there are always things we can’t.  But we can still control how we react.

I couldn’t control the venue for the chess.

So spending time fretting about it would’ve been pointless.

All it would've done was use energy which I needed for the games.

After all, everyone there was in the same boat.

Instead, I focussed on what I could control.

Like buying a pair of earplugs…

And trying to make the best moves possible.

Now, sometimes this is easier said than done.

I get it.

For example…

I’ve been frustrated by the heat this week.

How it was spoiling my sleep….

And how this was impacting my productivity.

But rather than dwelling too long on the tropical conditions…

I tried to bring myself back to what I could control.

Like cranking up the fans…

Prepping socks in the freezer…

And changing my schedule a little bit.

Don’t get me wrong – I was still frustrated.

But focussing on what I could control eased these frustrations.

And I think this is a useful attitude to have.

Both at work, and in life.

Make sense?

So maybe it’s worth asking – how do you react to things outside your control?

On which note I need to wrap up for today and head out.

Hope you got something from this.

Have a great weekend, whatever you’re up to.

- Tom

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