The bus driver stopped the bus and refused to drive any further.
I was on it. On my way to the most important pitch of my year. A contract for years.
I didn't flinch.
Thursday morning in Leuven
Thursday 29 October. I took a train earlier than I needed to.
I didn't want traffic in my head. And I wanted to work on the way.
I did the last stretch by bus.
On the way, the driver started shouting at a passenger. She got off.
At the hospital stop, he turned around to everyone still seated. He would not drive on. He did not feel respected.
One passenger had made him angry. The whole bus stood still.
Twenty minutes
I had twenty minutes of margin.
I got off and walked.
I was at the door ten minutes early.
Then the same bus drove past.
I watched it go. No irritation. A bus driving past.
How do you stay clear-headed under pressure before an important moment?
By building in margin before you need it. Margin in your calendar, and margin in your head.
Leave for a moment that matters without margin, and every setback gets a vote in your decisions. Leave with margin, and the same setback costs you a few minutes.
In my previous pressure note I wrote about the opposite. Months without margin, and one phone call on a Saturday morning that sat at the table for every decision I made for two days.
Two unexpected blows. One shut my judgment down for two days. The other cost me a walk.
The difference was the room that was left when they landed.
What margin does to your judgment
A setback asks for attention. That attention has to come from somewhere.
Without margin, your head takes it from your decisions. You keep deciding, fast and with conviction. Only the setback is deciding with you.
With margin, there is attention to spare. The setback gets its place, and your judgment stays yours.
Margin feels like wasted time. Twenty minutes you usually don't use. Until the day you do.
So I plan margin for every moment that matters. A pitch, or a conversation a lot depends on. That margin is for my own head.
Your question for this week
Which moment this week did you leave without margin?
This is what my keynote is about: keynote speaker on sustained pressure and judgment.
