Angela Gargano (00:00)
Hello there and welcome back to another episode of What If It All Goes Right? The podcast where we explore how to handle life's curveballs, pivot with purpose, and create breakthroughs when everything feels like it's falling apart. I'm your host, Angela Gargano, and today I'm taking you behind the scenes of one of those shit moments we've all had and how it turned into an opportunity for growth. So let me just tell you the story. It's messy. It's real. It's definitely super embarrassing, but I promise there's a lesson at the end of it.
And then we're gonna dive into the right framework that I use, which is a step-by-step process that's helped me navigate all my shit moments, from tearing my ACL to embarrassing myself in airport chaos, to helping moms, corporate leaders, and everyone in between handle their own challenges. Let's dive in.
Okay, so I've recently had a complete ⁓ shit moment at the airport and you're gonna die when you hear this story because I'm sure every single one of us on here has had a moment like this. So it's very relatable. It's very transparent, but I just really wanted to share it all with you in there. So I want you to picture this. I'm staying at my mom's house in New Jersey. I'm sleeping in the basement room because where else can you crash when you're at home, right? And
I had to wake up at 3 a.m. for my flight back to Austin because the airport was New York airport. So naturally, I barely slept because let's be real, who can actually sleep when you know that you're going to be going to the airport at 3 in the morning? So I roll out of bed, I pack my bag, which I literally had to sit on to close because it was so stuffed from all the gifts that my mom had given me. I hop into the car with my stepdad, Rob, and it's dark. The highway has a massive sinkhole in it.
because of course it does and I'm already feeling pretty frazzled and there's definitely like lots of fog and all that stuff. So then we're basically about 20 minutes from the airport and it hits me. I had this sharp pain in my stomach and I thought, okay, like maybe I'm just dehydrated or I'm stressed, but no, it gets worse. My stomach starts to make noises and I wouldn't wish this upon anybody and now I'm sweating.
I'm hot. I'm panicking. And I'm trying not to tell Rob that we literally have a major problem and it's three in the morning because he's so kind to drive me to the airport this early. But finally I said to him, so I was like, Rob, I was like, we have a situation. I'm, I'm unwell. So he's like, we're like 10 minutes from the airport. Nothing is open, no rest stops in sight. And I'm literally,
Clenching my butt cheeks together and every muscle my body I had to open the window and I'm just really praying for a miracle because I'm like there's no way I'm gonna make it like I'm gonna have to Pull over on the side of the road and have a full-on bridesmaid moment like from the movie bride tonight who's seen it and she's like out in the middle of the street and just like sinking that's exactly what I thought was gonna happen at 3 in the morning before going into
to the airport or I thought I'm literally going to shit myself like here like in the car right now. So I'm freaking out. I typically don't have stomach problems either. So I'm not used to anything happening like this. So we get to the airport. We have like 10 minutes left now. And there's a massive line to get into the terminal and it's so ridiculously long. And I'm like, this is no.
This can't happen. So I look out to the right of me and I see another terminal. And mind you, we're on like a second level piece, right? So if you look down, you can see the other terminal. There's like a big kind of barrier blocking it. And I see through the window a bathroom. I see it. And I'm like...
I'm gonna have to jump out of the car. And we're gonna need to figure out the rest of this later. So Rob was like, how am gonna find you? Like, what are we gonna do? I'm like, honestly, I don't know. We're just gonna have to figure it out because I cannot hold this any longer. I'm freaking out. So I get out of this car. There's cars everywhere. I'm jumping through these different cars. I jump over a barrier, seriously. And I run into this bathroom and finally, I sprint there and
The crisis is averted, right? I finally get relief. I finally feel better. I'm sitting there just almost in tears, like, what are we going to do? And all my stuff, my bags, my purse, everything is in the car with my stepdad. So I'm now going to have to figure out how I'm going to get back to him to get all my bags and then continue to go through the airport. So now I have to jump on a tram because this airport, you can't just like walk to the next terminal. So
and get on this tram car and I realized like halfway through that I'm going the wrong direction. So now I'm messaging Rob, we're calling each other. But eventually, I got to the other terminal and somehow, somehow he must've been in line for that long to get in that when I got there, his car was right there waiting for me with my bag and everything. And I look at him so embarrassed. I could not believe
that I just had this insane moment with my stepdad where I had to jump out of the car, but he was so good and so patient with me. And yeah, so.
