Backup plans are risky business. They decrease desire and commitment to the initial goal, create an additional cognitive burden, and ultimately hinder performance. 

Nobody wants to be a nurse, teacher, or engineer in a vacuum. Students learn in order to help other people, expand knowledge,...

• A backup plan is self-sabotage, imbuing doubt in the value of our goal and/or our ability to complete it.
• Backup plans can devalue the rewards that come from achieving a goal and, thus, demotivate you to complete...

One may become biased toward the backup plan due to the sunk cost fallacy. Although this phenomenon normally refers to our tendency to stick to plans longer than we should because we’ve invested heavily in them (i.e., “throwing good money after bad”), the more resources we commit...

Superordinate goals can also afford the opportunity to pursue concurrent goals.

For example, if you want to lose weight, you can consume fewer calories and exercise more; it’s not an either-or situation and neither strategy must be relegated to “backup plan.” But students can only...