No one likes to lose, whether they’re playing fantasy football or a game of Angry Birds; or they’re immersed in a life changing child custody or divorce court battle.
The more prepared that you can be for whatever outcome occurs, the more relaxed and adaptable you’ll be during the most heated moments.
To that end, you need to come up with an ideal goal – a “Plan A,” if you will. If you don’t know what exactly what you want — and a method of achieving the goal — how can you succeed? Once you get clarity on what you want, take that process a step further. Develop what is known as a “Plan B” or a contingency plan.
Let’s say your Plan A is to win full custody of your 11-year-old daughter and then move out of state, find work in your hometown and be nearer to your parents. This would be the ideal outcome. You can then work with your attorneys to fight for this outcome. Ideally, you win and obtain it. But what if you don’t? What then?
It’s very useful to have a Plan B in your “back pocket” – an alternative strategy to meet your needs, if things don’t go as planned. Having a Plan B can be crucial for many reasons:
• It can give you more flexibility during negotiations;
• It can allow you to relax and not feel like “everything is on the line” with every decision;
• Developing a Plan B will give you greater clarity about what’s really important to you. The clearer you are about your needs and your children’s needs, the better for everyone.
In subsequent blog posts, we will talk in more detail about how to develop a Plan B. In the meantime, if you need help with your child custody or California divorce case, please get in touch with our experienced lawyers for a case evaluation.