Yup Joe's and Joette's, I'm doing a post interpreting a classic saying. Today's post is inspired by my shoulder. So let's dive into today's post.

The exact saying is "Hope for the best and plan for the worst." I decided to change up the format of my post. I'm starting today's post by applying this saying to my life. As you may or may not know, I recently tore my labral. Sounds like something I made up but it's actually the part of the body that connects the arm to the shoulder. The recovery phase could go a couple of ways. In the best case scenario I continue doing therapy and it heals itself. In the worst case scenario I have to undergo surgery and wait up to a year to fully recover. So what does that translate to? Even though it's unlikely that I will take a year to recover, I still have to be ready for that possibility. In my case my worst case scenario would mean reduced wages for an entire year. So to prepare for that I need to cut back on my spending now and save as much money as possible. There's a bunch of smaller things that I must do but it all stems from knowing what the worst case scenario is.

So now let's apply this saying to everyday life. A normal person won't have a SLAP tear, but they might have issues at work. What if business is slow and they start laying people off at your job. You could get a nice severance package or keep your job through the hard times. Or you can end up like me and get let go after the lay offs and not even qualifying for unemployment. I personally know a couple of people who have lived through this exact situation. Every single one of them hoped for that nice severance package or hoped to make it though the chopping phase. Unfortunately some ended up getting the short end of the stick. Luckily they all planned for the worst and they ended up on their feet. Nope that's not what happened, especially in my personal experience. I never expected to lose my job and for my unemployment to get denied. I always thought my income was guaranteed and didn't think I would ever get fired. As I stated in an previous post during this time period, I never saved money and lived pay check to pay check. I failed to plan for the worst and it ended up costing me a lot.

So how can you hope for the best and plan for the worst at the same time? A list. Many avid readers of this site know how much I love to create lists, so why not apply it here. Whenever an idea or problem is presented to you, create a list consisting of what can happen if everything goes your way on one side and what can happen if everything goes wrong on the other. Let's use the example of asking someone out. The best case scenario is that the person say yes and worst case scenario is they say no or curse you out. How do you prepare for the worst, you have to learn what not to say. You reverse engineer the situation from the worst possible outcome and see if there is anything you can do to prevent it from occuring. In simpler terms you learn how to do everything possible to avoid a bad outcome. At the same time you learn what can occur so you in turn prepare for it. Sounds weird but it works.

That's it for today's post, thanks making it to the end.