A Back-Up Plan Is Your Best Friend

 We all set out with the best of intentions, but studies show that 80% of those people making New Year's Resolutions have given up by the second week in February...how are you doing? We make plans. We decide where we want to go. We decide how we want to get there. We set off on the journey.

 …Yet, everyone is human. We all can make mistakes, despite the best laid plans. When you plan the path you want to take in life, you are, essentially, planning a journey through a country you've never seen in order to get to place you've never been.

 It's no wonder that unexpected things happen along the way. We simply cannot see all the angles, all the potential pitfalls, from the vantage point of where we start. There is no blame in this. It simply is the way things are.

 To a large extent, this element of the unknown is why stuff happens in life. When you can't anticipate every eventuality, stuff is bound to happen. It's a natural result of the future being uncertain, not of poor planning or personal inadequacy. The best way to deal with the setbacks that happen as a result of this uncertainty is to embrace the ambiguity that all future plans contain. Realize that your original plan may not be your final plan. It's okay to expect it to fail. It's even better when you plan to fail.

 You might be saying to yourself right now "plan to fail"? Why would you ever plan to go down in flames? Well, it's not that you specifically plan to lose. It's that you have a contingency plan in place when you know that the chances of losing are high. None of us can predict the future. It's this inability to prognosticate that dictates we all need to have a "Plan B".

 When you have a back-up plan in life, you have an almost instantaneous way around any obstacle the future may put in your way. Also, when you expect a setback, you are better able to recover and move forward when the expected catastrophe occurs. The worst possible scenario is to be hit with a setback because you never considered the possibility that one could occur. In such a case, you're without a back-up plan just when you need one most. These are the types of setbacks that stop people cold in their tracks, some never to move forward again. This is not to say that when you expect to fail, you see all the possibilities ahead of time. It only means that when you anticipate failure as a part of your original plan, you are better able to deal with it when it does happen.

Sometimes the best strategy is to just slow down, regroup, and start fresh...but in all times, it's best to pivot and move on than to stay stagnant. 

It is also true that you must develop an eye for knowing that you are learning...when we fail, we are learning. When we are learning, we are moving closer to what we want...closer to our goals.

What are you working on today? Are you moving closer to your goals?

I'd love to hear from you in the comments or better yet, why not visit us in the Facebook group. You can join by going to www.facebook.com/ahousewithfourrooms.

Have a great day and learn lots!

Cheers!

Lisa