2018 has begun with significant disruptions! Temperatures reached around -50 wind chills in Vermont. Boston was frozen solid and is cleaning up from cyclone winds, and high tides that were flooding and freezing everything in the path. The mid-Atlantic states received significant snow and freezing rain. Florida citrus growers were on high alert for the freezing of fruit. Schools and businesses closed as pipes froze, broke and flooding ensued. Some lost electricity. Some lost critical infrastructures such as internet and email capability. I walked on a Florida beach the morning of January 2nd, and I was solo if not for one other person with an artic-looking coat with the hood fully up and drawn snuggly about their face. It was as if Treasure Island Beach had become non-existent and in its place a frozen, deserted tundra.
Life’s events range from minor distractions to significant disruptions and come in many forms and varying magnitudes. Some of them slow us slightly while others stop us in our tracks. Did you ever ask yourself why something happened a certain way or at a particular time? Perhaps you planned to travel to a relative’s home cross country or up the coastline when the temperatures plummeted, and the winds accelerated, causing you to abandon your plans. May have then asked, “Why me”? A good friend’s mother died right before Christmas. Why then, he may have asked? An apparently mentally deranged person murdered a police officer on New Year’s Eve morning in my small city. It devastated our town at a time when so much celebration was taking place. I could have asked why it became so cold during my only trip to the beach in the past two years.
Most of my references have been personal disruptions, but it happens in business as well. A client could become financially impaired and decide not to pay their bills for services provided. A hurricane could economically destroy a hospital after inflicting damage to buildings, infrastructure, and patient care. Some retailers operate on very few days of working capital and a flood, or big snowstorm could cause them to go out of business.
There are no guarantees in life, but one thing that is certain is that there will be change and disruption. It could be business related, economy related, health-related, accident concerned, about choice, or relationship described, but change will occur. That is why companies such as hospitals should have a disaster recovery plan. That is why homeowners should have insurance on real estate and belongings. That is why people should have money saved for unforeseen circumstances so to avoid devastation. And that is why companies and their executives should do succession planning. Because we never know what is ahead, we are well-advised to prepare for multiple scenarios so that circumstances themselves will not dictate our futures as much as our preparedness.
In a world where it is common to maintain an attitude of “That will not likely happen to me,” recovery can become incredibly complicated and life-changing. Remember hurricane, Katrina? I remember seeing hundreds of school buses parked and thousands of people walking to try to escape the damage occurring to a city built below sea level. One could easily question the disaster recovery preparation for a population at significant risk just because of location, even when awareness of the possibility of the storm hitting New Orleans surprised no one.
And then there was 911 in New York City. That attack came as a surprise and did cause incredible loss to life and property, but the city recovered physically very quickly due to the fantastic preparedness of first responders, infrastructure maintenance people and the plan built and executed by the city leaders. I recall Mayor Giuliani speaking to a group of us during a sales conference a few years later. What he said that day has stuck in my mind and since become a motto of mine. He said, “You can never be too prepared.” I think another concept to always keep in mind is that it can happen to you and not just the other person. That doesn’t mean you should live in paranoia, or be continually worrying about what is behind or could be up ahead, but it does say that limiting catastrophic event impact can be accomplished through planning, preparing and knowing what do to when something potentially damaging occurs.
And that doesn’t mean all events are great floods, earthquakes, hurricanes or fires. They could be something as seemingly small as a hurtful comment from someone that sends a symbolic arrow into your heart or a spear into your mind. And preparedness goes beyond a plan constructed every December for the year to come. Preparation begins with each of you that helps create calm in the storms of life. That construction should be a lifelong process of getting to know who you are, how wired and how to become re-wired to get better prepared. When it gets cold outside we can survive because over time we have developed ways to better heat our homes and our automobiles. We have learned how to insulate potential freezing points better. We have learned how to make warmer clothing, eat better foods and exercise to provide critical strength, stamina, and energy for resisting cold. And on the inside of each of us is the potential to be better prepared for emotional distraction, disruption, and trauma by working on it so that what we do to improve becomes who we are. From what we watch on television, listen to on iTunes, read on the internet or in books, counseling we receive, topics that we discuss with others to thoughts we allow to dominate our minds.
Preparing for the inevitable cold days of life should never be neglected and always be a priority. You have heard the song; O Be Careful, Little Eyes. Though a children’s song and seemingly simple, it is very profound and applicable to how we discern the world around us, prepare our lives and our businesses and how we respond to difficult, painful, distracting and scary events and times that are sure to occur.