“Whatever can happen at any time can happen today.” - Seneca, Letters to Lucilius LXIII

Another lesson from the bandstand… anything can happen at any time. The guitar players string could break, the singer suddenly misses an entrance, or it rains.

One way to deal with the problem is to frustrate yourself - Why is this happening? Why didn’t the guitar player change their string? Why is it raining now, of all days? Why me?

Another way to deal with it is to prepare yourself. How will I respond if the singer misses their entrance? Do I know my part well enough to cover someone that has to cut out? Oooh, the weather looks bad, how will I react if the rain comes?

How many stressful moments throughout the day could be made more relaxed if we prepare for them In advance?

• Annoying roommate? Each morning, imagine all the worst things they could do and visualize yourself coming out on top.

• Traffic on the freeway? Consider leaving earlier and taking backroads; you might be driving longer but you won’t feel “stuck”.

• Work email? Commit yourself to not checking your email on your phone, and, have email be the second thing you do once you get to work - have the first thing be the most important work you can do.

Try it out and see if it helps.

People Managers: an effective exercise to do with your team is, before launching a big project, gather around and (you - the leader) say, “okay, imagine we have this crystal ball in front of us, and this crystal ball is showing us how this project will fail, what might the crystal ball be showing us?” Let your team brainstorm up what the crystal ball says and write the ideas down. Finally, start planning for how you’ll avoid that BEFORE kicking off the project.