Massive ⁓ shit moment that I'm sure all of us have had before and It felt like chaos but looking back I can see you know, it was that shit moment that I adapted I figured it out and I got through and if that meant jumping over a barrier I Did it now everyone probably has their fair share of bathroom crisis averted stories But I want to talk about the bigger picture about this which is we're all gonna have
those shit moments, right? They always happen. And this may not be you almost pooping your pants like me, right? This could be something larger, something different, right? Where it just kind of comes out, literally out of nowhere and you're going to have to adapt. Now, the airport story was a chaotic, but it's nothing compared to one of my biggest shit moments in life, which was tearing my ACL on American Ninja Warrior. And I was literally in the best shape of my life.
ready to crush the course and in an instant I literally fell apart. I woke up on the ground holding my leg completely devastated and I honestly thought that my dreams are over but that moment taught me one of the most important lessons of my life. You don't have all the answers right away.
but all need to do is take the next step. Right? I let myself feel the emotions, the frustration, the sadness, the fear, and then I focus on what I could control, my recovery. I create a plan. I stayed connected to my why. I took action every single day. And even when progress felt slow, that experience made me stronger, not just physically, but also mentally. So with my shit moment, I...
took a moment to really sit there, honestly, because I had already gone through this ACL tear and I'm like, okay, I have a lesson from way before that I could utilize right now. And I said to myself, I'm gonna feel whatever way I need to feel. So at that moment, I felt completely embarrassed. I was freaking out. And I was like, okay, that's normal. know, anyone who was in this situation thinking they were gonna literally shut their pants in their car would feel the same exact way. But then I immediately took a deep breath.
I figured out, what can I control? And I can figure out some kind of way to get myself out to make this a reality to get some relief, right? So jumping over a barrier or a car. I know it sounds a little wild, but it's exactly what you're going to have to do in life with so many other situations, right? So whether you're facing a setback, like you're turning an AC out, or maybe it's a professional challenge firm for a corporate leader, or you're struggling to stay consistent as a busy mom, we all face where we think
how am I going to get through this? Am I gonna get through this? I'm like, this is like, sometimes you just think it's over. But here's the thing, you will get through it. And these moments, as uncomfortable as they are, are where we grow the most. And it's exactly where the right framework that I created comes in. It's a tool I created to help you navigate these moments with resilience, clarity, and with purpose. Again, whether it being you're about to shit your pants or whether it's gonna be something else that comes up in life, like.
I did with tearing my ACL. It's so important to have these moments because it's going to teach us, you know, once you have one ocean moment and you figure out how to get through it, you can literally look back and use exactly what you did to get through that for other situations. So I just kind of want to go through the framework right now that I have, and I'm continuously am adapting and evolving this framework based on the experiences that I have, but this works. So the first thing for the right framework is that it's literally
It's an acronym. Okay. So if you are in one of these moments where you're like, ⁓ shit, or you're like, there's a challenge that you're facing right now. All you're going to think about is what if it all goes right? What if it all goes right? then you're going to look at that, that word, right. And we're going to break this all down. So the first thing with the R is we're going to recognize and we are going to feel. So the first step of resilience is recognizing and embracing your emotions.
whether it be, again, you're about to shit your pants, or whether it be something else, or when I tore my ACL, I really let myself sit and feel in a sadness and frustration instead of trying to suppress it, right? Because a lot of times what we do is we try and bury that all down. We try not to feel anything. We try and say, well, I should be stronger than this. I shouldn't feel this way. I shouldn't be upset. But we are human beings, and it's so important to feel whatever you need to feel and to not have any judgment.
on yourself for having that, okay? You said it was the same at the airport. I acknowledged that, I was overwhelmed, I was literally unwell.
