What If It Doesn't Work Out?
Like millions of others, I had a childhood dream of becoming a professional athlete.
Perhaps you did too.
I was always someone who went to school and did everything I was supposed to do, and I even went to university, but thousands of people decided not to do that. Many of my friends strongly believed that they would become professionals, and with that, they began to slack off.
They felt that they didn’t need a backup plan and believed everything would work out regardless of the circumstances. When we are younger, we like to dream and believe that everything will turn out fine, but reality can be harsh and doesn’t care how talented we are or how much we want to achieve our dreams.
What I am getting at is that practically all of these people failed to achieve their dream. The teams they joined often recruited players from other locations, either from nearby or international teams, pushing them out. Others simply suffered, unfortunately, from an injury, which meant they had to give up, even with all their talent.
I firmly believe in the importance of having dreams and pursuing them with all our strength, without letting anyone shake us.
However, it is also necessary to think, think deeply, about what we can do if something unfortunate happens.
If you are young and reading this, I advise you to think about what you can do if your dream does not come true, not because I do not believe you can do it, nor because I do not believe you are good enough.
Misfortunes happen, and it is up to us, from an early age, to know how to get around them and realise that there are other alternatives.
How a Backup Plan Can Be Beneficial for You
Creating and implementing a contingency plan does not mean giving up on your dream.
On the contrary, if one day you start to doubt yourself, you know that you always have another alternative.
On the other hand, there are several other benefits, such as reduced anxiety, psychological comfort, and even increased resilience.
A backup plan doesn’t mean planning to fail. It means accepting reality while still chasing what you want.
- Keep learning, even if it feels secondary: Whether at school, at work, or even learning a new skill, all knowledge is useful, both now
and in the future. Many athletes who end their careers earlier than average or even later than average sometimes choose to
work in the same department, whether as a coach, assistant, or even in departments within the institution itself,
such as accounting, finance, or legal. - Time does not wait for you: All the years you sacrificed for your dream will not come back, so it is better to be prepared with
other options in case it does not work out than to have no options and be lost. - Separate confidence from denial: Everyone needs confidence, especially athletes, but confidence is believing in yourself even when you know all the risks involved.
Denial is pretending that the risk does not exist and moving forward without looking back at all the consequences that may happen.
When writing this post, I struggled with how to express my message.
I didn’t want to convey the idea that you shouldn’t follow your dreams. On the contrary, I am an advocate of following them.
We only have one life, so if we don’t do what we really love to do, did we live it… or were we lived by it?
I see countless posts on social media, whether they are reels, Tik Toks, photos, or videos, talking about not letting anyone shake us or discredit us, but I don’t see even 10% of people talking about being realistic and realising that there are factors that are impossible for us to control, such as not knowing, despite the existence of forecasting methods, what the weather will be like tomorrow, nor do we know what might happen to us the next day or even on the same day.
Dreams deserve commitment.
Reality deserves preparation.
Ignoring either is a mistake.
