Is it worthwhile to have more than one plan? What are the advantages of having contingency plans? I often hear people say what is your back-up plan? What are you going to do if this doesn’t work out? My question though is how is it beneficial to you to have multiple plans How is it detrimental?

When you have your sights set on a goal and someone questions you as to what your backup plan is, how does that make you feel? I know personally that I experience several different emotions at times like this. First, there is a bit of anger. This comes from the fact that people I trust are doubting me. This doubt from those around me leads to me doubting myself. Am I good enough to get what I want? The final stage for me, but not for everyone would be a feeling of want. The doubt from others causes me to want to get it even more to prove them wrong.

I understand the desire to have backup plans and contingence plans. What happens if things don’t go the way you plan? How are you going to adjust things? What is your next path going to be? In some areas this is a necessity. A doctor in surgery may need a contingency plan incase things don’t go the way they originally plan. It is always better to have a backup plan in a situation such as this rather than panicking at the last minute. But, is it always important to have a contingency plan?

But, having too many contingency plans causes you to lose focus on what you really want. Instead of putting all your time and energy into one goal, you will split your attention amongst multiple plans just in case your first plan doesn’t work out. Inevitably, when your focus is too divided things aren’t going to go the way you want. As such you will most likely end up having to use plan B, C or D.

Now what happens if you don’t have a contingency plan? Not having a contingency plan would allow you to put all of your focus and energy into your accomplishing your goals. It would leave you with no excuses. This would make it so that you are forced to achieve your goal. The down side of this though is that if things don’t go the way you want you have no back up.

As such I think there are certain situations which require you to have a contingency plan and certain situations that don’t. I would also say it’s never a bad idea to have a back-up plan, but you shouldn’t spend too much time focusing on it and worrying about it. Set your sights on your primary objective and reach for it. If things don’t work out the way you want create a new Plan A and move on.