And I realized that and it allowed me to just take that moment to feel. For corporate leaders, this might mean admitting disappointment after a failed project. For mom, it could mean recognizing the exhaustion of trying to juggle everything. Feel whatever it is you need to feel, okay? So when you have one of these moments coming, when the ocean moment happens, okay, for your action item, I want you to take a moment and be like, okay, cool. What if it all goes right?
And then want you to give yourself five minutes to label your emotions without judgment, to say them out loud, to write them down. And I know some people call this like their literal like a five minute also pity party. If you want to have a five minute pity party where you're just like, you know what, this sucks, I'm frustrated, I'm annoyed, give yourself the time, do it, Have that moment, feel whatever you need to feel about that moment. You cannot move forward unless you do this. And I think again, so many people trying to suppress this and they just try and be really strong. Don't, don't do that.
feel whatever you need to feel, and then we're gonna move on to the next piece of the framework, which is you're going to identify what you can control, okay? You can't control everything, but there's always something that you can control. And in the airport, I couldn't control the traffic, I couldn't control the stomach, but I could jump out of the car and find a bathroom, right? When I my ACL, I couldn't change that I had the injury, but I could control my rehab, right? I could control what I do next.
So for your action item, I want you to ask yourself, what is one thing that I can control right now? So feel whatever is in you to feel, have your pity party, do all the things, and then you're gonna identify, okay, cool. What is in my control right now? What's not in my control right now?
So we're gonna go into...
the next piece, which you're going to generate a plan. Okay, so once you identified what you can control, I want you to make a plan and it doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be something to move you forward and it just needs to be the first step. Okay, the first step. doesn't need to be the complete end step. It just needs to be that one first step that you can do, right? So after tearing my ACL, my plan was simple. I was gonna show up to physical therapy every day. I was gonna focus on one milestone at a time. For corporate leaders, this might be
breaking a massive project into those smaller steps. This might be for moms, it could be planning just one workout or one healthy meal for the week and that is it and really keeping it super simple. so for the action item, I want you to write down one actionable step that you can literally take today. Just one, okay? Doesn't have to be the whole plan, doesn't have to be the whole thing, but just, even if it's just one, just sit down and just write out what's that one actionable step that you can take.
For the H, I want you to hold on to your Y, right? Why are you doing this? What is your end goal, right? When I was rehabbing my ACL, my Y was getting back on an American Ninja Warrior course. In the airport, it was just getting home to my pepper girl, to my little doggie over here who also just had her ocean moment. For you, your Y might be creating a better future for your team, being there for your kids, or building confidence to chase your goal.
So again, reconnect with your why and write it down or say it out loud. It's so important in moments like these when we're really facing challenges, in moments like these when we're really just having those shit moments to really sit back and go back to this. And finally, RT, you gotta take action and trust the process, okay? Execution is key. I want you to take action with confidence and I want you to trust in your preparation with every small step.
with every rehab session, with every workout, every decision, I trusted the process even when progress felt slow. Okay? Take one decisive action today, no matter how small and celebrate it as a win. we're all at the end of the day, Even in the midst of all these challenges and going through the process, we're just doing the best that we can, right? Remind yourself of that.
So here's the truth, life's shit moments are literally inevitable, but they're also where we grow, we adapt, and we prove to ourselves just how strong we are. So the next time you're faced with one of these, I want you to remember the right framework. I want you to ask yourself, what if it all goes right? Recognize and feel, identify what you can control, generate a plan, hold onto your why, and take action while trusting the process.
So quick episode today in the middle of my taking care of my pepper girl over here, but thank you so much for joining me in this episode of What If It All Goes Right. If this episode resonates with you, I want you to share it with someone who needs a reminder that you can handle those shit moments. And as always keep asking yourself, what if it all goes right? What if it's already going right?
