How To Deal With Unexpected Events

HOW TO DEAL WITH UNEXPECTED EVENTS

In life, there will always be something unexpected. And it’s something we can’t predict, and we don’t have control over it (natural disasters, death). We all have faced difficulties, rough “waves” and strong “winds” that challenge us to stay on track with our lives and keep pursuing our goals. But we are the captain, we have control over our ship and we are responsible for our journey. Unexpected events can’t affect us if we don’t let them.

Whatever happens, that is not in our plans and our routines, surprises us.

• It may a positive thing, like an unexpected visit from your family, your children, your spouse you haven’t seen for a while because you are working in another city, or
• It may be a negative thing, like when you’re stuck on traffic and you have an important meeting to go to, or when your flight is canceled, or when you break up with your boyfriend/girlfriend, or even when tragedy strikes in your life.

So how can we handle these unexpected situations?

ACCEPT IT AND FACE IT

When something negative happens to you, the first thing you feel is denial. You don’t want to believe this happened to you. And that’s completely normal. The first challenge for you is to accept it. “Ok, this X, Y, Z happened to me, what do I do now?” If you don’t accept it, you won’t be able to overcome your problem. Let’s go back to the example of being late for your meeting. There are two options:

1. You accept that you’re going to be late and you use your time to relax, listen to the radio, review your speech for the presentation of your project, or to do whatever you want to turn that “negative” to something beneficial for you.
2. You get nervous, your mind gets foggy, you’re really stressed because that meeting means a lot to you and in the end, it might result in poor performance.

Always remember that you are the captain and you are in control of your ship, not the weather, not the circumstances. ONLY you.

But, how do you prepare for the unexpected?

PREPARE YOURSELF

Self-discipline is probably the most important piece of your preparation. You have to develop habits that will help you be more disciplined. Start by accomplishing small goals, and acknowledging your strengths and weaknesses. Try to keep yourself focused on your goal and resist distractions, to not give up despite failure and setbacks, and to persevere and believe in yourself. And don’t forget to combine healthy eating habits, with exercise and enough sleep to keep your body in a good condition.

The second part of your preparation is to take full responsibility. For example, if you don’t want to be late at work, start your day 30-45 minutes earlier than usual, and even with heavy traffic, you’re going to be on time. Even in very difficult situations, in situations of “chaos” when you lose someone you really loved, a family member or a friend, you are responsible to keep yourself composed in order to help and support others around you. I want you to remember that we have so much inner strength to overcome whatever comes in our way as long as we discipline ourselves every day.

BE OPTIMISTIC AND POSITIVE

Negativity makes things worse and increases troubles both outside and within you. Stay positive, and look for the positive in every negative situation. You can discover things where in other circumstances you wouldn’t even notice.

In conclusion, I’d like to underline that positivity is your fuel to face unexpected events. You can’t discipline yourself to deal with the unexpected without positivity.

And as Colin Luther Powell has said: “Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier.”