When Your Plans Go Sideways

Ever have those streaks where all of your plans go sideways? I think more and more of us are having those days. Our plans aren’t what we thought they’d be. Our emotions aren’t what we expected. Our future if not what we were thinking it would be.

Let me give you a glimpse of my Sunday – a day when it all went sideways. This Sunday, I went to use my pressure cooker and found the cord was missing. I didn’t even know the cord came out of the pot, so I was surprised. Then I realized the rest of what went sideways.

During our self-quarantine, I cleaned out our back pantry and removed a random cord that didn’t belong to any current appliance. I put the cord on the counter thinking that in a couple of days, if I hadn’t figured out what the cord went to, I’d throw it out.

My husband enters the scene by conscientiously super cleaning the pressure cooker and removing the cord from the pressure cooker and putting it on the counter. A few days have gone by and the cord is still on the counter. I assume it’s the cord I removed from the pantry and I throw the cord away, discovering later that I got rid of my pressure cooker cord and not the random cord. Yep, that moment went sideways.

From there, through a series of events outside of our control, we ended up delaying all of our plans to head out on our boat by two hours. All of our timelines went sideways. From there, we got to the boat launch, which was all backed up and we ended up driving to three different launches until we found one where we’d be able to launch and get parking. Yep, sideways.

All of the delays meant our workout bike ride wouldn’t be possible that day because we simply couldn’t do it all. Sideways.

Throughout this time where our lives and work are sideways thanks to COVID-19, I’ve noticed my emotions, and other people’s emotions are coming out sideways as well. I’m more irritable. I tire easily. I miss people. So what can I do, what can we do, when it all goes sideways?

Making the Best of It

One thing we can do is remember the serenity prayer – “God give me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” Side note: there are wonderful additional verses to the serenity prayer. Check them out here.

Out of all that happened on Sunday, there was a lot I could not change. What I could change was my attitude and heart toward what was happening. There was a lot of wisdom needed to decipher between the two.

The second thing we can do as we make the best of what we have is to let go of my expectations. Expectations that none of what’s going on should really impact me or my emotions. Expectations that reframing things will make everything better.

Reframing is helpful, but some things simply suck about what we are going through – and letting go of the expectations of what I am supposed to feel and do has been helpful in recognizing what I can and cannot control through all of this.

This week, my husband and I celebrate our 25^th wedding anniversary. It’s going to be a sideways anniversary – not what we expected or hoped to do in celebration. We have looked at what we cannot change, we are courageously choosing to celebrate within the limited capacity we have, and we want to be wise in knowing the difference. Come to think of it, this may be how we made it 25 years to begin with!

Friends – our world is sideways. Now more than ever. As you go through this time, may you find serenity, courage, and wisdom.

Fun side fact for you: This is blog 151 – that’s almost four years’ worth of blogs! Thank you for sharing in the past four years of thoughts and writings as we all work through this messy thing called life together!

Vistage chair, keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant, Sarah Gibson, helps organizations leverage the power of communication, teamwork, and diversity to improve engagement and transform teams.

If you are a CEO or know a CEO who would benefit from a peer advisory group, please contact Sarah at Sarah.Gibson@Vistage.com. To inquire about her speaking programs, please visit www.sarahjgibson.com.