A week full of unexpected tasks, deadlines, distractions, detours can be really frustrating. You may feel like you are going through a challenge course, and there is no end to it! And you can’t wait for the week to be over! This WorthWorkin4Wednesday post is all about the unexpected hitting us, failed plans and the hidden opportunities.
Creating Do-It lists, writing memos and Post-Its, setting reminders in our phones are attempts to add structure, predictability to your day, week or month! You might not have envisioned your week to that way when it started. But sometimes, nothing goes according to your plan. But life is like that! It’s full of surprises: more unpleasant ones than the pleasant ones.
A trip canceled due to a sick child, work getting delayed, a deadline getting extended or moved earlier, an appliance breaking down, a last minute engagement!
We don’t know when the unexpected would hit us and all our plans would just stare in our face. Here is how you can make your week a bearable and even stimulating:
Lower Your Expectations
We are let down by things, event, situation, people, relationships when we develop expectations from them. We want things, outcomes, and results to be our way. We become detached from the reality. We start wanting things to be “this exact, particular, perfect way” in order for us them to become acceptable for us.
Then we feel let down, even betrayed, when things don’t go as planned, when people don’t act the way we have expected and wanted them to. Our expectations create a conflict in our mind. They stop us from coming to terms with a situation. They prevent us from finding our way around the obstacles.
Then we feel let down, even betrayed, when things don’t go as planned, when people don’t act the way we have expected and wanted them to.
Accept Things
The unexpected can be annoying! Struggle can be brutal! But there is grace in acceptance. Once you start to accept your situation, it would start to look less unpleasant and scary. You would start learning to cope with it.
As your resistance against a situation lessens, the friction and anxiety also diminish. Moreover, your inner conflict about a situation, event or relationship would start to resolve. It is true that our struggles help us grow. They help us become stronger, open and more resilient.
Develop a Beginner’s Mindset
A limited mindset only makes us see issues and obstacles. On the other hand, a beginner’s mindset helps us embrace and accept everything and everyone as they are. The concept of Beginner’s mindset stems from the Buddhism. It propagates seeing everything and everyone from the lens of openness and enthusiasm. It means accepting your position as a learner and not as an expert.
The Beginner’s Mindset makes you leave your preconceived notions about things and people behind and start afresh. It also help us rekindle the joy in things. It renews our belief that every day, every week and month is a chance for us to experience and learn new things.
Start Seeing the Possibilities
When our planning fails because our week spirals out of control, it can be frustrating. Unexpected obstacles and challenges are a downer. But they teach us about life and how we have very little control over it. Unexpected obstacles teach us to accept our limitations but also the tiny, hidden possibilities around them.
Take the challenge as a hidden opportunity to learn and try something new.
But if you have a growth oriented mindset, you would still learn to find newer ways to make things work despite of the initial frustration and disappointment. Obstacles also teach us to become more resourceful, find shortcuts and detours and still find our way to the goal.
Take the challenge as a hidden opportunity to learn and try something new. Many times, an adversity presents itself as a disguised opportunity. Thus, try to find the lesson and the takeaway from an unpleasant situation and you might find the silver lining and deeper wisdom. For instance,
A ruined vacation plan may help you find ways to entertain yourself at home.
Replacing a broken appliance now might mean saving yourself from more damage and costlier repairs in the future.
Meeting a tight deadline can be an opportunity to impress a client.
Being put on a new team can be an opportunity to form newer alliances.
A client’s rejection may mean learning to think out of the box and coming back with fresh and more compelling ideas.
A cancelled meeting might be an opportunity to fine tune your project.
Coming across a problem and having to solve it may mean learning a new skill.
Still Keep on Planning
No matter how many to-do lists we prepare, the best of the plans, the most promising weeks can get ruined by the unexpected, the emergencies. Still, go ahead and plan your day, week and month! But also be prepared for the unexpected to happen!
If something unexpected comes up, don’t get upset! Instead, try to embrace it!
While to-do lists give structure to your day and week,
While to-do lists give structure to your day and week, don’t make your lists, planners and schedules so tight, your expectations so specific that even a small change can throw you off, upset your balance, and ruin your day or entire week. Instead, keep your routines flexible, fluid and evolving.
My Final Thoughts
Every time you deal with some unexpected challenge, see it as an opportunity to grow, learn something new, and experience something different and beneficial. Once you shift your lens, you would be able to find the joy, the promise, the worth in the unexpected.
