Do you know where your towel is?
When I attended music camp as a child, every night my counselors would check to make sure our towel was hanging near the door in case of fire. It wasn’t until about a decade later that I read Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and I understood the giggles of older students and counselors.
A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have. Partly it has great practical value… More importantly, a towel has immense psychological value….
~ Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
It is good advice!
Make your towel
No, not that kind of making! I discuss knitting, crochet, weaving, and all sorts of making at little acorn creations.
Today, I’ll build on the concept of always knowing where your towel is and shift from my discussions about quotidian planning and discuss bigger plans. In this case a reminder that you should have a disaster plan.
Why? It’s time for Hurricane season here on the Atlantic coast; it’s already begun with Subtropical Storm Alberto. A few years ago, over at PennyWise Consulting, I discussed Creating a Disaster Preparedness Plan. If you begin to create your framework of what you need to know and do now, you are creating your towel.
But the important thing is that after creating the plan, don’t put it in a drawer and forget about it. Yes, drills are annoying and boring, and you have other things you’d rather do. But practicing what actions are essential will help you to avoid panic.
If you know where your towel is, you don’t need to panic.