“If you stumble, make it part of the dance” — Unknown

Lessons make us better. They make us stronger. They make us wiser.

So I would like to share six powerful life lessons I learn from a special unexpected event I experienced, so you can learn from it too.

Before the pandemic hit, all weekdays, I woke up around 5–5:30 am, but on Saturdays, I woke up around 4:00 am to be ready to travel from my country's capital to the East.

The East is the place I grew up happily. My family, wife, son, mom, dad, brothers, and childhood friends lived there.

Yet, in pursuing better opportunities, I moved out to the capital a few years ago. Since then, on weekends, as you might guess, I had beautiful and enough reasons to travel to the East.

I wrote this post while traveling to the East. It was written down in my notebook on November 2, 2019, while I was living the whole story I will tell you throughout this piece.

The unexpected event

As I said above, this story was written On November 2, 2019, in my notebook (my phone died). On this day, my country joins in the Day of the Dead celebration, so we have a day off.

During the Day of the Dead, all people travel to different graveyards, as a result, the car traffic increases as hell.

Yet, apart from that, this day occurred something unexpected.

Almost landing in my city, there was really crazy traffic. Believe it or not, there was a line of cars more than 10 km.

Just to have an idea, I spent, spent, spent… five hours awaiting in that crazy traffic line.

If you noticed, I said I “spent” rather than “wasted” time. Why Bob?

There’s a vast difference in the outcome that both offer. “Spent” means I took advantage of it and something meaningful came out of it. On the contrary, “wasted” means the time went away but no meaningful outcome.

Let’s jump off right away to the learned lessons from this unexpected event.

1. Cellphone dependency

In the modern age, most of us have developed a deep connection to our devices. Even, in some cases, I would say it is an extreme dependency.

Is that ok?. For obvious reasons, this is not such a good thing.

In fact, anything on the edges or over boundaries is not good, even for those cases where the device is for educational purposes.

Extreme and high dependency on devices is not good at all for your mental and physical health.

As human beings, we need time and space to take care of ourselves, to take a breath, dig into ourselves, energy our body, and be more focused on the things that really matter.

In that regard, this is only possible through a full disconnection from devices.

It’s impossible if devices are close to us, in our hands, and in front of our eyes most of the day.

So have the courage to disconnect from them. Start small. Start a full disconnection for 30 min, then 1 hour then 2 hours, and so on, your body and mind will thank you.

2. Being proactive rather than reactive

Reactive people are often affected by their physical environment. If the weather is good, they feel good. If it isn’t, it affects their attitude and performance. Proactive people carry their own weather with them. — Stephen Covey

I was sitting down on the bus seat. While waiting, I thought, so then?. Now what?. To be honest, I did not have a plan at the time.

Yet, I also knew that under a difficult or despaired situation, I could still make the best out of that moment and get something meaningful from it.

I knew time was running out, and it would never come back. So I needed to do something worthwhile that had meaning. Writing! Of Course, I thought!

So I pull out my notebook from my backpack and started to draft this post.

3. Get benefits from talking with strangers

In my country, this might seem dangerous because talking to strangers might represent a high risk due to the violence we have to live with.

Your things can easily be stolen. Sadly, this has been a reality for the last few years!.

Yet, we underestimate the positive impact and benefits of connecting and having conversations with strangers. This research supports this fact.

For instance, one of the benefits of having a conversation with a stranger is that in the end, both will feel happier.

Both could learn from each other, both could share their feeling at that time and feel much better, or even talk about new things you didn’t know it.

Both are experiencing the same situation. You all are in the same boat.

4. Be grateful

I believe the “Day of the Dead” is most likely sad for the most recent deceased loved ones.

I know it. I lost my two Grandmas, one a couple of few years ago and the second one this year (2022). So, this day I remember them.

I grew up so close to them that I still keep in mind how we enjoyed every single moment together.

Be grateful for all the things you have and for the people you are surrounded by.

This life is so short and at a sudden moment will go away. You are just the owner of the memories, everything else doesn’t belong to you.

Memoirs last forever. So be grateful for the big and the small things.

5. The street trader sold out cookies

Luck is the intersection of hard work, perseverance, and the right moment.

While we were still waiting in the crazy long traffic line, a street trader got on the bus, suddenly.

He started off with a quick introduction to his product, a really delicious cookie. At the time this guy came out, we had been stuck for almost four hours, so most of the passengers got starving.

Due to the long wait, we were hungry. He quickly sold out all cookies. “He did his day in a few minutes”. He came up at the right moment!

This part taught me, that if you are doing things consistently at some point great results will come up and the steady effort has had worthwhile.

6. Do a single meaningful thing every single day

Since that day, I have been doing at least one thing that makes my day, really, meaningful.

I became an early bird to start to work out and write in the morning.

Every day, I try to encourage or motivate someone else to keep fighting for his dreams.

Now I spend my free time writing and sharing my thoughts out there.

Final Thoughts

As the headline of this post states, we learned powerful lessons from unexpected events.

Hope this gives you insights on how to make your day really meaningful even when you don’t know what to do.

Devices are a powerful tool. But be aware of the dependency and the fact your mind and body need to breathe. Your mind needs to wander. It needs space.

Be proactive, carry your own weather, and build a great environment around you!

Finally, figure out one single meaningful thing you can do every single day. I promise your life will have more sense and meaning.