EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED: April 27, 2019

Yes, that date is correct! The picture is compliments of my daughter who captured this last spring snow and declared ‘Expect the Unexpected’!

This reminds me of Murphy’s Law: ‘If anything can go wrong, it will’. Just for a little history, Edward J. Murphy was a real person who was a Major in the Air Force in the 1940’s, working as an engineer testing experimental designs; I guess he often experienced unplanned results.

Ultimately, things in our lives do go awry from time to time. That is life and we are human. It is easy to push the panic button when things start to fall apart, but that doesn’t really help the matter at hand. Here is what I have trained myself to do in these situations.

Once I realize that I am moving toward exasperation, I take three deep breaths and list several catastrophic end results that could happen. After another three deep breaths, it’s thank you because these did not happen. Now, I focus on how to straighten the mess out, giving myself three choices; choosing one, acting on it, and reminding myself that this COULD have been a lot worse and THIS is definitely not the end of the world. So, much for expecting the unexpected.

I must admit that my method did not develop overnight, and it took me a few years in life to learn to use this approach. Try it for yourself and maybe it will work for you too.

Claire Cook, American author and speaker, stated “If plan A doesn’t work, the alphabet has 25 more letters!”  Now this is encouraging, right?

PJP