It is common for me to speak with clients who think of having a plan B in their health and fitness pursuits as an excuse that means they aren’t committed to plan A.

In my experience, this is a folly. Plan B rarely means that you aren’t committed to plan A. It means you are realistic in your expectations when something outside of your control happens, you’ve thought of ways to pivot so that you’re not left scrambling or doing nothing at all. This is a matter of mindset. How we look at and interpret the same thing through different lenses.

The issue with plan A

The weakness of plan A is also its strength. You have no choice but to continue on. Unless… the thing you planned for isn’t as high a priority as the thing disrupting it. Like a work commitment, or a family emergency, or major life event.

For example, if you are working on your fitness but your gym closes due to a global pandemic, then your plan A is shot and without a plan B, you end up with nothing.

If however, you have a plan B, if there is a global pandemic (again) then you can shift your fitness efforts to bodyweight and hiking, then you’re golden. You have thought of reasonable alternatives to feasible situations that you can call upon when needed.

Making plan B

When it comes to making your plan B, you might list instances when you expect to be less than perfect on your plan A and how that will impact your results. We know that consistency is more important than perfection in our pursuit of progress, so it pays to plan to be less than perfect and adjust our expectations accordingly.

Plan B can be a stripped back or minimum effective dose version of plan A. For example, you might plan to walk 10k steps per day, but your partner gets sick and you have 100% of kids sports pick-up/drop-off duties, so you strip it back to 7k per day and a weekly goal of 49-60k steps per week.

What if…

To be clear, “what if” is completely different than “when”. “What if” is anxiety about infinite potential future issues.

• What if my car won’t start

• What if I can’t find my keys

• What if I don’t hear my alarm clock.

These are all potential events, but not ones that you can necessarily predict or need a plan B for. In this instance, I like to rely on “I’m the kind of person” statements.

For example;

1. If I accidentally miss my alarm and run out of time to get to the gym, I’m the kind of person that finds a way to be active throughout the day.

2. If I forget my pre-made lunch at home, I’m the kind of person that eats vegetables at every meal, so I will go to the salad bar at lunch.

3. If I am invited out for drinks after work, I’m the kind of person that values sleep and recovery so will only have 1 alcoholic beverage on a weeknight.

I’m the kind of person that statements are mantras and personal values that can help guide us in the event of smaller course deviations.

Having a clear and realistic plan A is great and having a scalable plan B makes things more doable and less binary when something comes up. Having “I’m the kind of person that” statements tomguide your actions generally is also a useful tool.

What is one of your “I’m the kind of person that” statements that helps you? Reply to this email with yours…?

I’ll start… I’m the kind of person that values feeling productive, so I workout before 9am each day.