When it comes to attaining that fantasy dream job that’s been occupying your imagination since High School, it’s not out of the norm to throw all of your focus towards that one career goal. I relate that determination closely to tunnel vision, because in a sense it motivates you to keep thriving towards your end goal. The moment that you deter from your end goal, you start to lose that focus and may wind up on a career path that’ll never satisfy your happiness. However, it’s also not a bad thing to make sure you do have a backup plan just in case things don’t go as you plan—which in the real world, happens to many.

Being that you’re so busy working towards that one dream job, you kind of forget about preparing for other possibilities. Now, it’s totally normal to not want to think about the “what if” when it comes to, you know, your future. I understand how you feel about your goals because I too, feel the same. You get that urge—it kind of feels like anxiety, deep inside your gut every time you picture yourself in your dream job. That feeling is what consistently pushes you to work to make it happen.

When I picture myself in the Cosmo offices…sitting there at my fabulous white desk with my chic desk décor, surrounded by white couches, fluffy pillows, glitz and glam, I physically get tense. I get tense because I feel anxious—I want it so badly and I will do anything to get there. During those imaginative moments, I refuse to think about the possibility of Cosmo not happening. I only envision myself as being a writer for Cosmo, and that’s it. That is my dream job. Yet, here I am almost a year post-grad and fitting snuggly into the statistic of jobless college grads. Fml. Insert the tequila shot that I just consumed because that last sentence deeply depressed me here.

Having a backup plan isn’t as bad you think, it ensures that you will ultimately be in a career that you wouldn’t mind having for the rest of your life. So yes, although your dream job is what you want (and I hope that it works out for you), it’s smarter for yourself and your future to make sure that you also work towards a backup dream job. It doesn’t say anywhere that you can only have one dream job, so from now on I suggest setting a “dream jobs” goal. If by some means that job that you’ve only ever wanted doesn’t workout, you could find yourself in a stagnant situation and it may affect the progress you’ve made so far in job hunt.

When I look at my Cosmo goals versus where I am right now at this point of my life, it’s definitely plausible for me to now be working towards my next step as far as my career goes. I am turning twenty-five-years-old in less than three months—I really need to get my shit together…or do I? You see, this sense of urgency that we feel because we expect to be at a certain point by a certain age is probably our biggest fault in this generation. If you’re in your early, mid or late twenties, what’s the rush? Now is the time for us to be working towards a future that we WANT, not one that we feel settled into.

Your backup career should not by any means, be a career in which you settle for. Do not let your parents dictate to you that you need to hurry up and get moving with your career if you haven’t done so already, its not their life—it’s yours. When you start working on your backup plan, make sure it’s a career that you can also picture yourself happily in and loving. There is nothing wrong with you if you don’t make it to your dream job, but if you can make your second dream job happen, then DO IT! Do it proud and love every moment of doing it all by your badass self. Never try and take the easy way out either because it will backfire. The moment that you begin to compare yourself to others who may already be in their career and moving forward, you will have lost your vision. Don’t lose your vision. Just because you have a backup plan doesn’t make you a failure, it actually makes you all the more prepared for your future.

Take myself for example; I have always known that I would continue my education further than a Bachelor’s degree—even when I thought I wanted to be a nurse I still had it in my head that I would go the extra step to pursue my Masters. Now that I’ve graduated with a double Bachelor’s degree in English, that goal still applies. I began my job hunt post-grad and since there has been no bite I figured hey, there is no better time like the present for me to start looking into Master’s programs. I recently got accepted into the Master’s in English program at the college in which I received my undergrad from, and boom, I begin classes the Fall semester of 2017. So my friends, that is what I call working towards my back-up plan.

Upon enrolling in classes for my Bachelor’s, I was working towards a career as an English professor. However, when I joined the student newspaper I quickly fell hard for journalism and decided that Cosmo is where I needed to be upon graduating. So, I guess you can say that my backup plan is actually my first dream job. I am lucky though because both of my dream jobs share a similar path, one in which I am able to work towards both simultaneously. Regardless of my current job situation, I am proud that I will be working on my Master’s in a few months. My backup plan is working out just so, and I hope that you too are able to find your second dream job swiftly and begin working towards it the moment you feel doubtful.

Having a backup plan does not mean anything negative; it just means that you take yourself and your future happiness seriously. Just keep in mind that whatever it is you decide will be your backup plan, isn’t chosen hastily—remember this is your career, something you will be doing for the rest of your life!