As its already the end of January, you may have been back at work for at least a week or two already and the Christmas/New Year break might feel like it was a while ago, but I thought I'd share a little 'reinforcing' lesson I learned during my holiday.

You may already know, my partner and I are keen boaties and as we hadn’t been out on our boat since June we were very excited to leave on Boxing Day.

We had pretty much taken everything of the boat for the winter and consequently spent three full days sorting, reloading, restocking, and preparing the boat, and as soon as the Christmas Day festivities were over we were very excited to head away for a couple of weeks of much-needed holiday.

However, the best-laid plans were quickly interrupted when we discovered on our first night away, that we had no lights, no fridge, no anchor, and no VHF radio.

Even though we both felt hugely frustrated, we didn't get upset and instead, we said, 'That’s life. Let’s go home, let’s sort out the problem, and let’s try again.'

Obviously, flat batteries at the start of a holiday isn’t the worst problem in the world, but it’s an example of how life can throw us a curveball when we least expect it.

Regardless of the plans you’ve made, sometimes bad or unfortunate events will happen. The trick is how you deal with those events.

We all know this, but sometimes a little reminder doesn't hurt, and so I'm passing my learned holiday lesson on to you as a valuable business lesson...

When you encounter an unexpected challenge, you have the choice to stay positive and understand that a setback is simply a test of what kind of person you are and where your business is headed.

Happy New Year!