🌼 Missing a Meeting, Owning Mistakes & Finding Grace
Welcome to this Start Fresh mini from the Om WOW Podcast! Let’s reset our mindset and start the week with clarity and intention.
Listen to the short episode:
Episode #42: Transcript
 Today I’m sharing a story about a major flub up I made and how it transformed into an amazing blessing.
For the past month, I've been transitioning my business domain names, websites, emails, and calendar schedulers. I know. Super exciting, right? Not. Well, this kind of work inevitably has some times of overlap and always carries the potential of downtime. So I was expecting it for a few weeks. I was balancing two different schedulers and two Google calendars, just trying to keep everything straight.
The Moment Everything Went Sideways
One day I had several back-to-back meetings and we had a snowstorm hit while I was working. After my last meeting ended at three 30, well, what I thought was my last meeting, I bundled up to go outside and help clear the snow. When we were done, I plopped down on the couch to warm up and quickly checked my emails on my phone.
Well, an email had come in at 3:32 PM that said something like, "Hey, I'm here, but the link isn't opening. Did I do something wrong?" And my heart just sunk.
I was mortified! Shocked. Embarrassed. And kicking myself for screwing up an important meeting with a very new contact I had met recently. Being late or missing appointments is not something I do that's completely out of character for me. And all I could think was that she was likely super upset that I wasted her time, angry that I didn't respond to her email at the time we were supposed to be in the meeting, and I felt like I had totally burned this bridge before our connection even got a chance to get started.
Choosing Authenticity Over Excuses
For a millisecond, my brain started brainstorming excuses, also not like me. You know, things like, oh, I could say there was a tech issue that was outta my control, blah, blah, blah. You know, the kind of stuff you learn when you work in a corporate environment when you're dealing with customers kind of thing?
And I said to myself, no, that's not who I am. Yes, it was a tech related issue, but it was still a hundred percent my fault. I knew that my calendars were acting wacky, and it was my responsibility to check them both before walking away from my computer for the day. And I left someone completely stranded, just waiting, wondering where the heck I was, and it truly upset me.
But I choose to own my mistakes, to acknowledge them, even when it makes me look bad, even when it's uncomfortable. So I reached out to this person with a heartfelt email apology. I told her I was mortified, which I was. I asked if we could reschedule, but also told her I completely understood if she was ticked off and didn't want to. I mean, I wasted her time and left her stranded. I didn't know how she'd respond.
Finding Support in Community
I posted in one of my peer business communities about the flub up and how upset I was that I had tainted my character. But my peers responded with kindness. As a group, we had been talking a lot about letting go of perfection, and they reminded me that this was just a blip of imperfection because as much as I'd like to be always at the top of my game, effective, efficient, perfect ish, that there is no such thing as perfection!
And we just talked about this on the show too with Ashley Jordan and her book, Unhappy Achiever (find Episode #39 here). Why do so many of us try SO HARD to be perfect? We can't do it. It doesn't exist.
I had trouble sleeping that night, but chalked the experience up to a mistake I could learn from and moved on.
Grace and Forgiveness
The woman I unintentionally stood up responded extremely graciously, and said she actually thought she had done something wrong, clicked the wrong link or something. She was incredibly kind and agreed to reschedule for a new meeting date.
A few days later, we met and spent some time getting to know each other. Let me tell you. What I do as a holistic wellness journalist truly puts me in contact with some of the most loving, grounded, positive people on this planet. We had a great conversation, and near the end she casually mentioned she was about to start a project of trying to reedit an old meaningful meditation audio she had created and wanted to revitalize and release.
Turning a Mistake Into a Win
Well, I don't know if you know this, but my business that supports this show, Podcast Spa, is all about audio and video editing. Without even thinking about it, I offered to review her audio to see if I could help salvage it. I think internally, part of me saw this as some kind of reciprocation for the grace she gave me for my flub up.
So I took a look at it over the weekend. It was a tough project that needed multiple processing steps to clean up the audio. But in the end, it sounded like something she could be proud of. And when I gave it back to her, she gave me a glowing review for my audio editing skills.
The Universe Rewards Authenticity
And the same night her review came in, so did two others I had been waiting for. I felt like the universe was saying, here you go, and rewarding me with help to support Podcast Spa, which ultimately supports my ability to keep doing this show that I love.
How would things have turned out if I let fear rule my choices? If I had made excuses or blamed something other than myself? I think the universe truly rewards us when we take a hundred percent responsibility for our lives and own our mistakes, warts and all. I have no idea where that saying comes from, but it was in my mind, so I said it.
Your Challenge This Week:
As you head into this week, I encourage you to pause when you're tempted to make an excuse and just flat out tell it like it is.
And here's a journal prompt to think about: where in my life am I striving for perfect, even though it doesn't exist?
Have a fabulous week, my friends!
If this mini gave you a mindset boost, pass it on! Comment below & let me know— your energy makes a difference.
Meet Our Host: Jennifer Robin O’Keefe
Jennifer Robin serves as a relatable, down-to-earth, REAL Wellness & Success Coach. She’s not a fancy, perfect makeup, airbrushed kind of woman. She’s been told many times, in a variety of environments, that she’s easy to talk to, and makes others feel welcome and comfortable. Her mission in life is both simple and profound: to make others feel worthy.
Professionally, Jennifer holds several wellness certifications including Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) Tapping, Thought Field Therapy (TFT) Tapping, Reiki, and more. She continuously expands her knowledge in the fields of Qi Gong, Xien Gong, Vibration/Energy Wellness and Natural Health. She also studied extensively with Jack Canfield, and serves as a Certified Canfield Trainer, authorized to teach "The Success Principles."
She’s an active reader and researcher who loves to learn, and one of her biggest joys is teaching and sharing what she’s discovered with others.
