Marty and I are visiting our families in Ohio for Thanksgiving this year. For some crazy reason, I bought our flights through Southwest.

Why did I do that?

If I had bought American Airlines, I could have gotten wifi on the flight. Hell, if the flight was empty enough, I might have been able to upgrade our seats to First Class for a couple hundred dollars. I would have had a power port for my computer, in any case. If I had bought the flights through Continental, I probably could have had a power port, or wifi, or both.

Why did I buy them through Southwest? Southwest doesn’t let me do any of those things.

When Marty and I flew to Vegas—our first Southwest flight ever—this really cool flight attendant rapped the safety instructions instead of just going through them point by point. This blew our minds. However, I have no reason to expect this experience on other Southwest flights. Maybe the next time I go to Vegas, but I doubt stuff like that happens all the time.

Furthermore, seating is first come first serve on Southwest. So if I pay $10 per flight (that means $40 for Marty and I, round trip) we can get preferred seating and find our seats first. But on American or Continental, I could just choose my seat beforehand and know what to expect.

Of course, Southwest won’t charge us for luggage. But the flights have seemed (so far) a little more expensive on Southwest, anyway. So that doesn’t seem to make much difference. I’m paying for preferred seating instead of luggage, but it feels better to pay for preferred seating instead of luggage. With the luggage, I feel punished. With the preferred seating, I feel like I’m getting a bonus. This is still not a huge point—though I think it’s part of the final effect.

I have examined and examined. The truth is, there’s no logic here. I must have bought Southwest because Southwest seemed NICER.

All of my rational thought suggested that I should go with a different airline—when it came to buying these tickets, I just did what my gut told me to do. Their website is definitely friendlier. Their staff seems friendlier, too. All the seats on Southwest flights are the same. There IS no First Class. But actually, the seats on Southwest flights all seem nicer than your typical run-of-the-mill economy seats. Whatever decisions they have made in their hiring and their design and everything else, they have made me feel positive vibes about Southwest. And these positive vibes have resulted in me buying tickets with them instead of someone else, even though it means going without internet and power ports and the fleeting possibility of a cheap First Class upgrade.

You know how integral my web access is to my ability to make it through the day. So you know how wacky this is.

Even better, I don’t regret the purchase. I’m still perfectly happy to be flying Southwest, even considering this whole thought process.

The power of emotional decisions in marketing, am I right?

This is a meme that bears repeating. Mac users close to my heart: Substitute Ctrl-Cmd-Power or hold down that power button—well, don’t actually; I’m just trying to exercise a little consideration. Anyway, you have to admit that Ctrl+Alt+Delete has a sort of ubiquitous grace…

Bob Poole made a great post yesterday about rebooting yourself.

What if there was a ctrl+alt+delete for our lives?

Would you be tempted to use the keys and reboot your life? Sound tempting? Maybe you’d do things differently. You’d stop wishing it were Friday – every day. And, you’d find a job or a career that you love.

Work and play would blend into life. If only there was such a set of keys.

His post was thought-provoking, and I immediately brought up a text document. “Make a list of your strengths,” he said, so I did. I wrote:

But when I came to the impossibility of failure part, I got stuck.

This may or may not be true—my perception is constantly changing—but I feel right now as if I accept most situations the way I would if failure was impossible. I base decisions on what I want, what feels right, and not so much a fear that the world won’t allow me to have what I work for. The circumstances I find myself in now—the amazing projects, the wonderful people, and freaking awesome opportunities—are all the result of leaving fear-based thinking behind. Marty’s Evil Empire is based on him having left his full-time job because we knew we could (must) succeed, and my progression towards taking only projects that inspire me is based on an intention to value happiness and meaning over money-for-misery, or convention.

I’m sure you can tell that I’m very proud of those decisions, but there is something missing. There is something in my way. What is it?

Only fear. Look at that list of strengths again. You’re a talented, strong person. Tell fear to get lost.

I have been rooting fear out of my life—I have conquered it in so many ways. I have become downright astonishing at standing my ground instead of running scared. I have continued to strengthen my fearless-decision-making muscles, and I exercise them every chance I get. So is it fear, still, that holds me back?

It might be.

It really might be—only in a different way than I’m used to seeing. And I simply may not be close enough to see the next step. Even if I haven’t gotten to a place in my life where fear doesn’t hold me back, it’s heartening to be able to imagine it, and see the measure of that growth.

I’ve speculated (often) that my biggest obstacle is lack of resources—money, manpower. But at the same time, if someone else came to me and told me they lacked resources, I would point to their brain and tell them to use that. “That’s all the resource you need,” I’d say, and I’d mean it. Perhaps I need to be just a little bit more clever.

Well, okay. I can do that.

So now it’s your turn. Take a look at Bob’s post, and start your own Ctrl+Alt+Delete file. What are your strengths? And what would you do if you couldn’t fail?

Just thinking about it is taking me into more uncharted territory. But oh, man. I love uncharted territory. ;}