It is no secret I am a recovering control freak. I say recovering because I battle it every single day. I have learned to stop eating the same thing for every meal, and trying not to schedule out exactly when I will do yoga. I am TRYING to learn to “go with the flow”. I love routine and schedules and plans, and it really bothers me when things don’t go according to “Plan A”.

I want to talk about two people real fast…

The first is no surprise. It’s my dad. For people who DON’T know (you probably do), my dad was Special Forces. Colonel in the United States Army. SF group. He went on after he retired from the military to be “country manager of Nigeria” & was primarily responsible for the training and integration of their military troops. Let me translate for you.

BAD-ASS.

My dad always had an escape plan anywhere we went in public & I’m almost positive there’s a tracker in my phone. I’m honestly not entirely convinced my dad isn’t part of the CIA. But, my father always preaches on strategy and backup plans. He always told me in preparing for battle, you must obviously have your main plan of attack, but if (WHEN) that fails, you must have several very strategic plans to complete the mission. “Strategic back-up plans”. I have always liked that. In case I haven’t convinced you yet of my dad’s bad-ass presence, this is he:

The other person I want to talk about is Nick’s grandfather. Nicks grandpa (Dr. Pasqua) was drafted to play Major League Baseball. He was a talented athlete & wanted to eventually coach. However, HIS DAD (Nick’s great-grandfather) would not allow him to do that. He told him that he needed to pursue a degree in engineering. So he did. The guy was drafted by the Majors and he went to school. He went on to get his degrees & he founded the Pasqua Nuclear Engineering Department at the University of Tennessee, along with MANY MANY other accomplishments in the nuclear world. (And yes this is the same department I got my degrees in. When I went to school though, I never knew Nick Pasqua existed… talk about wild).

I’ve been thinking a lot of those two people, their stories & how they correlate. When PLAN A didn’t work out for Dr. Pasqua, he went for PLAN B. “Strategic back-up plan”. He had another strategy. He took his talents and poured them into something else, and look what he did! My point is… do we sit around when our dad crushes our dreams of playing major league baseball? Do we sit around and sulk when we lose a job? Heck no we don’t! We are multifaceted people!

We wake up with purpose and excitement and passion on what the next thing is going to be and we pour everything into it. Like preparing for battle, we have another plan. And who knows…

MAYBE THE BACK-UP PLAN IS THE BEST PLAN OF ALL ;)

*Photo credit for Pasqua Nuclear building: BRIANNA PACIORKA/NEWS SENTINEL