How A Dum Dum Saved My Life

Here's one of those posts where I share with you something that's worked for me. While I can't guarantee that it will do the same for you, I thought that it was worth telling my little tale as it may come in handy some day ...

My career requires me to do quite a bit of traveling. Every few months, instead of taking a plane to my destination, I choose to drive instead as I find I enjoy the "alone" time, I can catch up on a few calls, and I find it very relaxing overall .... and there lies the cause of my discovery. A few weeks back, I decided to drive from Arizona to Los Angeles, which, for me, is a 7 hour drive. After stopping a few times, I was in the "home stretch" of my journey ... and then IT happened: my eyes started getting very heavy and I could feel the uncontrollable urge to take a nap come over me (the fact that it was 98 degrees out and I was in slowly moving traffic, certainly didn't help). My head started to bob more than it ever did in Economics 101. I tried everything I could think of to stay awake:

• I opened the window
• I turned the music WAY up
• I even slapped myself (no really... and it wasn't a "sissy" slap either!)

Nothing seemed to work. As I struggled to figure out the best way to defeat "Mr. Sandman," I remembered that I had a Dum Dum lollipop in my glove compartment that I had picked up at the bank the other day (they give them out for little kids ... like myself). I had nothing to lose as I figured it would be hard to fall asleep sucking on a lollipop ... so I opened the paper wrapper and placed that little ball of joy on a stick on my tongue. At that point I didn't care what flavor it was: I was desperate to stay awake (although, if you must know, it was yummy cotton candy).And that's when I made the incredible discovery: when I was savoring the flavor of this candy that's been around for what seems like 100 years, I was able to keep my eyes open, stay alert, and keep my mind on driving.

Again... this is by no means a scientific study but it did indeed work for me then and a number of times since and may be worth a shot for you too. Needless to say, I've re-stocked my glove compartment with more Dum Dums (yes...all different flavors) and while I'm sure that other types of candies may work too, there is something about a candy with a stick, that seems to really work for me (and it sure beats slapping yourself in the face!)