What To Do When Your Plans Don't Work
Have you ever made the ✨ perfect ✨ plan, and it just goes completely sideways? Yeah, same, let’s be real, that happens to literally everyone from time to time. So let’s talk about it: what DO you do when your plans don’t work?
First, when I say plans, I mean all of it – goals, schedules, to-do lists. Whether plans get canceled because of weather, your kid gets sick, your boss throws a curveball at you, you move across the country…things change and life happens, and believe it or not, there are some ways for you to adjust peacefully when your plans just don’t work out!
But before we get into the nitty-gritty, let’s lay a little bit of groundwork.
Y’all probably know what I’m about to say and I’m gonna bet that 80% of you are gonna say it along with me. Our schedules and routines are tools, not chains! This applies to plans and goals, too.
We get so caught up in goals and plans being pass/fail when that is just not the case. Plans are guideposts, not anchors. If you have the 2022 Peacefully Productive Planner, there is a quote in there from one of my alum Hustle Sanely Program students that says it so well:
“I’m realizing that goals aren’t a pass/fail thing and they’re not a metric for measuring whether I’m doing good enough or not. They’re just practical ways to move toward living out what matters most to me.”
That is spot on and I could not have said it better myself.
So when you need to pivot because your plans didn’t work out, no matter what kind of plan we’re talking about here, I’ve got 4 steps that you can follow to help you make intentional moves forward instead of spiraling out of control and throwing an adult tantrum.
A little disclaimer: this is not me telling you to not feel your feels when your plans don’t work out.
Feel.
Process.
But don’t ruminate.
And then the last thing before we get into the steps – I thought it would be helpful if we had a few examples that we kind of carried with us throughout this blog post so you can see the steps in action after I explain them to you.
So our examples that we’ll use throughout the rest of this post are:
~ A few weeks ago, I got the 2023 product samples in like 6 days early. Super exciting, but it kinda threw off my whole week as far as what I had planned. I had to shift everything around to accommodate for the samples arriving early because I wanted to edit them as quickly as possible so we could place our order as soon as possible because even a week’s difference in ordering can have a big effect when it comes to getting the inventory in later this year.
~ Adam and I had to cancel our anniversary trip a few weeks ago due to bad weather. We planned a 3-day beach trip on the other coast of Florida to celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary. We had a resort booked, a massage booked, and dinners booked. We were heading over there and got a little over halfway there (so we were in the car for like an hour and a half) when we felt like we were driving through a dang hurricane. We’re from Florida so we’re used to afternoon storms but this was next level. I looked over at Adam and asked if he checked the weather before we booked our trip – he didn’t and I definitely didn’t. We’ll finish the story as we chat about the steps to follow when your plans don’t work.
So what are the 4 steps? I’m gonna lay them all out for you at once then break each one down:
01. Pause and recenter.
02. Ask yourself, “Why didn’t the plan work?”
03. Ask yourself, “What can I do right now to make the situation better?”
04. Make your next move.
Let’s dive in!
Step 01. Pause and recenter.
See? I told you I wasn’t going to recommend that you suppress your annoyance at the change of plans.
Before you do anything else, pause for a few moments to assess how you’re feeling. Acknowledge the feelings and use them to help you with the rest of the steps.
The way that I like to pause and recenter is to actually stop what I’m doing, close my eyes, and take 3 deep breaths. It sounds simple AND IT IS but it’s really effective for me so give it a try if you haven’t found a way to help you recenter yet.
That is usually enough for me to be able to process what I’m feeling and position me to move forward rather than flying off the handle immediately.
Let’s revisit the 2 examples so I can walk you through how this looked for each one:
~ Product samples coming in early:
My first wave of feeling was excitement because um HELLO, 2023 samples!!! Then I felt a twinge of guilt because I knew that I was going to throw the rest of my plans for the week out the window so I could comb through the samples and send any edits over to my designer ASAP.
I took a few deep breaths and moved on to step 2, which we’ll talk about in just a second.
~ Canceling our anniversary trip:
About halfway into our road trip, we found ourselves driving through an actual torrential downpour. I pulled out my phone and checked the weather for the rest of the weekend only to find that the beach we were heading to was under a weather advisory that day and that there was a 90% chance of all-day rain on both other days we were scheduled to be there.
Of course, I was super bummed to see this weather news in front of my face.
I took a few deep breaths and moved on to step 2.
Step 02. Ask yourself, “Why didn’t the plan work?”
Pretty straightforward, right? But a lot of the time, when we’re in the heat of a situation, we forget to do these small, practical steps because our thoughts are swirling and our feelings can be very intense.
When we straight up ask ourselves, “Why didn’t the plan work?” – it positions us to actually have the opportunity to troubleshoot as best as we can in the moment as to why something didn’t go according to plan.
Let’s whip out our examples, shall we?
~ Product samples coming in early:
So the plan that isn’t working, in this case, is the weekly schedule that I had ready for this particular week. Why didn’t the plan work? This one is simple to answer: my 2023 product samples arrived 6 days earlier than they were scheduled to arrive.
After pinpointing that as the reason why my weekly schedule wasn’t going according to plan, I am able to see that I can’t control when I receive a piece of mail but I do get to decide how I’m going to handle its early arrival.
