You're stuck between two plans. Plan A is what you tell yourself you want. Plan B is your safety net, the fallback if things don't work out. Except you're not pursuing Plan A with real commitment. And you're not building Plan B either. You're trapped in permanent indecision, calling it strategy.
But here's what you're missing: your Plan B probably isn't a backup plan at all. It's just another Plan A that you're too scared to admit you want.
You call moving to Spain your "backup plan" when you actually fantasise about living there. You call starting a different business your "fallback" when you're genuinely excited about that idea too. You label going back to your hometown as Plan B when part of you desperately wants the simplicity of that life.
These aren't safety nets. They're desires you've rebranded as contingencies to avoid making a real choice.
A friend of mine shows this perfectly. He works in corporate, hates it, wants to start a fashion design label. That's Plan A. His Plan B? Move to Spain and settle down there. Sounds reasonable, right? A creative pursuit versus a comfortable fallback.
Except Spain isn't his backup plan. It's something he actually wants. He talks about Spanish lifestyle, the slower pace, the lower cost of living, the Mediterranean culture. That's not a contingency plan. That's a competing desire he's calling a safety net to avoid admitting he's torn between two things he genuinely wants.
So he stays in corporate, pursuing neither option fully, telling himself he's being strategic. He's not building the fashion label with real intensity because "what if it fails and I need my Spain option?" And he's not moving to Spain because he's "still planning the fashion label, still getting things ready." But really, he's just paralysed by the fact that both options appeal to him and he doesn't want to choose.
This content is only available to subscribers
Subscribe now and have access to all our stories, enjoy exclusive content and stay up to date with constant updates.
Unlock contentAlready have an account? Sign In
