Plan B is Better than Nothing

It’s easy to get upset when things to go according to plan. In life, many things we plan get altered and many plans change as we go along. This is part of life. No one can avoid it, but you certainly can drive yourself crazy if you try.

Health is part of life too and planning is part of a healthy life. If you are going to live healthy, you have to plan. If you plan, you are going to have to make adjustments and find new ways to do things. If not you will drive yourself crazy while struggling to make the progress you want to make.

The most successful people in life are able to adjust and continue moving forward despite changing circumstances. Health is no different. Those living healthy or “healthy people” are able to eat healthy foods, exercise and take good care of themselves in all circumstances. Some are just so rigid that they won’t go or do anything outside of their health-zone, but those people are few and far between.

For the record, I am not one of those people. I always try to emphasize this just to make sure you know where I stand. I am a “healthy person” (I better be with all the advice I give!), but I am not healthy because I live a freakish life of strict training routines and a steady diet of rabbit food grown in my own garden. I am healthy because I am able to embrace change and adjust when I need to.

Changes are taking place all around us. As these changes occur, plans are difficult to stick with. At least the first plan is anyway. The first plan is often the best laid and most detailed plan that we are certain is the way to get us where we want to go. The first plan, or plan A as it is often called, is the “right way” or the way we picture things taking place.

Plan A is not always what actually happens. Plan A is a picture in our mind that exists only before we get started. Plan A, even when written down will have notes and adjustments on it by the time we are actually in motion. At least that is the case if you are successful.

Let me explain: being successful is not getting to a certain amount of money, living in a certain house or driving a certain car. Life has showed me that you can be happy in any class, neighborhood or car. Being successful in health or living healthy is more than just the number of calories and the minutes spent exercising. Health Coaching has shown me that you can be healthy with many different methods and patterns and by eating in many different ways.

So what is success? My definition of success makes it more of a process. Success for me is a journey and not a destination. Why is this? Well, if you have to get to a certain place in order to be successful, than it is automatically going to take more time or effort for some.

Let’s say success is Miami Florida. If being healthy is getting to Miami, than someone in Seattle is going to have a much longer journey toward health than someone in Fort Lauderdale. That doesn’t mean that they can’t get there or that everyone is automatically as healthy as their origin. That’s not the case at all. People change all the time. I’ve seen thousands change their lifestyle and therefore change their health.

That is why my definition of success is about the process or the journey that you are on. Success for me is setting goals and reaching goals. If you are reaching a goal, you are successful. If you continue to set and reach goals you will continue to be successful because you will keep moving toward your desired destination.

In health, success is as simple as action. Take action and you will be healthy and successful. Everyone has a different journey, which is why you need to set your own goals and take your own steps in order for this to work. You are successful as long as you are on your journey. The journey may be long, or it may be short. It may be very difficult, or it may be easy. The point is, you have to have goals and set up a plan in order to even get started on your journey.

How do you get started on the journey? It’s all about the plan. If you have a plan for your life, you can get the job you want, the house and car you want. If you have a plan for your health, you can look, feel and perform the way you want to. You just need a plan.

It does get a bit more complicated than that. As you know, life always presents changes and makes us adjust. What happens when we can’t adjust? We fail.
That is where the most important plan comes into play. It’s not plan A, it’s more like the plan that comes to be when plan A doesn’t work. The most important plan is the one that you can use. If plan A doesn’t work, we have to come up with a new plan or change the existing plan in order to succeed.

That is why plan B is better so important. It is often the difference between getting any exercise or eating anything for lunch. Plan B is what you do in real life. You can draw up the best plan A in the history of mankind, but if it doesn’t fit into your life, it will not work.

That is where most of us meet our demise. Plan A looks great, so we set out with that sparkling plan and on Monday morning and as soon as the alarm goes off. Then real life starts and your plan A goes right out the window. This is a problem considering plan A is all we had. It was the end-all plan that was sure to take us to the top, so when it failed, what did we do? We quit and assumed that there was nothing else we could do. If this plan didn’t work, what will?

The plan that will work is the plan that actually fits into your lifestyle. That may be plan B or it may even be plan C or D. I’ve seen people succeed on plan Q as long as they executed it. The point is, most people make plan A and assume it will work. When it doesn’t there is nowhere to go. The journey ends there. It’s like getting on the road toward Miami, running out of gas and choosing not to fill up the car.
When you set out on a road trip, you know that you can’t make it in one tank of gas. You know that when you see the fuel light, you will need to look for a place to fill up. That is part of the trip and you build that right in.

Changing your lifestyle in one sweeping step with a “perfect plan” crafted from nothing but expecting it to bring you the perfect routine is just like setting out on a cross-country trip and expecting to get there on one tank of gas. It sounds silly, but that is what many people try to do in their routines.

Life may be complicated. Health, being part of life, is no different. There will always be something keeping you from the gym. There will always be something that throws your schedule off. There will always be something to make your ‘plan A’ a big challenge.

The solution is simple: Don’t rely on Plan A. It’s good to have a plan, but it’s better to be ready for adjustment and able to put plan B into motion. It doesn’t mean you failed at plan A, it just means that you needed to adjust in order to keep going on your journey.

Running out of gas on your trip doesn’t feel like a failure. So, why does getting stuck at the office or having a crisis in the morning feel like failure? On the trip, we simply pull off, fill up and get back on our way. At home, we see that plan A is no longer possible and we give up.

In reality, which is where healthy living takes place, you need to have a plan B. Plan B is not failure. Plan B is not even secondary. Plan B may become plan A when you realize that the original plan was drawn up with great intensions but simply doesn’t work for you. Again, this is not failing. It is simply adjusting.

In health, the only failure is doing nothing. As long as you have goals to do something for your health, you are succeeding every time you do those things. If plan B is what it takes to do those, do it. Not having a plan B or refusing to come up with one is easy. It’s easy to do nothing, but won’t bring you success. Plan B will bring you success. In health, something is better than nothing. The more you do that, the better you will become at it. As you practice, this becomes your habit and keeps you going. Something is always better than nothing. If plan B is what it takes for you to do something, than isn’t it better than nothing?