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Why I Never Have A Plan B

November 01, 2013

Days #28 & #29 of The 90-Day Do Something Big Project It’s NOVEMBER! Can you believe it? Are you starting to panic yet? I hope not. But I am. I didn’t write yesterday because I was in a tailspin. Holidays and ends of months usually do it to me. These markings of time passing throw me into a torrential “my life is over” spiral that only ends when I wake up the next day. And today being the next day—I think I’m ok. But let me tell you about yesterday—because you might experience this too at times. I fell into the What-If Cauldron. Yeah. It was steamy in there. What if I don’t make big things happen by the end of the year? What if everything I’m working on doesn’t come to fruition? What if I’ve failed come January 1st? Tough questions. No easy answers. I’ve always operated with a Plan A. That’s it. Just Plan A. No Plan B.

My theory—If I have a Plan B then I’m already one foot out of Plan A.

That’s right. I’m not all-in, 110%, above and beyond, every ounce of my being committed to Plan A if I’ve concocted a Plan B. A contingency plan equates to my assumption that Plan A is going to fail. If I’ve already assumed its failure, why am I even bothering to try? But it’s tempting, really tempting to start devising a Plan B when I fall into that What-If Cauldron. I start envisioning my miserable life when I fail at Plan A—the life of my dreams. Because my Plan B vision is always a plan for a life filled with misery. It’s a vision that entails the crushing of my dreams, the relinquishing of my goals, and my suffering for all eternity. Very doomsday-y. But then I snap out of it. I climb out of the cauldron and pull that reckless foot from Plan B. You may be wondering how I do it. I have a really crappy answer for you— I just do it. There’s no secret. No magical pill. And it’s not any easier for me than it is for anyone else. I force myself to stop putting any ounce of energy into the What-Ifs and I instead put my energy into the What-Can-I-Do-Nows. What can I do now to make my dream a reality? I can reply to that email sitting in my inbox. What can I do now to contribute to Plan A? I can make those recipes I’ve been putting off making. What can I do now for that “big” to come to fruition? I can do frosting research instead of creeping Facebook, hating on all the happiness (which is mostly fake). There’s always something I can do now.

A day wallowing is a day lost. A day lost is never found.

Don’t let yourself lose today. Welcome to November. Rock it with me.

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