Be Prepared For The Unexpected

Let me start off this post by telling a story. It’s a poker story, so if you don’t understand the basics of poker then this might not make sense, but I’ll try to give the cliff-notes version of it. Basically, I had a very good starting hand, pocket Q’s, and the flop came AAQ, giving me a full-house, a very good hand. I got all my money into the pot, with another person that called my hand. I could not have played the hand any better or have gotten any more value out of my hand. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter. He had AJ, which gave him trip Aces and which gave me the best hand… until the turn came, which was another ace, the only ace in the deck, giving him Quad Aces. I could not have played my hand any better, yet I still lost.

Let me give you another scenario. If you watched the Kentucky Derby this weekend or heard about it, then you know what I’m talking about. If you didn’t, then let me tell you. A horse that had one of the lowest chances of winning, 1/50, came back in the last seconds to win the horse. Almost no one could have predicted it or planned for it, yet it happened.

Now both of these cases are gambling, but the same idea can be brought to anything in life. Career planning, financial planning, family planning, whatever else. Sometimes things happen that are just outside of your control. Rather than being in shock when it happens (because we all know that it’s going to happen), the best thing you can do is to minimize the blow when it does happen. Here are some ways to do that:

1)    Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

Some people might disagree, but putting all your eggs in one basket is never really the smart choice. I’m a risk-taker and even I realize the obvious negatives of doing this. You can have everything planned out to the T, but if one little random unexpected thing happens, you’re in a very bad situation.

2)    Understand the possibilities of what could happen.

Although it might not be likely to happen, know everything that COULD happen. Even if it’s the smallest of chances that it will happen, if you think about it before then you won’t be as surprised when it actually does happen.

3)    Have a backup plan.

If you know what COULD happen, then you can think about what you would do if one of those things happens. If you are able to assess the potential possibilities, then create alternatives if those situations happen, then you’ll be in good shape.

4)    Expect the unexpected.

No matter what, expect that the unexpected will occur. If you think that those random, unplanned things will happen, then when they do happen, you won’t be surprised.

You can apply these steps to almost any scenario in which you’re planning something. It could be planning your career, playing poker, working on a school/work project, etc, etc. At the end of the day, Murphy’s Law will still hold true and anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. The best thing you can do is prepare for it.