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In order to be successful in career, education or business venture; it is quite common for people to have a backup plan(s). People tend to try various options, various routes and various approaches in order to achieve their goals.
Whilst students try various academic options and keep switching from one stream to another, and professionals keep exploring available career options across industry, the entrepreneurs form one business after another and they have loads of options for them to try and see which option fetches them better results.
Having this luxury to try new things or having options in hand is one thing, but the question here is ‘Do we need to have back-up plans to be successful’? Does it help ? One school of thought says that we shouldn’t have any back-up plan in order to give all we have to the option in hand.
Let me start with sharing a very famous and most relevant story:
Julius Caesar, more than 2,000 years ago, had ventured out to conquer England. England being at a great distance from Rome, Caesar had to take a considerable sized naval fleet with him. Though their numbers were still pale in comparison to the opponents, who were immensely skillful & formidable warriors.
As soon as Romans land at the coast, they realized that they were heavily outnumbered by the opponents. As a result, fear began to spread among his soldiers and they started contemplating about retreat. Caesar found that the sentiment among his troops were preparing for defeat and easy retreat. In the event of retreat, they would have to sail back to their own land. Knowing very well that there would be no help from any quarter, nor any supplies to help. Moreover, the senate at Rome at that time was occupied by political antagonists who wouldn’t overlook this opportunity to destroy Caesar.
Caesar saw his Generals directing the ships away from the island cliffs. To him, it looked like the army had secured their ships in a manner that they would be able to quit and leave the island easily. Seeing that, Caesar made up his mind in no time and ordered his men to burn their ships.
Upon his instruction, the Romans burnt every single ship they had. That left even the opponents horrified, this insane act of Caesar, who was there to fight with them.
With that one move, Caesar had sent a strong message to both, his army as well as the opponent. He didn’t intend to leave the island without conquering it. And if he and his men were unable to do that, they would rather choose to die there than go back. The burnt ships made sure that he had left himself and his men no option but to fight for survival and give all they had.
As long as the Roman fleet would have been on the island, there would be moments of weakness with an option of retreat. With the ships burnt, there was no option but to fight their way through the heart of opponent land.
Psychology of fall back option:
When you know there is a fall back option, you will take that most likely. Which means you will not give all you have.
Having a fall back option tricks your own sub-conscious mind, which being your loyal friend suggests you the ways to relax and not take any risk. It helps you in convincing you that it’s ok for you to fail and take the fall back option. In case of confusion or lack of clarity in terms of plan, your sub-conscious doesn’t inspire faith; nor does it show any commitment.
When your own sub-conscious mind knows the plans you have and the intensity of those for you, it’s almost impossible for you to execute those plans to be successful.
The biggest fear for human mind is fear of unknown. When we venture into something new or unknown, the moments of struggle and fear of failure are obvious, which feels like being in a dark tunnel with no sign of light at all. At that juncture any smallest sign of light can divert you to that route. Having a plan B, seems like that light in the dark tunnel to your mind which makes it instantly surrender and quitting the original plan seems like the most obvious solution.
Contrary to that, If the plan you have is the only plan you have, then following will happen:
You will leave no loose ends at the planning stage and will make the plan as solid as possible considering all foreseeable and unforeseeable risks
You will give clear message to your mind that this is the only option you have, hence your sub-conscious would be fully aligned to achieve the goal
You will give all you have during execution stage as it would be no less than ‘fight for survival’ for you.
Disclaimer:
Since our mind has the tendency to think in either/or, and before you jump the gun and make your life a game of ‘Russian roulette’, you definitely need to apply some filters into your thinking i.e.
In case you are not clear about your goal, and are exploring various options, it’s fine for you to have back-up plans for you to fall back on. However, if you have complete clarity on what all to want to achieve, it’s must to plan without any fall back option.
In case your family ecosystem doesn’t allow you to go all out on your plans and you trying to achieve something is a big risk for the family, it is advisable to reconsider your decisions.
Even if you take the balanced approach, the key is to not quit too early and give our best to see things through.
Between the ‘desire to win’ and ‘fight for survival’ the latter will always be the most probable winner. If you can plan and execute something like your life depends upon it and it’s like fighting for survival for you to get there, then that’s the BEST you can do.
“If you want to take the island, then burn your boats. With absolute commitment come the insights that create real victory.” – Tony Robbins