Sometimes our routines end up needing to change. That may be because of any number of events or items, but when a routine is changed, all that went along with it gets modified as well.
This morning I had to flip the script. My wife has made a commitment to herself to be more active at the gym this summer, and with her taking an early morning class, I had to bring my youngest daughter to daycare. With the added time necessary in order to do that, I had to adjust how I went about my morning.
Happily, I got her in to daycare on time and still arrived at work before I needed to, making for a successful change. That said, it made me consider the importance of modifying our schedules, and also recognizing that when we flip the script, we truly have to prepare for any outcome.
We see this in our work lives too. Whether we work directly with students or interact primarily with adults, our ability to be flexible and change how we do things is incredibly important. Along with that is the necessity of pre-planning far enough ahead to make sure that as we experience something new, we aren’t left putting ourselves in a hole that we can’t get out of. While we can never predict what others will do, nor can we make others take an action, we can prepare ourselves for as many different outcomes as possible as a way to be most flexible under most conditions.