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Imagine yourself floating down a river. You’re sipping a drink, the sun’s on your face, and life couldn’t be better. As a matter of fact, the birds are chirping and you’re thinking, “This is Utopia. I hope it never ends! This is what I dreamed my life would be.” And then, in an instant, the weather changes, a storm moves in, and the previously calm water has turned to raging rapids. Isn’t that like life? Just when you feel like everything’s in place and going just right, things change in an instant.We’ve all been there, and we’ll be there again. You can’t ever shield yourself completely from adversity. It’s going to happen.

So the question becomes: How will you respond?

I can tell you that in my years of coaching and talking to large numbers of people about the adversity they’re facing, most people first play the blame game. So if you are floating down the river in that raft, most people start thinking, “It’s their fault I’m here. They told me this river was safe. They told me I’d be fine floating here. It’s their fault.” Blame quickly turns to anger: “I knew I should never have gone into this water. Everyone told me it could be dangerous.” By the time you reach the rapids, you’re complaining the whole way, holding on for dear life and wishing you’d just stayed in bed. Your mind races with thoughts like, “This is crazy. I’m gonna crash and burn. This is the worst situation ever!”

Just when you’re sure you’ll never survive, the sun begins to peek through the clouds and the waters calm. Before you know it, you’re thinking, “Hey, that wasn’t so bad!   even be able to do that again. As   of fact, I’m such an expert now that I bet I could tell other people about riding the rapids and offer advice.”

The moral of the story: Have a plan. Adversity will come into your life. You can’t stop it, so you might as well plan for it. Things that seem overwhelming in your life right now, will seem much more manageable with a plan in place.