Think before you panic

You probably don't need to jump to a worst-case scenario immediately

I recently drove to Boston to drop my oldest off for his first year of college. This was very exciting. What was less exciting: the 7-plus hour solo drive home through thick traffic. Without a passenger to double check routes, I just relied on my map app, which I assumed was figuring things out, but at one point in Connecticut, the app took me off the Merritt Parkway, and through residential streets in Greenwich. I finally came out on a major looking street, and was about to re-enter the Henry Hudson Parkway (which the Merritt becomes in NY) when I saw that a police car — with lights on, and orange cones all around it — was blocking the entrance ramp.

So that wasn’t going to happen. But what was going to happen? I pulled over into another residential street and just sat there in front of someone’s house trying to figure out what to do. I looked at my map app and there were no other major highways around there. The app was not particularly helpful in coming up with alternatives — it just wanted me to get back to the Henry Hudson. In my fatigued state I started going through all sorts of scenarios. What if I was stuck in Greenwich forever? How would I even start figuring out how to get to Pennsylvania?

But then I got a grip and decided I should think before I panicked. Before trying to find some other highway many miles away by dead reckoning, I could double check if the other entrance (coming from the other direction) was open. I turned around, headed back, and sure enough, the southbound Henry Hudson entrance was open to cars coming from the west on my particular street. The problem was just on the other entrance ramp (for cars coming from the east). I zoomed down the ramp, merged, and successfully battled traffic for 3 more hours until I got home.

It was a reminder that many times a problem may not be as big as it first seems, or else there is a very easy solution. It pays to think before you panic. You don’t need to assume the worst immediately. For instance, my podcast recording software recently showed one of the sound tracks clocking in at zero minutes and zero seconds — that is, not existing — after I’d just spent 30 minutes recording with someone. I was starting to go through all sorts of scenarios in my head with re-recording, but then I took a deep breath, closed everything and opened it again, and voila, there the 29 minute track was. Where was it before? I have no idea. But it was there. And that was what mattered.

I’m not saying things never go terribly wrong, as they obviously do. But if they are going horribly awry, nothing much will change if you start to deal with that reality a little later in the future. In the meantime, you can check the obvious stuff. What if you restart your computer? What if you just call back? What if you look in the other place where your spouse sometimes leaves stuff? What if you just check if the money gets deposited tomorrow if it didn’t today? Think before you panic and it’s quite possible the panicking will wind up being unnecessary.