A Joyous Perspective on Overcoming Life's Pitfalls: Here's to Plan "B"

This week at the Friday Night Thought-Tale Hour with the Henderson's, I am coming off a week where I had encounters with several people who were right on the cusp of fulfilling a wonderful wish. As I interacted with them and heard stories filled with triumph, a few disappointments, anxiety, and peace, I marveled at how each one had something in their history that they feared might return to quash their dream. Whether it be a self-imposed error or just a stretch of wrong place right time, that blight in their history had definitely put them at a fork a time or two. And now, here they were, right where they had worked so hard to be, but wondering if the past was still hungry for revenge.

Like a growling tummy, the past can rumble in our ears.

There are just some things that we've had happen to us or we have done that we seriously have a hard time believing we can ever forget or rectify. Some of us have things that are more public or significant than others, but the size of the instance really doesn't matter in this case. They can exist only on paper, in the mind of another offended, or just live in gossip, but how they altered the course of our lives is the most important feature that they possess. 

So we set about to fixing them, believing they can be overcome.

But the actual work of repairing the issue, as hard as it can be sometimes, is not really the final way to see them completely satisfied. Apologies can happen, and commitments can be forged, debts repaid, but until we take steps to move on to Plan B, we will never completely believe that they won't come back for more. Determined to again remind us we can never put them behind us. 

It's time to kick Plan A to the curb, and embrace your Plan B.

Plan A was the way stuff was supposed to go. Save up enough money to buy your kid the car they needed, have great enough credit to live wherever you wanted at the end of college, retire in the job that met all your financial needs, stay married until one of you passed on, have two kids by the age of 35 - fill in your own blank. But as Lennon said, "Life is what happens while you are busy making plans"..... It's easy to be stuck in the mire of answering for errors. Sometimes people who purport to love you even remind you to stay there. They tell you it's tough out there in Plan B land and they tell you to be patient. I'm here to tell you that, in this case, patience is just being scared - and overcomers are not fearful. 

B is for Bravery.

Plan B is for the brave, the bold and the badass. It will never be easy, but it beats sitting in a pile of mire bemoaning your past. There will be stumbles, and there will be people who continue to try and remind you that you don't have any business putting the past in its place. You see, there will always be plenty of folks who run from Plan B and you are only reminding them of this when you succeed in overcoming. Oh, but the sweetness of facing your past down and feeling the joy of a second chance is amazing. 

And you really do deserve it.

I believe that most people are really basically good and want to do the right things. Even those who have made huge mistakes more often than not wish to be forgiven and make restitution. Maybe it's because I've been there, and I know that this is where my heart was. My belief is that if we are permissive with the giving out of Plan B opportunities, we too will receive them ourselves, and we will also be confident in their probability of success.

There will be naysayers.

There's a crazy part of overcoming and seeking the Plan B that I would be remiss if I did not mention: Some of those folks who gave you the most apparent compassion when you were down and out will be the same people who try to constantly remind you of why you don't deserve your wonderful Plan B. Remember, you represent that life is actually full of second chances and that it is possible to come back from failure or injury. Pay them no mind. Their voices, while initially strong, will fade as you allow yourself to enjoy the fruits of your determination.

So let's lift a glass and toast to all of the "Plan B" moments we will encounter in our lives. May we always be willing to find the strength to be brave enough to see them and always maintain an attitude that is ready to provide them to others. CHEERS, FRIENDS!

The "Plan B" Cocktail

(The Origin of the drink came as a joke when there was no Coke to mix the whiskey with to have a Jim and Coke. When the discussion came up looking for the right name when Root beer was a substitute for the Coke, it became the "Plan B", because the regular drink was not possible to make. There's always a way....)

This recipe serves two:

2 oz Jim Beam® bourbon whiskey
12 oz Barq's® root beer

Pour the Jim Beam into the glass with crushed ice. Then slowly pour the root beer over the top of the ice and drink, stir once, and consume.