Do you set New Year’s Resolutions?  I do.  Well sort of.  I don’t actually call them New Year’s Resolutions.  I call them FLOW Goals and they are part of the Strategic Planning I do each year.  One particular year, I was determined to get one of my personal goals achieved in record time…until I broke it.

Not the resolution to achieve the goal, mind you.  I broke my ability to achieve it.  I broke my left toe to be exact.

My #1 personal goal one year was to take my yoga to the next level so I had mapped out a plan for six months of yoga to make sure that I achieved my target by mid year.  I was even ahead of my pace that I had planned until… crunch.  And all the sudden I was limited to the number of poses and changes of poses I could do with my broken toe.

I also couldn’t run.  Which is what I would normally do when I wasn’t doing yoga.  I could do some weight training if I limit myself to a lot of floor and arm work.  I could do cardio if I limit myself to a stationary bicycle.   But at the time of my broken toe, I couldn’t even put on a pair of shoes.

So, I needed a new plan.  Which meant I fell back to my plan B.

How many of us let life’s little annoyances get in the way of achieving our ultimate goals?  

How many of us let setbacks derail us off our target for months, years or even forever?

When I work with my coaching clients, I want to know under what circumstance would they not take action on doing the stuff that needed to be done to meet their goals.  And then I want to know what they are going to do instead.  Me breaking my toe prevented me from meeting my targets for the next month which in turn effects the targets for the month after that, etc.  

And for one of my clients, he wouldn’t complete his swimming regime if it was lightning outside or if he had a bad sinus infection.

So, then what?  

What do you do when the worst case scenario comes up?  You fall back on plan B.  For myself, it’s core time.  I could still work on my stomach muscles and my arms while I was waiting for my toe to heal.  I could even do a 3 point plank!  

For my client it was stretching and weights.  He could still do these things even if the weather had turned on him or if he wasn’t feeling up for a swim with a cold.

When we plan for what happens when it all goes pear shaped, we prevent it from going pear shaped.  

We can be flexible in our strategy to keep us flowing along towards our ultimate destination.

How about you?  Do you have a plan B for your New Year’s Resolutions?