Murphy’s Law says that if things can go wrong, they will.

There are days when it seems nothing goes right. I don’t have as many days like that as I used to, but those days do happen. We all have days like that.

Despite all the planning and considering the  “what ifs,” things can go wrong.  These are things or conditions you haven’t considered, things beyond your control.  When that happens, a feeling of being utterly helpless takes over.

So what do you do?

• Panic – become confused, enter a state of inaction, you feel useless and probably are.

• Pray – then take a deep breath,

• Identify the problem,determine if you if you have time to consider options.

• Bring your assistants, your team into action – state the problem and gather ideas for solutions, solutions that will still allow achieving the initial goal.

• Change the mindset.Is this a tragedy or an opportunity?Make it the latter. Maybe this is God’s way of pointing you in another direction.

• Don’t confuse this with withdrawing from the situation or giving up. That entails a negative mindset.The “How can I get out of this” mentality as a means of escape. initial goal is forgotten, and a survival goal takes over. Don’tgo there!

• Think of ways to turn the situation into something good, maybe even better than you were hoping for in the beginning.

“Think of ways to turn the situation into something good, maybe even better than you were hoping for in the beginning.”   Warren Jaycox         

As soon as you change the mindset, start working in a positive direction with a positive attitude,  the situation will also begin to change.  You rescue victory from the jaws of defeat.

I had a team member, a key member because of the role he was to play. Sadly, he got diagnosed with cancer that required immediate attention and prohibited him from staying part of the team.

Frankly, my first thought was, “the world is coming to an end!”

Then I gathered the team, and we discussed the problem.  How can we conduct our program without this key person and little time to train a replacement?  Canceling the VBS was not an option.

Someone suggested we reorganize our method of presentation, thus reducing or eliminating the impact of losing the team member.  We tried it and found it worked amazingly well,  to the point it is now part of our regular operation.

“Recognize problems as a way to improve your VBS program.”  Warren Jaycox

Perhaps you can think of a time when all seemed lost, yet you shifted the course of action to a different direction using different materials, different analysis, different strategy and were eventually successful.

That’s what successful people do.

Next Week:  VBS and a blotchy and brownish yard.