My long-time friend Aaron Rand left his morningman post at Montreal radio station Q92 on Thursday.
Needless to say, after a 26-year run, saying goodbye on-air was an emotional burden, one which Aaron handled with class and strength.
The last few minutes of said farewell were captured on camera by Steve Faguy, who not only works for the Montreal Gazette but writes one of the best--and best-named--city blogs anywhere. The seven-minute video is well worth watching; it's touching and fascinating.
And it's also the source of this week's lesson.
At the tail end of Steve's video, at the 6:27 mark to be exact, traffic reporter Natasha Hall has to deliver her final report of a morning that has been an emotional roller coaster to say the least. She bends, she wavers, but she doesn't break, and her grace under pressure, not to mention a hug from Rand himself, makes for highly-inspired viewing.
I must've watched this 40-second segment 20 times that day.
Like the British WWII morale-boosting poster pictured above (and explained in greater detail here), Natasha kept calm, and carried on. And while it won't go down in history as the most lucid sponsor promo in history, she managed to hold on and lay down the money shot--the Mazda commercial tag at the end of her report. If I were the marketing director of Mazda, I'd play her reading of said tag to all staff everywhere as an example of how to deal with tough times in a tender but tough manner.
Whether it's at work or at home or both, we all have to deal with stuff that pushes us to the brink. It's never fun, and we usually get through to the other side. But there's always that one point, that most slender slice between what we have to deal with and how we deal with it, where the path to resolution is set.
We can crumble, fall and/or freak out...then face a rocky road.
Or, like Natasha Hall, we can grit our teeth, not be afraid to show our true colours, get through it and set a smooth pace for the road ahead.
Check her out below. Then get on with your day.
Or as Natasha says: "There we go!"