The C.A.T. Principle – Global Ebook Awards GOLD & SILVER Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook of 2014 & 2016

When Life is Unpredictable…

Something unpredictable happened recently. Something that halted everything I was doing. Breathless, I scanned the news article in disbelief. A dear acquaintance had died accidentally while visiting a conference in Washington D.C. She was only 49.

At first shocked, then sadness crept in. Julie was vivacious, tall and beautiful – striking. She wore her heart on her sleeve and was smart to the core. A successful lawyer, she knew her way around a courtroom as she knew her way around the globe. She embodied life’s spirit and what it meant to be alive. And yet in spite of it, life’s unpredictability stopped everything.

How often do we take life for granted and never bat a second thought? We plan our days as if they’ll never end. It’s not that we don’t know life is finite; it’s just that death happens to others. We witness death daily on the news, but somehow it’s benign to us, that is, until it hits near home.

Life is unpredictable by nature. We can never be certain that as we sit here today, so shall we tomorrow. As sure as Julie boarded that jet for D.C., there isn’t the slightest doubt she thought she wouldn’t be homeward-bound after a few days at the conference. It’s this unpredictability that not only makes life intriguing, but scary. Fear of the unknown leaves us anxious, for the grim reaper lurks in the backdrop of our lives.

The key isn’t so much to neglect this salient fact, as it is to embrace it. When we accept that sudden and unpredictable change happens at any moment (and death is the ultimate expression of it), we recognize the importance of living life in the present. It’s clear that life is precious, and that the people and things in it are to be treasured and valued. Without gratitude, it’s meaningless and shallow (see Gratitude: And Why It Matters…).

It’s imperative that we view life in this light. Nothing is carved in stone, except the unbridgeable fact that it surprises and shocks when we least expect it. We can’t avoid it, but we can prepare for it, and recognition is the first step in doing so.

American General George S. Patton (1885-1945) stated that we best “Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.”

By no means can we anticipate every scenario, but it’s certainly within our realm to be tight with life. It’s incumbent upon us to be awake, cognizant, and curious to that which could happen, and to that which has gone before. To look back in time is to also look forward. It’s remarkable, but history has a tendency to repeat and when least expected.

But therein lays the beauty of life: we never know what waits around the corner. We anticipate; we prepare; we plan, but never know. The unpredictable mystery that it is, leaves no stone unturned…

For more check out the Global Ebook Awards GOLD & SILVER Winner of 2014 & 2016, The C.A.T. Principle: Change, Action, Trust – Words to Live By available at Amazon and Barnes & Noble. See the latest Amazon reviews here.

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A 2014 Global Ebook Awards GOLD Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook.

A 2016 Global Ebook Awards SILVER Winner for Best Self-Help Non-Fiction Ebook.