Enough to count on Plan B - to win once!

When you are going for an exam with a necessarily ASSUME spare pen. And going to work, think through the route and know exactly where it will be possible to turn in the event of traffic jams. And usually, starting a business, we put the money in the case of knitted sweaters on demand with the seals would not be so high. But some researchers believe that the contingency planning prevents us from achieving success. And that's why.

It seems that study Conditional Plan B - is not such a bad idea. It is especially useful for small purposes like moving. But in the face of great change, we feel safer, knowing that thought out ways to retreat.

But if you have prepared a contingency plan for each of your steps and solutions, We can not relax.

Thinking all in advance, you make yourself worse. Life becomes more difficult, and you - the lazy.

Christopher Napolitano (Christopher Napolitano), a psychologist at the University of Zurich, believes that people often wrongly make a contingency plan and make mistakes.

Even when plan B does not work, it means that people do not understand how to study the ways of retreat distracting him from his work on the main task.

In his study, Napolitano says, in some cases, a contingency plan makes us less successful. Fortunately, there are several ways to stop hoping for a plan B, and if they calculate the escape route, then do it right.

Failure or ace in the hole?

The presence of a backup plan affects how you work to achieve your goal. Depending on the situation it can help or hinder you. Napolitano does not consider a plan B unambiguous evil, because we have all been in situations when I had to turn around and run on the planned path of retreat.

A contingency plan - it's a great safety net in the event, when a thoughtful course of action goes awry. It also helps us to aspire to the dream, fueling ambitions and making intended target less daunting and distant.

"Many people say that the creation of a backup plan gives them the courage and support they need to start working on a difficult task," - said Napolitano.

But sometimes a Plan B only inconvenienced us. Imagine yourself in the place of the photographer who is going on an important shoot. He can overdo it and fill the bag with so many spare lenses, and then not lift it.

In addition, the availability of a ready backup plan can weaken your desire to act in accordance with plan A.

It turned out that many people are willing to give up all desires, without much hesitation going to the emergency plan, as soon encounter difficulties on the way to a dream.

The researchers conducted an experiment, participants were asked to throw balls ping-pong ball into a large waste basket. After a few shots a person could change the shell and start throwing balls for tennis. They are larger and heavier, they are easier to hit the target, however, have to throw a little change tactics.

It turned out that people who initially doubted that a ping-pong table fall into the goal, showed poor results and with that, and with the other shell. Those who had hoped as soon as possible to take in hand the tennis ball, distracted from the task itself.

The more one thinks about the backup plan, the more he is distracted and the worse to cope with the task.

In this particular example is simple: before each attempt a person had to first "Calibrate" its scope and strength of the throw, but if you get distracted and think about something else, then get into basket will not work.

Napolitano gives another example: the more a student hoping for copying and re-sit, the worse it rents the main test. Students cope not as good as they could, and all because they had a plan B. Of course, these conclusions are valid not for each of us, depending on the individual characteristics, context and purpose.

How to build a useful plan B

Napolitano believes that there are several effective ways of drawing up a contingency plan.

One of them - creation of conditional contingency plan, which is unlikely to be able to distract you from achieving the main objective. To build such a plan, you need to formulate the conditions under which you abandon Plan A and go to plan B.

Under what conditions do you give up the desire to dream?

The advantage of the conditional backup plan is that you have to put a clear time frame. And you will not have to think about the retreat, until there is a deadline.

Other contingency planning options usually have a blurry frames and the alleged refusal of the target at some uncertain and very vague point. You may find yourself in an uncomfortable position when creating a backup plan indefinitely. You will not have a clear guide, which tells you when you need to switch to plan B.

For such a plan is characterized by wording such as "I'll go to the professor, when we realize that not cope with the material" rather than "I will go to the professor, if I get three for the test."

However uncertain contingency plan - it's not as bad as it seems at first glance. He is very good in a situation where you have no experience, you little imagine his every next step and are not sure at what point should move from the main plan of action to spare. Before you put yourself deadlinesYou should learn more about their goals and their own abilities.

Another good form of contingency planning - lack of contingency planning. Some goals easier to achieve, if not to count the retreat.

"Remedial action" - are familiar with this expression? We are talking about it.

Thus, every mistake - this is new information, in accordance with which you need to be only slightly adjust the plan A and move on.

It all depends on how high the stakes are. Evaluate the cost failure and decide you need a B or not the plan.