Even the best laid plans will fall through at times. You can easily fall into overwhelm and frustration when this happens, but adjusting your attitude can save the day. You can rescue a potential mess quickly by focusing on the good of the situation!
Hi there, it’s Elaine Gardner, the founder of DesignYourHealthyLife.com. In recent videos, I’ve been talking to you about the importance of planning, choosing your activities, and not getting caught up in the crazy busyness that so many people get caught up in, such as over planning and over scheduling your life, as opposed to really thinking about how you want to spend your time and how you can best take care of yourself and be happy. I always, always encourage that, but I also want to share with you a technique to save yourself when things don’t go as planned, because even the best laid intentions and plans fall by the wayside sometimes.
So a recent example, I had been driving a 2008 Jeep and I knew that it was obviously getting older and I was having problems with it off and on. I knew it needed to be replaced and our intention was to replace it within the next couple months. But a few weeks ago I started having trouble with it. It was something that had happened in the past and I knew that it was going to be a fairly costly repair. And it didn’t make sense to put that kind of money into repairing it at this point in time. So fortunately, my husband had already done a lot of research about a new vehicle for me. And also fortunately, we had some time off in the middle of the week together, so we started looking and going to dealerships.
We stumbled upon a dealership that we didn’t know existed, that had one of the top cars on my husband’s list, and got to take a look at it. We decided very quickly that this was the route that we were going to take because they were offering us a very good deal on it. So during the course of that week, we invested the hours that are involved in purchasing a new vehicle and juggled the rest of our schedule to accommodate that, and on top of that I had a very bad cold that week so I wasn’t feeling well. So we had planned to go back to the dealership because after we did the first test drive there, we had decided that was the right thing for us. We were hoping to go back two days later after I was done working. Then my husband, who is semi-retired since June and just got a part time job, came home from work that day from his new job and said he now had to work the next day.
So here we are with a vehicle that’s not working, that I’m afraid to drive, and we can’t go get the new car as we had planned the day after, so now we need a new plan. And we need a new plan fast. And it’s probably 5:00 on a Thursday night. So the new plan is, let’s go tonight right after dinner. And then my son and his girlfriend come home with supplies from the grocery store and they want to make dinner (while I’m also making dinner). And they want to make a cheese sauce, which I had told them I would teach them how to do. So, I have a very limited amount of time, I’m not feeling well, I have two dinners to create and get on the table, and then we need to get out the door and get to the dealership and secure this vehicle so that I can have a new car soon because mine is not working properly.
And even though this is a mild example, and certainly there are much more severe and more serious issues, I don’t know about you, but for me, this would have been a huge trigger in the past. I could have very easily gone into overwhelm and frustration and just kind of started freaking out like, how am I going to get this done??? But instead, I knew that this was an incredible opportunity, that we were getting a great deal on a car, that we actually did have the time to do it (even though this wasn’t ideal), and fortunately I wasn’t sick enough to be dysfunctional. And my son, who is 18 years old, doesn’t spend a lot of time at home, so any opportunity to have him in the house and spend time with him, and help him with something, is an opportunity not to be missed.
So I decided that, despite all the potential craziness, I was just going to go with it and enjoy what I had unfolding in front of me. And I had a great dinner made for my husband and I and one of my sons, and I taught my other son and his girlfriend how to make cheese sauce and helped them complete their dinner. We all enjoyed a lovely meal together, my husband and I got out of the house in a reasonable amount of time, we got to the dealership and bought a new car. We got home a little bit later than I would have liked because that was supposed to be a nice relaxing evening at home and I had to work early the next morning, but we didn’t get home at a ridiculous hour, and we got a new car.
So all in all, everything turned out for the best and it was my attitude about the events and how the events were unfolding, that saved the day. I know I mentioned it before, but what I would have done in the past is go into overwhelm and frustration, and I could have turned that situation into something that felt really awkward and uncomfortable. But I just adjusted my attitude and it turned out to be a really great night overall, and so many good things came out of it. So I have a brand new car, my cold is gone, my son now knows how to make cheese sauce on his own, and even made one successfully on his own the following week.
So the message is, your attitude – the way that you respond to things – can save the day when things don’t go as planned. Instead of going into stress and overwhelm, try to adjust it, see the good in it, see how you can save it. Whether it’s removing yourself from a situation if you can, or just adjusting your attitude and going with the flow of it, otherwise it really, really can make a huge difference and I can’t recommend it enough. I know it’s easy to say. It’s not always easy to do. You have to be aware of what your reactions are and catch yourself, stop yourself before you go down that path, or interrupt yourself as you’re going down that path and make a new choice and adjust your attitude.
And it’s going to take some conscious reminding as you’re going through it. I’m just going to enjoy this. I’m helping them. I’m teaching them. I’m learning this is the good in this situation, like talking to yourself in your head. You can talk to yourself out loud as well. But really, it is well worth your effort to do it. The more that you work on doing this, the more successful you will be doing it automatically or much more easily as you go along. So I hope you will give that a try. Still keep up with your planning, because it can make a huge difference for you. But when things don’t go as planned, try to see the silver lining and make it work to the best of your ability by adjusting the way you respond to it.
As always, my intention, my passion is to serve you so that you can have the health that you need to live the life that you deserve. After suffering for more than two decades with poor health, I want you to have all the tools you need to keep yourself out of that. So this is why I’m here every week. If there’s anything I can do to support you, I’d love to hear from you. This is truly what I’m passionate about. Until next time…