How to embrace the future and neutralize anxiety with an ABZ plan

Reid Hoffman’s simple but profound life planning method is the perfect antidote to paralyzing uncertainty — and can help you chart an intelligent path forward.

Hoffman was the co-founder of LinkedIn and created this savvy approach as part of his excellent book, The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career.

Although it was written a decade ago, Hoffman’s advice about taking an intelligent approach to risk and opportunity is more relevant than ever today.

What IS ABZ life planning?

Because change is coming at us so fast today, we need a life planning technique that enables us to maximize our impact in our current position (Plan A), while also clearly see what our next step and pivot to it at the proper time (Plan B) — yet still have a reasonable fallback position if leaving to the next level turns out to be a mistake or failure (Plan Z) — a survivable worst case scenario.

Hoffman explains the thinking behind his planning framework:

“It is an adaptive approach to planning that promotes trial and error. It allows you to aggressively pursue outside…