LSO Award

When my daughter was between two and three years old, I wouldn’t say we suffered through the typical tantrums of the terrible twos.  But surely we lived with a child whose answer to every question was “No!”  I quickly learned the art of providing options.   

For example, at bedtime I never asked, “Stephanie, are you ready for bed?”  Instead, I’d pose, in the most cheerful, inquisitive voice I could muster without her seeing through me,  “Tonight, do you want to put on your red or your blue jammies?’

Worked like a charm, every time.  She’d be so thrilled with the ability to make her own decision, that she would forget that she didn’t want to go to bed, and instead, put her jammies on, brush her teeth, and head right into the sack!  Who was being taught the lesson?  That would be moi – a lesson in the art of options.

People want options.  We all do.  The toughest problem with options as we mature, is having to not only choose one from many, but in having to create the options from which to choose!

After the financial crash last fall, I heard so many people make the solemn vow that they were NOT going to participate in a recession.  So there!  And once the choice was made, not be ready with a plan with which to act on that decision…

Options have to do with making solid plans.  In these changeable times, solid doesn’t mean unchangeable.  Instead, solid plans comprehend the possibility of continuing fluctuations in the marketplace, with strategies that enable us to go with the flow, and still create flow in our direction.  Flow of business.  Cash flow.  Being in the flow.

Are you exploring all of the options that can enrich your life?  Thinking ahead of how you might handle an unexpected situation – like losing a job, another customer, your health insurance?  How do you view loss?  As a disaster or an opportunity?

Today more than ever, we need a Plan A, Plan B, and Plan C.  Perhaps spelled out without all the i’s dotted and t’ s crossed.  But with the i’s and t’s in place, and with flexibility in knowing that they may move, be replaced, or go away all together.  And a plan to compensate for the loss, and to find a way to replace it with something better!

Rain is grace: rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without rain, there would be no life.
-    John Updike

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