Up until just last night, my wife and I were actually dreading having a conversation with our 7-year-old daughter. We have been planning to take her for her 8th birthday next month to Walt Disney World. Each year, we usually keep it simple, but we try to make our kids birthdays as special as possible.
However, we have a fun tradition in our family that each of our kids get one “extra-special birthday” just with mommy and daddy. Coming up is our oldest daughter Ashley’s special birthday. For her 8th birthday, we have been planning on taking her to Walt Disney World.
We’ve been dreading having this conversation with her because we don’t know if they are still going to be closed. I know they said they are going to open again April 1st, and her birthday is April 29th, but as of course everybody knows, there are a lot of things still up in the air.
We have been wondering, “OK, are we going to actually be able to take her on this trip that we’ve been planning and talking about for a long, long time. She’s been looking forward to it for so long.”
We finally sat her down, and said, “You know everything that’s going on right now. You know that there’s a lot of things outside of our control. There is a possibility that we may not be able to go for your birthday. We will still take you a little bit later on in the year after they’ve opened, but what would happen if they are still closed on your birthday itself?” Thankfully she was super cool about it. She said, “OK, well then I would get two birthday celebrations! If that’s the case, on my birthday itself, I want to go to Nickelmania (a nickel arcade by our house).”
It made us think about the principle of how to get through a potential crisis. Or how to get through something difficult when there’s a lot of things that are outside of your control. It has to do with preparing for the worst, but expecting the best.
Prepare for the worst, but expect the best.
There are two different kinds of fears. There’s the illogical fear. That’s when there’s no logical basis to be afraid of something. The definition of fear is, “Anticipation of discomfort.” A lot of people have fears about starting a business or quitting their jobs, or asking somebody out, or whatever it is. Even though there is no logical basis for that fear because they’ve never experienced it before. Does that make sense?
But then there’s the logical fear. This is mostly having to do with the unknown. “What happens if we run out of toilet paper at our house? What happens if we aren’t prepared?” The way to get through those logical fears, as I mentioned, is simply having a plan. The reason why some things seem scary is because that discomfort comes from not being prepared.
I once heard someone say, “there’s no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing.” Does that make sense?
People that live in parts of the world where temperatures are extreme, and so there are some parts of the world where it is basically winter all year round. It gets down to very low temperatures many degrees below zero, and they live there. If they were to take a cup of water outside and they were to throw it up in the air, it would freeze instantly. I’ve seen videos about this; it’s very interesting.
They love it there because they are prepared to handle those winters. They have the right clothing and supplies that they need, so every single winter, they have exactly what they need. They are still able to remain comfortable. Like I said, people that live there absolutely love it.
How can you prepare for the worst, but still expect the best? It’s all about having a plan. In this case with our daughter, it was, “What will happen if we can’t take her to Walt Disney World for her 8th birthday? We now have a plan. We’ll take you here instead, and later on in the year once it reopens, then we’ll take our trip then.” The purpose of that is having a plan so that you know what to do if the worst happens, but not expecting the worst.
Have you ever noticed that a lot of times what we expect to happen, tends to happen? People that expect to get sick (like every winter), usually are the ones that get sick. The people that expect to remain healthy usually tend to stay healthy.
Now obviously, that doesn’t mean that you don’t plan for the worst. Put contingencies in place. It simply means that after you put those contingencies in place, you don’t have to think about it any more. It’s like, “OK, if I get sick, this is what I’ll do. I can handle that.” Once your brain realizes, “Oh, we have a way to be able to handle that,” it can stop fearing, and then you can expect the best.
We are still expecting to be able to take her to Walt Disney World. We purchased tickets. We’ve booked our Fast Passes, and restaurant reservations. We are still focusing on what we do want to happen.
Whenever we expect something, the subconscious mind usually goes to work looking for reasons why that needs to happen. It usually begins to manifest. It becomes kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
My invitation to you is help other people to get through this chaotic time by having a plan in place. What would we do just in case the worst happens? But still expect the best.
If you expect the worst, usually you’re going to experience the worst. But if you plan for the worst, that way you have those contingencies in place, but then expect the best, you can obliterate fear and you can create the best possible outcome.
As always, love you much!
Recent Comments