AAA

What does it mean to expect something more?  To know that you will not just get what you paid for, what you were hoping for, but something extra?  And to actually expect it?  I think many of us don't ever really expect something extra out of anybody or anything; rather, we are just thankful and surprised when it does happen.  It lifts our mood - like the person in front of us in the drive-thru at Starbucks, the one who pays for your drink out of nowhere and you know you will never be able to repay him or her.  This is an added bonus - something more that we weren't expecting!  (This actually happened to me once and I'll never forget that feeling.  So much so that I decided to make it an occasional habit).

I was speaking with my closest, dearest friend and she actually used AAA as an analogy for making sure that your affairs are in order, that you are making sure to have the protections in life that you need - especially when you find that you are not able to do it for yourself.  She was actually, to be perfectly transparent, talking to me and giving me gentle reminders that maybe I hadn't been using all of my resources; that maybe - just maybe - I had been falling off of my game and could be doing a little better.

She said it ever so sweetly, but I took her meaning.

That's when she threw in the AAA analogy.  If you are not familiar with AAA, they offer 24/7 Roadside Assistance so that if your car breaks down on the side of the road in the middle of the night (or at any time, for that matter) you have the security and peace of mind to know that you are covered.  That's literally on their website: "The Safety, Security, and Peace of Mind of AAA."

AAA also has this on their website, right next to the three unmistakable A's that are the hallmark of roadside assistance: "Expect Something More."  And as I dug deeper into their website I was able to find things unexpected, things that surprised me, things that, being familiar with school districts and how our institutions operate, we always put up in a prominent place on our websites.  I found them to be critical components and well worth sharing.  They included:

The AAA Commitment: AAA exists for our members and will judge everything we do by how well we serve their needs.

The AAA Code of Conduct: Always do what's right (this can be found embedded within a link entitled "Integrity," and the Code is accompanied by the symbol of a compass rose).

At first I was confused by their reasons for burying these critical pieces so deep within their site.  I literally stumbled across them as I searched for content to include with this post (indeed, this fact is not even the main focus of this writing, but an important one).  But then I remembered an important lesson we teach our kids: your actions speak louder than your words.

AAA exists to serve their 55 million+ members.
AAA exists to provide peace of mind, safety and security.
AAA exists to model integrity.
AAA wants you to know that you can expect something more from them.

They don't need to flash this all over their marketing materials, shouting to the world that they have integrity and that they live by a code of conduct.  These might as well be unwritten rules, as they expect that all employees model this with every call for help they receive.

Which leads me back to the original concept.
Which leads me back to a painful truth.

When you fall short in life,
What do you do?
How do you respond?
Where do you turn?
When do you get back up?

Because it will happen; inevitably, it will happen that you will fall short of expectations, lose sight of your purpose, let someone down, not follow through on your commitment, only do the bare minimum and not put forth any additional effort... this will happen.  And it's really important that you are in a position to be able to answer the questions posed above.   It's really important that you begin thinking about your Roadside Assistance, your AAA.

Who are they?  Who are your people?  Do you have them?  Have you set yourself up so that you have somewhere to turn, someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to come in and go that extra distance for you when you just can't?

As with the roadside assistance commitment promised by AAA, it is critical that we have the Safety, Security and Peace of Mind of a network of people and supports that can be there for you when you're down because there is nothing wrong with you...

You should actually expect that this will happen from time to time - this natural ebb and flow of life.

Not everything is perfect.
You need to be ready when there are more ebbs than there are flows.
It's part of the self-care that I've been talking about and writing about in previous posts about
living your best life, and
practicing some outside-the-box thinking.

 From whom can you Expect Something More?  Think about it.  Take care of it.  Do something about it.  You're going to need it, as much as someone will come to expect the same of you.