"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
- Mike Tyson
When I was a kid I was taught that if I ever got lost I was supposed to go find an adult and let them know. First choice was to find a police officer but if there wasn’t one around, then I was to go into a store and find a clerk.
I’m assuming most of you readers were taught something similar. An “if X, then Y” kind of plan. There were others too, like what to do in case of a fire or if a stranger approaches.
I’m also assuming that many of you never had to employ most, if any, of these emergency plans.
The same goes for me, with the exception of one time when I was about 7 years old.
I was at Geauga Lake, an amusement park in Aurora, Ohio (which eventually became a Six Flags and is now closed) with my Dad and my uncle. I wanted to go into the kids' water park area, but my dad and uncle refused to go with me. “Go on,” they said, “we’ll wait for you out here”.
Being a pretty introverted kid, I wasn’t thrilled about going alone, but with their prodding, I sheepishly went inside.
Almost immediately I was overwhelmed. There were tons of “big kids” and everyone seemed to already belong to a group. I don’t think I lasted more than 5 minutes before I decided to abort the mission.
I ran out and looked for my dad next to the gate where they dropped me off, but he wasn’t there.
Now, believe it or not, 7 year old Amanda was not as cool, calm and collected as present day Amanda. It didn’t occur to me to look around, perhaps at the benches directly across from the gate (where, as I later discovered, they had been sitting the entire time). No, I immediately determined that I was lost which meant, emergency plan activated.
I walked straight up to an “adult” (which in retrospect was probably a 16 year old kid working a summer job) at the Dippin Dots kiosk and said (behind a stream of tears), “I can’t find my dad!”
“Are you sure? Where did you lose him? What does he look like?”
“My dad has a mustache. He was right here, but now he’s not. And I CAN’T FIND HIM ANYWHERE!”
I was taken to wherever they took lost kids and put in a play room to wait. I remember the AC was blasting and I was still in my little bathing suit, cold and scared. I’m not sure how long it took for my dad to realize I was missing, because it felt like I waited an eternity before he came to pick me up.
Aside from the deep emotional scars I’ve carried into my adulthood, there isn’t much more about this story to tell.
I got lost. I used the emergency plan. I got found. Happily ever after.
Back up plans are part of everyday life.
We have insurance. Godparents for our children. A ridiculous amount of Starbucks napkins in our bags (or is that just me?). Spare tires in our cars. An extensive list of “Plan B’s”, just in case something goes wrong.
Because we know that eventually something will go wrong.
Yet when it comes to making plans for nutrition and exercise, all this logic tends to go out the window.
We seem to think that we’ll never have to work late. That we’ll never get invited to another birthday party or client dinner. That we’ll never get injured. That we’ll never have a sick relative that needs our attention.
We create the “perfect plan”: Workout Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 7am. Eat 1,600 calories a day with a 40/30/30 macro split. Cut out all sugar and alcohol. Sleep 8 hours a night.
And it works...for a few weeks.
Then work gets busy, or your mom gets sick, or you hurt your shoulder.
We get off track. And we blame the plan.
Whole 30. Paleo. Carnivore. Keto. P90X. CrossFit. Peloton. SLT.
We think to ourselves that the reason we haven’t been successful in the past is because we didn’t have the right plan.
And yes, sometimes the plan just wasn’t a good one. But rarely does a plan, no matter how ingenious, get executed exactly as written.
Because eventually something goes wrong.
A well written plan is not one that assumes 100% adherence, it’s one that anticipates and strategizes for what can (and most likely will) go wrong.
A well written plan has multiple backup plans.
The real challenge then, isn’t finding the “perfect” plan, it’s having the foresight to identify how our original plan can get derailed and what we can do when that happens. It’s about creating our own “if X, then Y” scenarios.
Take a look at your current plan. Think ahead about what could go wrong.
What could get in the way of your exercise/nutrition goal?
What will you do if that happens?
How can you plan ahead?
If X...then ___?
When life punches you in the mouth (because it will), what will be your "Plan B"?
How will you stay on your feet and keep swinging?
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