Most people think momentum has only one step.
That step is to move forward. And keep moving forward, no matter what the obstacles.
These people have Plan A in mind, and by golly, Plan A is going to get done no matter what!
But what if Plan A itself is a momentum-killer?
So most days I have this plan. It's a plan that lets me wake up at 4am, and be working by 4:03am. (Yes, without coffee). But on many a day this plan goes wrong. Then I lose momentum. Then the whole day turns to custard.
But not if I have Plan B.
And it's not just having Plan B that matters. It's how you design Plan B—that's what matters! Plan B needs to be considerably less challenging and far more interesting than Plan A. Less challenging “and” far more interesting? Yes indeed: It has to have both those factors in play for Plan B to work.
Let me give you an example:
If Plan A is to write a sales letter that's 20 pages long, then Plan B is simply a plan to draw some cartoons or do some podcasts. If Plan A is a plan to write five articles for 5000bc.com, then Plan B is to write a blog post or two instead.
Notice something: Plan B isn't a replacement for Plan A. It's not something that requires me to do something just as challenging as Plan A. Instead Plan B is quite different. Plan B just takes the pressure off my back and still gets things done.
Everyone talks about having a Plan A and a Plan B.
Everyone designs a Plan A, but fails to design a Plan B.
And that's why they lose momentum.
That’s an interesting concept. I know people who often have a Plan B, but it’s never less challenging and more interesting than Plan A was.
Plan B has always seemed like a cop-out to me.
Thanks for giving me this new perspective, it may stop my whole day from turning to “custard” as well!
The “custard” is a Kiwi phrase 🙂
Why is it that most people look at their plans B as “second choice”, not as valuable or important as their plan A? Or even worse, why do they feel like failures if they don’t succeed to live by plan A every single day?
In fact plans B are sometimes even more important because they allow you to look at plan A at a distance.
As long as I do every day ‘a little something’ that leads me to the final goal of plan A, I am happy that I allow myself to have some B-days.
Not only was this a great point, but this is easily the best cartoon I’ve seen here to date.
I have a lot of Plan B’s, because I’m so easily distracted 🙂
I love it!
The notion of less challenging (whew! relief!) and more interesting (yes! inspiration!) makes a huge difference in how I look at Plan B. I can see how the times when I’ve been most productive are when I have (more or less organically) had a number of Plans B.
Having a mind map of the big picture for the month/week makes choosing a Plan B pretty easy. Or do you have them written out?
I don’t have them (Plan B items) written out as part of a schedule. But I just have it on a list of things that I need to get down to doing. And when Plan A goes awry, I can quickly switch to Plan B.