This pandemic has taken all of us out of our “norm” in our daily lives.  We are not always ready for the curve balls that life throws at us.  In the blink of an eye, our lives can change unexpectedly.  As the saying goes, you can be up one day and down the next.  I tell this to people all the time, not to condemn or insult them, I tell them to prepare them for the inevitable.  If we are not prepared, an instant change of events can make or break us.  I learned this lesson the hard way earlier in my life, by not always being prepared for the uncertainties of life.  Some things are beyond our ability to control.  However, one thing that we can control is our preparedness to be okay when “life throws us lemons.”  This is why it is important to always have a back-up plan.  It’s not that you plan to fail, it is that you have an alternative plan to succeed if things do not go as you anticipated with plan A.  There is a famous quote that states, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”  Therefore, we have to be at a constant state of planning, because life is just so unpredictable.  I can hear people saying, well, how can you plan for the unpredictable?  When planning you have to not only think about the process of how things will work (plan A), you also have to plan the process of what to do when things might not work the way you originally anticipated (plan B).  We cannot prepare for everything.  Because, there are so many different things to prepare for, we would become overwhelmed trying to tackle everything.  However, the most important areas of your life that will impact you tremendously, if any of those things changed, are the areas where we should develop a plan A and a plan B. 
 

Having a plan A is good, however, we also must have a plan B.  For example, Are you relying on your job to pay your bills (plan A), but you are not saving or investing your money each pay period, so that you will still have money to pay your bills if you lost your job (plan B)?  If your wife/husband is the provider of the family and you are a stay-at-home mom/dad (plan A), if your husband/wife decided to leave you, are you prepared to step-up and provide for the family in their absence, without struggle (plan B)?  If you have a child with someone whom you think will be there to support and love you and their child (plan A), if he/she decides to walk away are you prepared to help you and your child cope with their absence (plan B)?   If you are a business owner and you have an employee who is the only person who knows how to do his/her job (plan A), if that person leaves the company without training the new employee that fills his/her position are you prepared to adequately equip the new employee with the training and support he/she needs to succeed in the position (plan B)?  If you are a business owner, who had to close your business because of the government shut down requirement (plan A), did you have a backup plan on how your business can still generate revenue and other ways to sustain the business (plan B)?  If you are a professional athlete or entertainer who makes millions of dollars (plan A), if you suffer a career ending injury do you still have money to maintain your lifestyle or to invest in other areas that will help you maintain your lifestyle (plan B)?  In times like these, these are the questions that we should ask ourselves.

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It is so important to have a back-up plan, so that you can be okay no matter what.  We should never take anything for granted.  This pandemic has been a mind opening experience to teach us all that important life lesson (to have a plan B).  So, if you find that your life is not the way you predicted it to be and you are struggling with trying to figure things out, because you didn’t have a backup plan (plan B).  Take this time now to reflect on what your next steps should be to get to a place in your life where you are okay and you can still maintain the lifestyle that you want to live.   Just because plan A doesn’t always work, doesn’t mean that you give up and not work towards a plan B.  No matter what you do in life always have a back-up plan.  Below are some suggestions on how to create a good back-up plan:

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-Pray about what should be your next move/step to move forward from where you are currently to a better position.
 

-Critically think about what plan you wished you had in place, before your current situation occurred and strategize on how to implement those plans.
 

-Research successful people and/or businesses who have experienced similar situations and find out what worked well for them and/or their business. (look at what others in your industry are doing that is working well and model it)
 

-Don’t be afraid to ask others for help and get feedback from those who can actually help you.
 

-Don’t be afraid to start over and don’t be afraid to modify your plans as needed.
 

-If you need to pick up a different skill to get to where you want to be, research companies that provide such training.
 

-Don’t give up on your passion and purpose, it was placed in you for a reason.  The reality of life is that Plan A doesn’t always work.  You may just have to approach things differently.  If you are singer, who also makes music, perhaps getting to the top might not necessarily come from your singing ability, it might come from composing and selling your music to other known artist.  So, you have to be open and willing to “go through different doors” (plan B) to eventually get to where you want to be.

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-If plan B doesn’t work, figure out what obstacles/challenges hindered the success of plan B and figure out a way to combat those challenges, even if that means that you have to change/rethink the entire plan.

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Best of luck to all of you on creating your Plan B!

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By Lynnette Clement