~ Canceling our anniversary trip:
Why didn’t our plans of lounging on the beach to celebrate our wedding anniversary not work out? Another simple answer: the weather was trash.
Another thing that I don’t have control over but that I do get to decide how I’m going to handle.
So as I’m sure you’ve gathered, step 2 is very simple and straightforward but it’s a solid reminder of what you can control versus what you can’t.
Step 03. Ask yourself, “What can I do right now to make the situation better?”
I don’t know about you but when I’m in the heat of a moment and something isn’t going according to plan, it’s really easy for my brain to go into overdrive mode trying to figure out all the things that need to happen immediately in order to make it okay that the plan didn’t work out.
I get overwhelmed thinking about all the things I “need” to do so doing this gives me my next few concrete action steps without me feeling overwhelmed.
Other ways that you can phrase, “What can I do right now to make the situation better?” could sound like this:
- What’s the most important thing I need to do right now?
- Who do I need to communicate these changes of plans with right now?
Instead of trying to navigate 85 different things to do when something doesn’t work out, this step helps me to do things that are actually helpful in the moment.
You know what time it is – time to dig into our examples.
~ Product samples coming in early:
“What can I do right now to make the situation better?”
Okay so let me preface this by saying getting the samples early is AMAZING! Like it’s not a bad thing at all and I was so grateful that it happened but it still threw a wrench in the plans that I had for that week.
As I mentioned earlier, I made the choice to shift everything around to accommodate for the samples arriving early because I wanted to edit them as quickly as possible so we could place our order as soon as possible.
So to make the situation better I asked the 2 questions:
- What’s the most important thing I need to do right now?
Rearrange my schedule to accommodate for editing the samples this week. Now don’t worry about the how right now. We’ll do that in step 4. Step 3 is just you defining what needs to be done to make the situation better.
- Who do I need to communicate these changes of plans with right now?
My designer so that she could tweak her schedule accordingly, too. Having those 2 pieces of info at the front of my mind as priorities – reworking my weekly schedule and communicating with my designer – made the original plans not working out seem like way less of a big deal.
Okay on to our next example:
~ Canceling our anniversary trip: I ask the question: “What can I do right now to make the situation better?” and it that feels too broad I break it down into:
What’s the most important thing I need to do right now?
Decide if we want to do the trip with 90% rain or turn around and go home and reschedule the trip for another time.
Adam and I pulled over to the side of the road, discussed these 2 options, and chose to turn around and go home and reschedule the trip to a weekend with better weather.
- Who do I need to communicate these changes of plans with right now?
My parents who were dog sitting for us, the hotel to cancel our reservation, the spa to cancel our massage reservation, and the restaurant to cancel our reservations.
I was incredibly bummed about canceling our trip at the last minute, but I was proud of how peacefully I handled it. These steps really do equip me to handle things from a more poised place. It doesn’t make my emotions go away but it puts my logic back in the driver’s seat when it comes to decision making.
Step 04. Make your next move.
Honestly, most of the time, step 3 really sets you up for step 4 – in step 3, you figure out the what is the most important thing you can do to make the situation better and in step 4 you determine the how – aka you do what needs to be done to carry out the action steps you thought of in step 3.
~ Product samples coming in early:
I sent a voice message to my designer to let her know that we received the samples and to expect my final edits by the end of the week. Then I sat down and looked at my calendar for the rest of the week and determined what I could shift into the next week so that I could clear up 1.5 days for product edits.
~ Canceling our anniversary trip:
I called my parents to let them know they wouldn’t have to dog sit anymore and then I called the resort, spa, and restaurant to cancel our reservations. When Adam and I got home, we looked at our schedules and picked another weekend that we could re-book the trip for. Making the next move in both of these cases wasn’t a huge deal because of the thought processes that steps 1-3 guided me through.
Following these steps doesn’t mean that you’re pumped about your change of plans but for me, it real does help me to operate from a place of purpose rather than chaos. I feel like I am in charge of how I’m handling a situation because these steps set me up for navigating a plan gone rogue with intention.
So to to wrap it up, let’s quickly review the 4 steps you can follow when things don’t go according to plan:
01. Pause and recenter.
02. Ask yourself, “Why didn’t the plan work?”
03. Ask yourself, “What can I do right now to make the situation better?”
04. Make your next move.
You can use this 4-step strategy for all kinds of things not going according to plan.I hope this episode was helpful and was a good reminder that things can remain peaceful even if they’re not going according to plan. You’re in charge – remember that!
GUESS WHAT!
It is finally time for The Hustle Sanely Program to open for enrollment!
But this time, instead of enrollment opening twice this year, this will be your only chance to get in before 2023!
Like this is not a drill – you won’t be able to get into The Hustle Sanely Program again after this until 2023.
ALSO, instead of having an open enrollment, we are doing an application-based enrollment and I am SO excited to welcome in 25 new students! Applications open May 20 and will stay open until May 27 so mark your planner if you want to apply! We’ll be sending out student decision emails on May 30!
Head to the link below to read more about the program and APPLY! 🎉
If you enjoyed this blog post, tune into Episode 130 of The Hustle Sanely Podcast to dive deeper
into this topic:
