Ever found yourself in a situation where you’re in charge and you never intended to be?

A few weeks ago, the family and I headed off on holiday to Lanzarote. We do it every year, nice villa, feet up, no emails. Just a nice relaxing family break. Even though my kids are all grown up, as the dad of the family, I still take it upon myself to be the organiser of the trip.  look after the money, organise the car hire, book the villa, work out the logistics of everything. It’s quite a lot of pressure, but it plays to my strengths so it’s what we do. And I really don’t mind. 

 But this time, while we were away, I realised that there was a little problem. Our return flight was going to clash with the World Cup semi-final, where England were going head-to-head with Argentina. Now, when I booked the flights, I knew this could happen, but I thought the likelihood was low because it would require England to qualify and actually get through to the semi-finals. Despite my pessimism, here we were with a travel/match clash. Not a disaster, but it did mean I had to be even more organised than usual. Making sure my iPad was fully charged, I had a working VPN, BBC iPlayer installed, and basically everything set up so I could watch the match in the airport. 

 So, the big day comes, we pack our bags and head to Arrecife airport. Now, never before have I prayed for a flight delay, but this time I did and my prayers got answered. Our flight home was delayed by an hour, meaning I would be in the airport with WiFi connection for the full 90-minute match! Result! So I set myself up in a little bar and started watching the match. Next thing you know, people were coming up to me. “Oh, how did you get that?” “I can’t get it to work on my phone.” “Do you mind if I look over your shoulder and also watch the match?” Never one to disappoint, I said, “Sure, no problem” 

 Time ticked on, and before I knew it, I had a whole audience of people gathered around, peering over my shoulder to watch the game. Now, I don’t mind sharing. And I’m happy to be of service and help a fellow footie fan out, but I hadn’t planned, nor did I want, this kind of responsibility. Airport Wifi isn’t great, so there was a lot of buffering. Every time my iPad buffered, the crowd groaned and said things like “Oh God, sort the Wi-Fi out” I replied,  “I’m not here for you, mate; I’m here for myself, but I don’t mind sharing the joy and sharing the love.” It went from being quite a nice “put my feet up and watch the match before I go home” to feeling a little stressed out by people’s unwarranted expectations. In the end, the WiFi buffered again just after Argentina’s second goal went in, so I switched it off knowing we’d already lost and boarded my plane home. 

 On the flight, I started thinking about what happened. There was a large number of people gathered around who were obviously keen to catch the game but hadn’t taken any proactive steps to make it happen. I’m no tech genius, but it didn’t take me long to Google it and figure out a plan to make it possible. Anyone could have done it. But they just weren’t organised enough. Now, I know I have a slight advantage as a freight forwarder. Being able to think ahead and calculate multiple moving parts and make a plan that works is a skill I’ve been developing for years through my career. But I can’t help but think, these “shoulder lurkers” in the airport, how do they get through life without a bit of organising and planning? Am I the odd one out? Do most people wing it and see how things play out? 

 Mr Organised Does It Again I’d love to hear your thoughts.