What do you do when something goes wrong at the worst possible moment? In this episode, I'm sharing a story from earlier this week — a flat tire, pouring rain, and a coaching mastermind I didn’t want to be late to — and the one sentence that kept me from completely spiraling.
That sentence: "This is my curriculum for today."
It sounds simple, but the shift it creates is profound. When we hit an unexpected obstacle, most of us default to resistance — why me, why now, this always happens — and without even realizing it, we hand over our power to the situation. This reframe does the opposite. It cuts through the drama, puts you back in the driver's seat (pun intended), and opens the door to something most people don't expect to feel in a hard moment: gratitude and genuine power.
In this episode I walk you through exactly what happened, how I handled it, and why the way we think about our circumstances determines not just how we feel, but how we show up — at work, at home, and everywhere in between. This one is for every high-achieving woman who has ever let a curveball derail her day, her mood, or her confidence.
In this episode you'll learn:
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Why fighting against reality is always a losing battle — and what to do instead
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How one sentence can interrupt a panic spiral before it takes over
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The difference between things happening to you vs. for you
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How your thoughts directly shape your emotions and your ability to show up powerfully
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Why gratitude is accessible even in the most frustrating moments — and how to get there quickly
Coaching is the thing that’s helped me choose more empowering sentences to support me in these tough moments. If you’d like to experience the power of coaching for yourself, join me in May to celebrate ICF’s International Coaching Week with a “Try Coaching” session. It’s the one time a year I offer free 1:1 coaching. Sign up here.
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[00:00:02] Welcome to Leadership & Motherhood, the podcast for ambitious, high-achieving women navigating leadership in the boardroom and at home. I'm your host, Leanna Lasky-McGrath, business leader, mom, and certified executive coach. I believe that every woman deserves to create a life and career on her own terms, one that she truly loves. This podcast is here to help you do just that. Let's
[00:00:29] get started. Hey, everyone. I had an insight from earlier in the week that I just felt was really important to share because I love finding things and learning things and then sharing them with others who might be able to benefit from them. So that's what I'm doing right now. So earlier this week,
[00:00:53] I participated in a coaching mastermind for three days. And on the third day, the event was in Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, and so it was raining, which happens a lot here. And I had about a 25-minute drive. And on the way in, I got an alert on my dashboard that one of my, I was losing tire pressure in one of my tires.
[00:01:19] And I was like, oh no, I'm having a flat, I've never had a flat tire before. And so like, what do I do? I, it wasn't in the front of my mind. I hadn't thought about it in a long time. And so I felt that little like panic kind of start to rise, you know, how you feel it rise up your chest. And it started coming up and I took a deep breath and I said, this is my curriculum for today.
[00:01:46] And that sentence, I think is a very powerful sentence. And here's why there are a few reasons why. Number one, it cuts straight through the drama that we tend to do where we are resisting reality, right? What do we often say whenever something like that happens? Oh, why is this happening? Why is this happening to me? I don't want a flat tire. It's raining. I don't want to have to deal with
[00:02:12] this. This can't be happening. Why does, why me? Why? Right. We, we ask these kinds of questions and what we're doing there is we are fighting against reality. We are wishing that this wasn't happening. We are spending our precious energy on resisting against the thing that's happening. And one of the things that I love that Byron Katie says is if you fight against reality,
[00:02:40] you are always going to lose because the reality was I had a flat tire. The reality was I was on my way to an event. I really wanted to go to, I didn't want to be late for all of those things were true. But if I spent time pushing against it and getting upset and letting that panic take over, then it was
[00:03:03] going to wreck my day. It was going to make things a whole lot harder. And so by acknowledging and accepting the situation for what it was, this is the situation. This is my curriculum for today. I was able to then move to, all right, well, then what do I need to do about it? So the other reason why that statement is so powerful, this is my curriculum for today.
[00:03:27] The other reason why that's so powerful is because it reminds us that we are not at the affect of our circumstances. Things aren't happening to us. We are not victims. We actually have the opportunity to look at it as a growth opportunity, a learning opportunity, every single thing that's
[00:03:51] placed in front of us. We have the opportunity to look at as this is my curriculum. This is what's going to help me grow and learn something that maybe I didn't know before or have before. And so when we look at it like that, we can recognize that these inconveniences, problems, things that arise are not happening to us. They are happening for us. They are in service of us.
