One of the most useful traits or skills that was ever passed down or taught to me has got to be the ability to “Wing It”.  I really didn’t see this as that big of a deal until I began paying more attention at how unskilled some others in this world are not able to deal with situations out of their control and just deal with what they have in front of them.  I have been fortunate to work with some people over the years that are amazing at pulling things off in the midst of chaos and have been able to learn a great deal from them.

So what do you do when something unexpected comes up?  If what you planned for simply doesn’t happen the way you planned?  Do you wing it?  Do you freak out?  I hope you are able to calm down…understand that most of what is going on is out of your control…and come up with a solution to the problems.  Off the cuff.  Out of the blue…pull something out of your, well you get it.

So many people today just can’t do this.  They fold.  They crumble under what they think is pressure.  It’s not pressure.  It’s life.  If we could plan everything and it always work out it would be easy.  Life isn’t easy.  You have to be able to adapt and overcome anything thrown at you.

Where do you learn this?  Well I am going to think my parents for being able to succeed in these situations.  Dad was the military, coach, educator and authority type that handled himself calmly and with grace under any situation….and Mom…well she gave us the freak out side of things.  (Love you mom!)  Of course Mom always got back to control and handled what she needed to handle, we just had to get through that initial freak out phase…and we always did.  Having the mixture of these two personalities as examples has proven invaluable.  Both myself and my brother are pretty calm people and have always done well during situations that seem stress-filled and chaotic.  Maybe it was genetic…who knows.

Another source of this has to be athletics.  Where else do you learn how to make crucial decisions in fractions of seconds based on the situation around you?  Not only are you able to learn how to make the decisions…you get to learn the successes and failures of these choices without anything going tragically wrong (most of the time).  I give credit for a lot of my character to a life of playing sports.  I had great coaches that instilled discipline in me, taught me the value of hard work, and gave me the taste of success and the smell of defeat.  I learned a young age that there are always winners and losers…and it was ALWAYS better to be a winner.  I played a lot of baseball…it is a thinking sport that makes people perform individually as a team.  Not make sense?  Well each person in baseball is challenged individually with each play.  You hit the ball, you catch the ball, you throw the ball, you alone has to make the play.  You have to assess the situation and react in the appropriate way to make your team successful.  I think that teaches you a lot and helps you grow into someone who handles situations in a manner better than those that have not had to do that.  To be successful at this is the icing on the cake.

I could go on about this for days…I’m not.  I just wanted to throw out there the idea of being able to wing it.   Hopefully you understand that there are things out of your control but you are still going to have to deal with them…so next time, relax.  Think about things a little and Wing It!