Plan B

What seems like a hundred ago I had great designs on becoming a professional baseball player. It never happened. Looking back, the big thing that prevented me from fulfilling that early dream was talent. I simply did not have enough of it. That disappointment forced me to come up with a Plan B for my life. That turned out to be a career in journalism. This, after a few years, turned into a more lasting career in public relations. Now, except for work as a part-time teacher and writer, I am retired. So, in addition to living a life in which I rarely have to put on a tie, I also have greater opportunity to look back over various crossroads I faced and choices I made.


One conclusion I have come to is how life and the act of communication have so much in common. Often times, we all try certain things, only to have them not work out. The result is we are forced to make some type of decision as to what to do about it: start over? try something else? retreat? correct any errors we may have made?  The choices are many and some of them are not all that easy to face. Still, going into any venture without a Plan B can be a bit risky. This requires acknowledging the reality that a career path or outreach campaign - to give two examples - that we might attempt may simply not work out no matter how much we want it or hard we try to make it succeed. 


Contemplating the possibility of failure and/or disappointment may seem like one is being a defeatist. Actually, however, such thinking shows a person is being realistic and well prepared. Regarding communication, whether it is on a persona level or one more professional, not all efforts to communicate effectively succeed. Our message is not as understandable as we might think. The targeted audience is not as engaged as they should be. Conflicting messages get in the way. The reasons for falling short are many. But including a Plan B as part of a comprehensive communication plan helps ensure one's attempt to connect with others will not fall completely short.