The importance of embracing life’s beautiful moments and periods of calm became even more appreciated recently. The last few weeks have been tough ones. After some wonderful, relaxing vacation time, my mom took a bad fall, ended up in the hospital for a week, and is now home. As you might imagine, when there’s an accident, family emergency, or other unexpected crisis, everything changes…at least for a time.

It’s not that we’re completely out of the emergency state, but that high-alert, going-to-the-hospital-every-day part has ended. Now, we’re in the emergency aftermath and navigating the necessary changes. During the high alert stage, there were a few things that helped.

I do not wish emergencies on any of you, but if you are in a challenging situation, maybe one of these success tips will help you. You might have one or two to add, so please do.

5 Proven Success Tips for Life’s Emergencies

1. Let Go– Remove all the non-essentials. Are there deadlines that can be shifted? Are there appointments that can be rescheduled? Are there goals you wanted to accomplish but are unnecessary right now? What can you let go of to simplify the demands on your time right now? You’ll need extra thinking power, strength, and energy to focus on the emergency.

2. Breathe – There will be many questions and decisions to make. Some will need to be made fast. Others are better made more slowly. Emergencies get our adrenaline pumping. If your heart is racing and you’re feeling panicked, pause. Take some long, deep breaths. Let the oxygen flow to your brain. Calm your system. Your mind will be more available to make better, calmer decisions.

3. Connect – You are not alone. Having the love, support, and care from family, friends, and professionals will hold you up when you are in crisis. The Westchester Medical Center staff was terrific. They took excellent care of my mother and also showed care and concern for the family. And I don’t know what I would have done without the loving support of my family and friends. Their loving messages, calls, and care packages made all the difference.

“Remove all the non-essentials.”

— Linda Samuels, CPO-CD®, CVOP™

4. Return – While emergencies require more of our time and energy, it’s absolutely critical we activate the basics, like sleeping, hydrating, eating, and getting fresh air. Hospitals can quickly bring out the worst in us with the harsh lighting and our tendency to pump ourselves with large amounts of caffeine and sweets. However, if you can take some fresh air breaks, eat healthy meals, drink extra water, and minimize the sweets, your body and mind will thank you. You’re under more stress than usual, so make sure to “feed” yourself in positive ways.

5. Laugh – Even in the darkness of crisis, there is light and humor. Laughter can work its magic. It can lift your spirits and those around you to create a positive, healing mood. Even during some very difficult days, there were moments of laughter and singing with my mom. I treasured and embraced those. They helped sustain me through the rougher periods.

Other things helped during this time, like having a chart of my mom’s medications and health history and doing a few “normal” activities. The stress wasn’t eliminated entirely, but these strategies helped me cope better with what was happening.

And lastly, what helped me the most was taking one day and one decision at a time. I tried not to project too far ahead. Especially when there is an emergency, the situation is constantly shifting. It helped me to remain flexible with choices and options.

What success strategies have worked for you during emergencies? I’d love to hear your thoughts. I invite you to join the conversation.

What happens when you lose your groove? Do you know what I mean? You’ve established a habit. You’ve committed to a habit and then life gets in the way. How do you come back? How do you re-motivate yourself to return to that thing, that habit that you know and love?

As I sat to write my weekly post, I realized that this is exactly what I’ve experienced. It’s been three weeks since my last post. In the past five plus years, I’ve written one blog post per week with a few exceptions. It’s a habit I enjoy, find creative and have been committed to.

However, I’ve faced some challenges in these recent weeks that forced me to let go of certain commitments (as in writing the weekly blog post and engaging as actively on social media) so that I could handle others. Yes there was guilt. Yes there was disappointment. But it was also necessary to let go to make room for some emergencies and out of the ordinary challenges.

Here are some reminders I gave myself about motivation:

• I can come back at any time.

• I need to be flexible because there are only 24 hours in a day.

• Some of those 24 hours are needed for sleep, which is essential for recharging.

• If I’m exhausted, I won’t have the energy or motivation to do anything.

