The Last Mile - Attitude and Costs

If you've ever traveled to a large city, you may not notice that a significant part of your mood is determined by the last 10% or so of your trip. On one hand, you may find yourself stuck in traffic, getting lost, dealing with road construction, and so on. On the other hand, you may find yourself marveling at the sites, getting excited about what you want to do in the city, developing curiosity about the city's history, etc.

Even though you may have traveled 1,000 miles by car or by plane, the most prominent impression of your trip - and therefore a prominent impression of your mood - is guided by this "last mile". I've traveled quite a bit for both work and pleasure and the last mile inevitably sets the start point for my mood for the rest of trip. If the last mile wrought negativity, then I have a hill to climb; if its positive then it only gets better. We've all seen the torrent of social media posts that tell you that 90%+ of your attitude is within your control - I have yet to meet someone who's even close to 50%. Going to a foreign city and losing your luggage is bad, but having your purse swiped an hour later makes it worse. Having your hotel lose your reservation... well, you get the idea. I for one am not going to say I have such command over my attitude that these succession of terrible events would bring me down (at a minimum). Conversely, if my luggage wasn't lost, I didn't get my purse swiped, and my hotel didn't lose my reservation I wouldn't exactly be put on the positive side of things, right?

Too often we don't provide ourselves with opportunities to amplify the positives in wherever we go or whatever we do. Our focus is on expecting status quo - and this sets us up for negativity if something were to go wrong with status quo. I try to practice the approach of always having opportunities for the positive to immediately take effect during the last mile - and this makes a HUGE difference in having a wonderful experience and staving off negativity's ugly head. At what cost are you imposing on yourself if you don't induce a positive experience during the last mile?

Industry, by the way, has a great deal of focus in reducing the costs of the "last mile". It's easy to get products between cities. It isn't easy for products to reliably get into cities - traffic, construction, end-customer isn't there to sign paperwork, weather (because the product will have a chance of exposure once it's unloaded), etc. Industries usually peg the last mile's total cost of somewhere between 20% to 80% of the product's actual cost - with the 80% for products that are highly susceptible to temperature and humidity changes.

What are your costs of not pre-loading positivity in your last mile? I'm not just talking about money.

Susan