Someone once said, if there’s a life plan mapped out for us, it’s based around some pretty complicated architecture.

How many times have you said to yourself: who would have thought a year ago that I would be sitting here doing this or that?

The one thing you can expect in life is the unexpected. So how do you deal with it? How do you manage when things don’t go quite the way you planned?
What do you do about life’s little emergencies?  Here are some thoughts.

1. React. Don’t overreact. When little things go wrong we tend to see them as catastrophic. Keep things in perspective. As they say, things are often never as bad as they seem.

2. Go with the flow. It can be fun. So you have packed a beautiful picnic and then it starts raining. Don’t just eat the food indoors at the dining room table. Have an indoor picnic. Spread the tablecloth on the living room floor.You have everything you need for a great meal outdoors except the outdoors. Who cares?

3. Mark Twain said on his deathbed that he spent all his life worrying about things that never happened. We’re probably all guilty of that at some point. Try to deal in realities. Not hypotheticals.

4. Now, let’s talk about those real unexpected emergencies. An accident.  An injury. Keep key phone numbers on speed dial in your phone. Always keep first aid kits in the house and in the car. Good ones, not just a few band-aids. And keep people informed. There’s nothing worse than someone waiting for news about a serious situation and being kept in the dark.

5. Enjoy a change of plans. If people cancel on you at the last minute or an event gets postponed, don’t try to replace it with another group activity. Replace it with yourself. Take this rare opportunity to do something just for you. Indulge yourself. Relax. Did you really want to go to that lecture on Russian Philosophical Thinking anyway?