Do You Have a Plan B or C?

Do You Have a Plan B or C? If Not, What Are You Planning on Currently?
By Kimberly Kelsoe

While we are resilient, why voluntarily test our level of resiliency? Instead, why not proactively develop yourself with as many skills and talents as you can to insure options in your future. Some may call it Plan B, but diversification and preparation will provide more opportunities in your professional life. While building, you should not lose sight of the value of also building your network all along the journey. So that when something happens to drive you towards another plan, you already have something and someone to fall back on or jump forward into?

Some say having a Plan B can distract you, but I still feel there is room for nurturing some of your underlying skills and talents in a way that can support both Plan A and create a B just in case. It is all about perspective. I personally do not have an official Plan B, but I consistently set myself up to fall into one should the need arise. I do this by continually challenging myself for more, expanding on my experiences and education, and being open to opportunities in front of me.

We all have multiple skills and talents ready to be nurtured. So, when the time comes for change, opportunity is waiting if you plan ahead. When I attended undergraduate school, I knew that my degree did not exactly fit and define who I could be professionally, so I decided to further diversify by getting an MBA. While getting my MBA, I found a further passion when taking business law and decided to go to law school. While attending law school, I decided that I wanted to further develop myself and I later earned an LLM.

All in all, I now have five college degrees. I did this so that I would not be pigeon-holed into one area in life and I had options. This has really paid off for me in that I have gained roles that are better than I had imagined for myself. The law degree created multiple opportunities for positions. I am sharing my experiences with education, but I have also worked hard to try different roles for varied professional experiences. It is not all about education, but diversification.

“Success in life is not how well we execute Plan A; it is how smoothly we cope with Plan B.”
Sarah Ban Breathnach

It is important to create enough variety in your life and experiences that you have options and you can advance your breadth and depth of expertise. This is critical for you to reach your greatest potential, especially when you are young and growing your career. Like with everything in life, balance is key. This is why jumping job to job without gaining knowledge and depth can also be detrimental to your career. It is good to become the expert of something on your path up the ranks. Ideally, you can even find a niche within your career that really pays off and creates security.

I am very happy where I am professionally, yet I still am rising to the challenge. I am creating opportunities through my hobbies and other personal experiences. I know the value of continuing to grow beyond my vision of myself, so I continually find ways to create challenges for me to conquer. This diversification that I do in my spare time also adds to my value proposition, as it grows my experiences, lessons learned, network, and more.

Ask yourself how you are spending your “me time.” If you do not have any “me time,” then ask yourself if you could shave off a little time from your shows, coffee time in the morning, primping time, or otherwise. DECIDE today that it is time to invest in yourself and your future beyond where you currently are today.

It is almost June, so brush off the goals for the year that you established in January. Do you need to update them? How are you doing with those goals? What are you doing to grow, advance, or diversify? Do you have a Plan B for the key areas in your life according to your goals? How do you create or reveal increased value in yourself so that there is a natural Plan B and you have options?

“The most successful people are those who are good at Plan B.”
James A. Yorke

Many are finding themselves currently unemployed and wishing they had a Plan B. Now is a time when you can accept the circumstances as they are and find your Plan B. It may be that it has been in front of you all of this time and begging for your attention. It may be a new future that allows for additional flexibility in your work/home life or is more lucrative. Look around and ask yourself, “What is my Plan B?” You can still work towards Plan A while striving for Plan B.

I have multiple irons in the fire, but you only need to have two: Plan A and Plan B. Focusing on just the two can provide great benefits for you in developing your skills and talents to diversify yourself into the new version of you under Plan B.

Visualize and Believe it, so that you can Be it!

INVEST, INVEST, INVEST! Invest in yourself and your future. It is so important to continually invest in ourselves in all areas of our lives – physical, spiritual, family, friends, education, and more. As you invest, you are creating security and stability for yourself. Create new challenges and opportunities for yourself at work and at home so that you are continuing to grow towards something proactively and in the direction you choose before life chooses for you.

“Do I really need a Plan B,” you might wonder. You may have someone who takes care of your needs or the perfect job and spouse. However, you don’t typically know you NEED a Plan B until your world falls apart, people leave, or you lose your job. You may get in an accident that does not allow you to perform your job in the future. If so and you are still on this earth, you have a purpose to discover.

If nothing else, your Plan B can be fun to explore, and it will give you a level of security that you have options. You never know what you might discover about yourself as you start looking around you and wondering “what if” for your future. This is meant to be a fun and motivating exercise. This can also help you stay sharp because many times people can get burnt out or bored when they only have one plan in life to focus on at any one time. Let go and open your imagination to the possibilities by going through a fun exercise of thinking what you might be in an alternate reality.

You can start to see glimpses of the new future by looking at your current skills and talents, as well as what energizes you. Why not start today proactively before you NEED a Plan B? You have so much locked up inside of you in the deepest layers of yourself. When you work hard to reveal your potential, you will discover your limits are just hurdles … nothing more.These hurdles will soon be behind you, and you will be proud.

Let’s strive for your Plan B today. Without a Plan B and options, you might find that what you depend on is not as dependable as you think. Create more value for your future by investing in yourself, taking inspired action, and at least moderately diversifying. Please visit my website Whiteboards and Whateverfor more tools and activities to develop a new and exciting future or just a Plan B. The website is at https://kimberlykelsoe.com. I look forward to hearing about your progress from the inspired action you will take.