06
When life doesn’t
go to plan
A
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s M. Scott Peck noted in his book Th e
Road Less Travelled, life is diffi cult. At
some point or another almost everyone
goes through suff ering, pain, or damaging
circumstances that they would rather avoid. For
some people, life can seem like one continuous
assault course. But how do you cope when life does
not go as you hope or plan for? Th e purpose of Th e
Happiness Lab is to explore ways of becoming a
happier person. To achieve that goal we have to
fi nd strategies for managing the times when life
is tough. It might be too optimistic to think that
we can go through diffi cult times “singing and
dancing” but could there be a way of accepting and
enduring what is going on that will not only bring
us through, but also help us grow; perhaps even
give us a couple of good days? Th ere is no one-size-
fi ts-all when it comes to using coping strategies
to deal with the sad times that life can create.
What is important is to fi gure out what works for
you – and excel at it. As a place to start, it could be
useful to ask yourself the question “What if I… ?”
Th e reason being that the more prepared you are
in advance of entering a diffi cult time, the greater
your resources.