Make your plan B just as inspiring or more inspiring than your plan A

First, let’s talk about “Plan A”: In your professional life, it is very important to enjoy what you do every day, to fall in love with your job and to delight in it. That is the secret that leads you to develop your maximum potential.

However, sometimes we feel that achieving this is a utopia and we decide that, in the end, “that’s why they pay me” and we stay there. We think that “the job of my dreams does not exist, although we long for it to come one day.”

Have you stopped to think, what is a day at work like in your daily life? What do you enjoy most about it? Why? What is your greatest challenge each day? What do you enjoy the least? Why?

Although we do not always find the ideal job, it is very important how I decide to live my working life. How do I choose the company to which I take my resume? How do I accept a job? How do I have the courage to say “no more” and quit? What is negotiable and what is not? And something fundamental in any job: self-criticism, review, evaluate, look at the opportunities for improvement and learning that you have: “Keep the saw sharp”, that is, never stop learning and be prepared for when an opportunity comes. Opportunities are always there. Get ready!

My coach and teacher Julio Olalla, when we were training to be Coaches, said: “Your wounds are your resources, if you have learned to accept them.” So I will tell you how my plan A and my plan B have been.

The secret that I have discovered throughout my working life is the immense value of knowing the purpose of my work to enrich it and put into it the tools acquired in my years of training and continuous learning. When I do this, I see how I manage to create, innovate and enrich my work at the same time that I myself grow. That is when I become passionate about what I do. For example, as an engineer I worked in installations and maintenance, in the commercial area, in planning, in human resources, in very different lines that I have enjoyed to the fullest. 

What do you enjoy most about your job? How can you make a day in your work life fascinating?

I executed my plan A and dreamed of a challenging plan B. My passion since I was little was traveling, and I organized my life to do so and to learn. After a vacation trip to Australia, I decided that this was my plan B. Four years after this trip, I obtained permanent residency and, three months before the deadline to enter the country, my plan A was over! Anything can happen in the work world, and it happened when my plan B was ready! It was not easy to close the house, with a one-year-old baby, pack my life in six suitcases and take off.

After three years and due to family issues, I returned to Colombia. It was not easy either, but I was already an Australian citizen, which for me always meant having a solid plan B. I cried, I laughed, I missed, I regretted, I went up, I went down, until I managed to rebuild a plan A and I was able to enjoy life in Colombia again… I grew as a human being, I trained to become a Coach, I developed my potential to help many people and this, in addition to making me happy, has made me feel brave and useful for a society and a community that needs to be rebuilt from the most individual part of the human being: “self-confidence”

A year ago my work situation changed and although my plan B is fascinating, it was not easy again to let go, to accept, to flow. It is not always easy but it is not impossible either. So my plan B became my plan A again, which today I fully enjoy alongside my daughters and a wonderful family in a beautiful country. Every day I look for a way to contribute to my community, to grow and continue learning. I read a lot, I write, I volunteer and I do coaching. This plan now only depends on me…

Little by little and very quickly we reach that moment where “everything depends on me”, but, if we look closely, the path always “depends on me”, because only I can decide how to live each new experience that life gives me.

What is your plan B?