"Well, let's try Plan B."
My students hear this phrase from me a number of times each semester for a variety of reasons: a computer doesn't boot up, books that I thought were in the cabinet are missing at classtime, an assignment or exercise turns out to be a lemon, or other plans that were made in good faith go off the line. Life doesn't go the way we plan. What a surprise. Rather than fret about what should have been in a kinder perfect universe, I shrug and try something else.
Over the years, I have learned that there are many paths to an objective. Just because one path circles back upon itself, is blocked by bureaucracy, or fades into tall grass where I can't see ahead doesn't mean that the objective itself needs to be abandoned. There is rarely a wall in life that cannot be overcome or bypassed. The late great Randy Pausch, who delivered a famous "Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams" before his death in 2008, said walls are put in our path to see how bad we want to reach our dreams. He didn't let cancer stop him. Why should our much smaller walls stop us?
I teach students that there are always, always alternative ways to reach their goals. There is rarely a benchmark, a problem, an exercise, an examination, a course, a program so impassable that it can't be scaled with work, persistence, and the help of others. When a student turns away discouraged, it is more from a lack of confidence than from the obstacle itself.
Don't believe me? Take an hour and a quarter to watch Pausch's Last Lecture at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo. I would be very surprised if, after hearing Pausch, you did not agree that there is always a Plan B.
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