• Return to your source for centering. Water and sun restore me.

• If I’ve gotten way off track, take one tiny step towards that “project” or habit and it will feed my motivation.

• Practice self-compassion.

• Listen to your cheerleaders.

• Just start.

• Let go of perfect.

Needless to say, I’ve missed all of you. I’ve missed our conversations. I’m glad to be back after taking a break to tend to some family and professional challenges. I get that I expect a lot from myself. Does this sound familiar? I get that there’s a balance between doing and not doing. I’m working on that.

What about you? Does any of this resonate? Has life ever gotten in the way and thrown you off course? It’s temporary. What do you do to re-motivate? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation.

There’s busy and then there’s busy. We all have days or periods of time when we get away from purposeful action and instead feel pulled by emergencies or other people’s agendas. We get caught in that whirlwind of activity, but not necessarily activity we’ve chosen.

Perhaps we’ve lost sight of that “white space” in our schedules. In fact, not only have we lost sight of it, we’ve completely lost it. There is none. We’re scheduled from morning until night. We’re on the go with no time to think or regroup. We can function like this for a while, but soon overwhelm, exhaustion, and confusion sets in.

It’s time. It’s time to pause. It’s time to stop and take a few deep, long breaths. Before doing that next thing…stop. Before making that next decision…stop. Just breathe. Nice and slowly. Breathe. Regroup.

Next will become clearer. Next will become more purposeful.

Have you experienced the power of breathing? Has it helped you reset where you are? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Come join the conversation.

One of my weekend pleasures is going to the local farmer’s market on Saturday mornings with my friends. The tastes, scents, and colors are inspiring. The company and conversations are wonderful. On a recent visit, I took photos of vibrantly colored vegetables and shared them on Facebook. One of my friends commented on the string beans photo and said, “I would like to see these organized, please…right now, it’s all over the place. It makes me very uneasy.” He was joking around with me, but it started me thinking beyond the beans.

What do we need in a given day to help us feel successful? How does the organizing piece fit into that? How much chaos can we tolerate, especially when emergencies strike? Each of us will answer these questions differently.

When the unexpected happens, having some systems in place can help us navigate the surprises. Recently, I was driving home from a meeting when I heard a loud noise. It felt like I’d hit something, although I didn’t see anything in the road. Everything seemed fine, so I continued on my mission and headed to a nearby Starbucks for an iced tea. When I got out of my car, a man approached me to explain that I’d run over something that looked like screwdriver. It punctured my tire, which made it completely flat. Not fun.

Despite this unexpected and annoying snag, I decided to get my iced tea. I sat, breathed, collected my thoughts, and devised an action plan. I took out my iPhone, which had all my contacts and essential information stored. First, I called Mavis Tire, where I had purchased the tires, to see if they could fix the puncture and possibly tow me to their shop. They said they could fix it but could not get me there. Then I called AAA to come tow me to Mavis. Next, I called my husband to let him know what was happening. The tow truck arrived by the time I’d finished my iced tea. Mavis was able to patch the hole, which cost me nothing since my tires were insured. In less than two hours, everything was fixed, and I was home.

5 Success Tips for “Surprises”

1. Breathe – Panicking doesn’t help. Give yourself a moment to breathe, collect your thoughts, consider your options, and make a plan.

2. Care Take – Emergency situations use up additional energy. Take care of yourself to be better equipped to handle the challenges. This can be as simple as sitting, talking with a loved one, or slowly enjoying a beverage or healthy snack.

3. Reach Out – When surprises strike, we often need to enlist help from others. Help can come from professionals, family, friends, or even strangers.

4. Prep – We never know when an emergency will happen or what we might need. Having contact information organized in an easily accessible manner can make all the difference between feeling stressed or calm.

5. Appreciate – We often take for granted when life runs smoothly. Especially when the unexpected occurs, it allows us another opportunity to express gratitude and appreciation for what we normally don’t stop to think about.

We’ve all experienced emergencies. What success strategies work for you? Come join the conversation and add to the list.