No matter how carefully you plan your life, unexpected challenges will arise.

If you’re a human being, you can’t avoid breakdowns, they’re going to happen, usually when you least expect them.

For instance, you might get a flat tire while driving home from work or your child’s teacher may call you to request an emergency meeting about their behavior.

It’s easy to plan for simple things, like carrying a spare tire in your trunk in case you get a flat.

However, it’s a little more challenging to be prepared for things you can’t even see as possible, but it’s not impossible.

Here are some ways to prepare for those truly unexpected situations.

4 Ways How to Prepare for Life’s Challenges:

1. Have a plan for general possibilities.

You can’t predict every possible scenario, but you can plan for generalities.

For example, there’s always a possibility that you might become injured, but it can happen in so many different ways.

You might slip and fall at your house, trip over something in a store, fall on the sidewalk, or someone might intentionally cause you harm.

In this case, planning for the possibility of being injured might look like you getting a good health insurance plan, stashing away money in a savings account, and having a plan for who you’ll call if you need to file a lawsuit against someone.

For instance, if you’re injured on commercial property because of the business owner’s negligence, you shouldn’t have to pay for medical bills.

Getting a personal injury lawyer is the best way to recover funds for your medical bills, lost wages, and other forms of compensation.

2. Build up a savings account.

Sometimes money is the main resource you need when something unexpected happens.

For example, if your car breaks down or your refrigerator stops working, you’ll need some money to make repairs or buy a replacement.

Financial experts suggest that everyone should build an emergency fund with at least 3 to 6 months’ worth of their salary to cover large, unexpected expenses.

It can also help you live for several months without a salary if you lose your job.

An emergency fund will make it easy to handle situations like small medical expenses, vet bills, extra expenses for your kids in school, and even house repairs.

3. Train yourself to not react.

This one might be tough, but it’s important to train yourself not to react emotionally in the face of an unexpected challenge.

Reacting is an automatic response that may not carry your best intentions forward.

For instance, if your boss tells you that they’re letting you go, it might feel normal to react with anger, but that will only make the situation worse.

Reactions make sense when you feel threatened.

Like when someone cuts you off in traffic, you might automatically get upset and swear at the other driver.

In the moment, this reaction feels justified, but when you pause and think for a moment, you might realize the other driver might not have been paying attention.

Perhaps it wasn’t intentional, and chances are, you’ve done the same thing to others without awareness.

It takes practice, but the less you react to situations, the easier it gets to adopt that way of being as your natural response to challenges.

4. Consider that not everything unwanted is bad for you.

You may have heard the parable of the old man whose son broke his leg falling off of a wild horse.

The villagers gave the old man their sympathy and said it was a terrible misfortune.

The old man simply said, “We’ll see.”

Not longer after, the national army came around looking for people to draft and skipped his son because of his broken leg.

The point is that something that appears to be bad in the moment might end up working out in your favor, only time can tell the whole story.

What You Should Remember?

Since you can’t prevent all unexpected breakdowns in your life, try not to let anything throw you off course when you are faced with challenging times.

Keep your focus on what needs to be done to resolve the situation rather than ruminating in the emotional turmoil of stress and disappointment.

Although it’s wise to have a savings account and a plan, the ultimate way to prepare yourself for the unexpected is to develop a solid state of mind where you can’t be emotionally swayed when big things happen.

That’s where you’ll find your true power.