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This wallet was nowhere to be found. I searched everywhere. I searched every cupboard, bag, bench and surface I could find. I checked the pantry, I checked giant gap where the washing machine used to be, I checked my ex-housmates' old rooms and, in a final act that could very well be the hallmark of desperation, I checked in the water tray of my evaporative air conditioner.
I made my flight by the narrowest of margins because I didn't have to wait at any red lights between my house and tullamarine airport. That's right; if I had had to stop at just ONE red light I wouldn't have been on that plane.
Although, it could also be said that if I hadn't spent just under 45 minutes trying to find my missing wallet, I would have made it with plenty of time to spare. You see, I actually set myself up for a fall and I'm going to tell you how.
I have a friend who was coming with me to the airport so she could use my car while I was away. I rang her and explained that my wallet was missing and, for some reason, I said to her that I wouldn't be able to get on the flight without my driver's licence. The thing is, as I said this I knew it wasn't exactly true.
Firstly, it was a domestic flight with relatively lax security. Secondly, I had already checked in online and, thirdly, I already had my boarding pass. On top of all of this my passport was about three feet away from me the whole time that I was searching my room.
All of this was irrelevant, however, because the second that I said I couldn't get on the flight without my driver's licence, my mind committed itself to the lie. I, after that split-second of doubt, believed my own words to be true. As a result of this I spent 40 minutes searching for my wallet - all the while focussing on what i couldn't do rather than what I could do.
If I had just stopped after, say, 15 minutes, accepted that my wallet was beyond my immediate reach and started thinking of ways that I could get on that flight rather than reasons I couldn't, it would have immediately occured ot me to get my passport and get out of the house.
(Even though I didn't need ID to get on the flight, it would have been imprudent at best not to take some with me).
It was on a phone call with my dad, in which I was explaining why I would be unable to make it to Adelaide for Christmas this year, that he asked the innocuous question that shifted my perspective back where it should be: "Do you have any other forms of I.D?"
Snap.
I've known for a long time that one must focus on what one can do in life, and on finding ways to do things, rather than focussing on what we can't do and why. But when the heat was on I got cooked.
Still, I happily made it to Adelaide and back in one piece and even found my wallet when I got home. I walked in the door, put my bag down in the loungeroom and walked into my bedroom. Without really thinking about it I lifted up my mattress and there was my wallet. If you had just tuned in you'd have thought I knew where it was all along.
The reason that I found the wallet so easily is because I had spent the better part of four days thinking about it and where it could be. While I still hadn't come to any conclusions, my subconcious mind had figured out the only place it could be based on past cirumstances (it is actually plausible that my wallet was there because I wore trackies to bed the night before my flight and could have forgotten to take it out of my pocket) and directed me straight there once I was home.
I would have avoided a lot of undue stress just by focussing on what I needed (ID) and what tools I had to get some (go to my drawer and get my passport). I.E, I should have focused on what I can do.
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