Plan B…

… not having one is a stressful situation, particularly if Plan A doesn’t seem to be getting you anywhere. I’m not sure if this goes against or with conventional wisdom, but I firmly believe we all need a Plan B.

And no, I’m not talking about those ‘just-in-case’ plans that most of us fall back to when our primary plan fails or we realize that we just suck at it. My rendition of Plan B is just as thorough as a Plan A because life doesn’t give you an option for a Plans C to Z.

Some of us believe that you have to sleep, dream and live Plan A in order to be successful. I’m all for it. You can’t possibly succeed if you aren’t committed to your primary objective. And if you keep at it, I’m pretty sure you will succeed. But there’s an expiration date to everything that we do. Including ourselves. We just don’t know it yet.

All the great athletes, entrepreneurs, business leaders, and even politicians are masters at working up a solid Plan B so that they’re ready to roll when their reign ends (or Plan A expires). They’re hyper-aware of their realities and limitations, which if ignored can be devastating to their careers.

Life happens to each one of us. You and I may get fired today (sorry, on Monday) or lose money in a stupid investment we shouldn’t have made. What’s next? Have we planned for our next steps? What will happen to our families? Where else would we get an opportunity? Would we be able to do the things that we actually want to do? Those are critical questions that warrants thoughtful planning and execution when the time comes. This of this as a stoic way (sort of) of thinking about our future and our lives.

The challenge is that most of us get sucked into the daily tasks of our lives. We barely give ourselves enough time to reflect about the past, present and the future. But even mere reflection wouldn’t do, we have to take create an action plan that entails each step that you’re going to take right now to set up a solid Plan B that you’ll execute when push comes to shove.

Every high-performer I know, including elite athletes and leaders, have a Plan B. The best part is they don’t have to give up or pivot from their Plan A. They keep performing at the highest levels possible but always keep an eye on the future and prepare for it by making an action plan right now.

Thankfully, my Plan B is in order. Had I thought about it a couple of years ago, I would’ve been working on Plan B 3.0 but then, it’s never too late for iterations.