Last week on our Platform Builders Mastermind call. we spotlighted one of the Maxwell Team mentors, Ed DeCosta, who recently release his new book ASCEND: A Coach’s Roadmap For Taking Your Performance To New Heights.  

If you want some “no-nonsense, get results” strategies for reaching new levels of achievement, you will find it in ASCEND.  But it’s not the book that inspired this post, it was something Ed said on the call.

Ed made the statement that “Sometimes Plan B needs to be Plan Better.” [Tweet This]

I don’t think Ed even realized the genius in the statement when he made it, but genius it is.  That comment changed my entire thought process on the idea of a “backup plan.”  You see, that’s what I’ve always thought a Plan B was – the option when the desired one doesn’t work.  Not any more!

If you have been settling for Plan B, Knock it off!

Maybe you are a lot smarter than me and have already figured this out, but for me, Plan B has always been the backup plan just in case Plan A didn’t work out.  Right?  Look, being smarter than me is not any kind of earth shattering accomplishment but changing your perspective on this just might be.  If you have conceded that Plan B is always less desirable than Plan A,  Knock it off!

What if we looked at Plan A failing not as a failure, but as an opportunity to learn and seize the opportunity to make Plan B – Plan Better.  What if Plan Better doesn’t work? Well, you can call it whatever you want, but by learning lessons instead of conceding defeat, we can continue a path towards success.

Start learning lessons instead of conceding defeat!

Full transparency here, I just came into this awareness less than a week ago and although I have not had a chance to put it to the test yet, I do have some big “Plan A” activities that will be put to the test this week and this I know – if I have to go to the backup plan, it will be Plan Better.

I think our culture has conditioned us to believe that acceptance of thinking that our results are “good enough”, “better than than they use to be”, or “at least different than they were before” are reasonable outcomes.  Nonsense!

Start setting yourself up for success!

The whole idea of setting goals and stretching outside our comfort zone are to produce what we have not achieved before.  Why do we settle for less than we desired?  Why is better OK when best is what we are shooting for?  Why do words live “CAN’T”, “NEVER”, and “ALMOST” remain in our daily vocabulary?

I think it’s because we have lowered our standards.  And by doing so, we have lowered our own self-image.  Ed and the other Maxwell mentors all adhere to the belief that we will never out perform our own self-image.

When Plan A doesn’t work, we immediately jump to the next best choice instead of creating a BETTER one.  Peter Drucker had some thoughts on this when he said:

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” [Tweet This]

TODAY’S QUESTION:  Are you following a downward progression in your decision making process that will ultimately net you less of a result than you originally desired?

TODAY’S CHALLENGE:  Learn from the Plan A’s that didn’t work out and set yourself up for success by making Plan B – Plan Better!

***********************************************************************

===> JOIN THE “LEADERSHIP BY INVITATION” LAUNCH TEAM <===

Click here to get a copy of my Kindle Book “The Manifesto Of An Influential Leader”

Don’t miss a single post from Building What Matters by subscribing at the top left of this page. 

Help support us by clicking here and Liking our facebook page

Barry Smith  4/14/14   photo by author   © Building What Matters 2014