[00:04:18] And I know sometimes it's hard to get there in the moment, but to me, when I tell myself, this is my curriculum for today, then I look at that as, oh, okay, what am I going to learn? This is my challenge in front of me. This is the thing I'm going to learn more about today. So like, I'm up for it. Let's go. And that feels a whole lot more empowering and exciting than
[00:04:42] poor me. I am so upset that this is happening. You know, why does this always happen to me? All these terrible things where it's like this terrible thing has happened to me. That sentence is a sentence you can use anytime you have something come up. Anytime you're, you know, if your toddler is having a tantrum right in front of you, if you are on your way somewhere and
[00:05:10] something like this comes up where you get a flat tire or there's an accident and you're going to be late. It's just all curriculum. It's just all opportunities for you to grow and learn. And so what did I do about it? So here's what I did. Like I said, I started to feel that panic rise up. I took a deep breath and I said, this is my curriculum for today. And then I got some blessings.
[00:05:38] I got a red light and a lot of traffic. And, you know, normally we probably wouldn't be super excited whenever we saw a lot of traffic, but I saw a lot of traffic ahead and I thought, oh, wonderful. I have a minute to pick up my phone and take a look at what I can do about this because I really didn't want to have to pull over on the side of the road and change my tire in the pouring down rain.
[00:06:05] And so I just went into Google Maps and searched flat tire and sure enough, right along my route. I mean, I didn't even have to make a turn. I just had to turn right into the place. I didn't have to go anywhere else. There was a discount tire center. So I called them and I said, Hey, do you fix flat tires? They said, yes, come on in. I said, is there a weight? They said not right now. So I said, great,
[00:06:31] I'll be there in six minutes. It was six minutes away. And so then I put that into the map and I went and I went in there and I told them what happened. They checked it out. Sure enough, there was a nail in my tire. They got it fixed in probably 10 or 15 minutes. I messaged the group and let them know I'd be a little bit late. And then I got back in my car and I drove and I went to the event.
[00:06:56] I wasn't frazzled. I wasn't stressed out. My heart wasn't racing. I was calm and I walked in and, you know, it was a couple of minutes late. Everyone understood, of course. And, um, I got on with my day. And I think that often if we go into a place of feeling in victim mentality, when we get ourselves all worked up and all stressed out, then, you know, it probably would
[00:07:25] have had an impact on my day. I probably would have gone in there, you know, frazzled and like, Oh, I'm so sorry. And, you know, like I'm trying to rush in and, and then I wouldn't have shown up the same one. I wouldn't have been able to focus as well. But instead I kept myself calm and regulated for my drive. And, and I felt great. I think instead of feeling the frazzled, instead of feeling frantic, instead of feeling stressed out and overwhelmed instead, the feelings that I felt
[00:07:54] were gratitude. I felt so much gratitude for the red light felt so much gratitude for the traffic. When I was standing there watching them fixing my tire, I felt so much gratitude for all the people who work there. I was like, Oh my gosh, like, I am so grateful that you exist. I am so grateful that this place exists. I'm so, so grateful. And I'm so grateful that there aren't a lot of people here in front of me so I can get in here quickly and get out quickly. I'm just, I was just full of
[00:08:22] gratitude. And I felt really freaking powerful. I was like, man, I feel great. Like I feel great about how I handled this. And I certainly wouldn't feel great if I had been frazzled and stressed and overwhelmed and panicked. I am sharing this because I want you to know that this is available to you
[00:08:46] anytime, anytime that you have something come up, you get to decide how you respond. You get to decide how you feel about it. And that comes a lot from our thoughts about it, right? Our thoughts of either this is horrible. Why is this happening to me? Why today? You know, those kinds of thoughts, those aren't going to cause strong emotions. Those aren't going to allow you to even see the red light as a
[00:09:14] blessing. But when you have thoughts instead of this is my curriculum, what can I learn here? How can I grow here? Then you are going to feel so much more empowered and you're going to take actions that make you feel better about yourself. And for me, what did I learn? How did I grow? Exactly what I'm sharing right now. I grew in that moment. I grew my resilience and my ability to deal
[00:09:40] with tough situations. And so I can now say, I am grateful for that flat tire. I am grateful for that nail that went in my tire. I don't know where it came from. And I mean, do I wish that I had been on time to my mastermind? Of course, but for whatever reason, that wasn't what was in the cards for me that day. That wasn't part of my curriculum that day. So I can accept that and trust that I got exactly what
[00:10:08] I needed out of my experience of the day. I hope that is helpful for you. If you use it in the next situation that comes up, I'd love to hear about it. How'd it go? Tell me. All right. Thanks everyone. Have a good one. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to Leadership & Motherhood. I genuinely hope you're walking away with something helpful that will positively impact your life. If this podcast resonates with you, it would mean the world to me if you'd support the show by leaving a five-star rating on
[00:10:37] Apple or Spotify, sharing an episode you love with someone you care about and or by following the show. I hope you'll join me again next week. And until then, I'm wishing you all the best in this season of your one and only precious life.
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