When Plan ‘A’ Fails

What you do next matters.

And then, just like that, *poof* plan ‘A’ is no more.

It doesn’t matter what plan ‘A’ may have been, because if it’s gone and done there is little to nothing more you can do at that point.

It may be frustrating, upsetting, annoying, displeasing, and any number of other negative reactions you can come up with. However, it’s important to recognize a few facts.

First — Sh*t happens. So very much of what happens in our lives is totally out of our control. Recognizing this and accepting it can go a long ways. And no, I am in no way saying we have to like it.

Second — No plan survives contact with the enemy. I have been doing medieval fencing for quite some time. In the game I play, we do melee combat — team on team fights. One of the first rules of this combat is that no plan will survive contact with the enemy. Why? Because when they move, odds are pretty good they will NOT move as we want them to. Ergo, plan is no good.

Third — Change is inevitable. We live in a constantly changing world. Even the most static and apparently staid matter is, in fact, changing. Recognizing this makes accepting it, and the failure of plan ‘A,’ a much easier pill to swallow.

Fourth — Self-recrimination is pointless. If you take the blame for the failure of plan ‘A’, this will inevitably begin a downward spiral. From there, you will likely find more fault, and more reasons to blame yourself for the plan failing. You can certainly be accountable and responsible for some of the causation of the failure of the plan, but accountable is not the same as taking the blame. Accountable is acknowledgement, whereas blame is reproachful.

What follows plan ‘A’?

Did you have a plan ‘B’? Is the failure of plan ‘A’ totally devastating, or just a bump in the road? These matter for a number of different reasons.

When life is going how we prefer it to go, chances are we didn’t make a plan ‘B’. I mean, who thought plan ‘A’ would go to Sh*t, and leave us in this spot? But not having a plan ‘B’ is actually fine. It’s not entirely necessary.

Why? Because how would you know what it will look like? Since you didn’t expect plan ‘A’ to go south…