“ Expect the best, plan for the worst and prepare to be surprised ! ”

I witnessed an unexpected incident at a wedding function I attended recently. When I approached the function area, it was decorated nicely and everything was ready to have a vibrant event.

Everyone gathered there was impatiently waiting to see the bride and the groom. Finally the groom entered the banquet hall and I saw him suddenly fall on the floor. It took a little time for me to figure out what had exactly happened, but I soon realised that he was fainted. Everyone in the hall got excited since it was totally unexpected. All proceedings were temporarily halted until groom settled down.

What really went wrong with the guy? 

I was curious to know the real reason and finally figured out real reason for the unpredicted incident.  When taken seriously, it gave me a great life lesson.

The groom had not had a proper sleep during the last few days prior to the wedding and the day before he had had no sleep at all. The last meal he had had was exactly 24 hours before and he had been too busy to have any food or even a cup of tea before the function.

Even on the way to the function hall he had been on the phone giving instructions on various arrangements and calling his friends and relations to make sure everyone was there on time. His focus was on having the best wedding function, which may be the dream of anyone in a similar situation.

His planning and way of executing things were perfect until the wedding day morning since no hiccups had been recorded and everything went well according to the schedule.

But what did he really miss out on?

While making sure that everything was ready for the function, no attention was paid to one of the most important elements. There is no point in having the greatest ever arrangements if you are not fit enough to stand tall on that day. It is you who the main actor and no episodes are possible without your presence.

He had paid the least attention and interest regarding his personal health and fitness in this whole exercise and underestimated the fact that no time for food and proper sleep always suggests that you will get into trouble.

This is a common mistake we always make. We are very careful and put all our efforts into controlling things which are ‘beyond our control,’ but we neglect managing things we can ‘easily and effortlessly control’. The point we missed here is that those ‘easily controllable’ elements are vital to ensure a favorable final outcome.

We often fall into a trap by underestimating the impact of such simple things. We always think that these could be managed at any time since they are within our reach. But when we try to fix problems related to ‘easily controllable’ elements, sometimes we are too late.

It is true that you must concentrate more on planning difficult things, but never allow easy things to ruin your well-developed and executed plan.

This must be the reason for the American motivational speaker and author Denis Waitley to say: “Expect the best, plan for the worst and prepare to be surprised!”