Plan B – How Strategic Thinking Shapes Your Success

5 minute read

Have you ever wondered why faith is nicer to some people and constantly neglects others. Maybe even your personal plans sometimes fail and it makes you think that life isn’t fair. What’s really the problem with faith?

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There is no problem!

Everyone in some certain environment has the same chances to succeed, but some people are somehow more capable to take advantage of the opportunities than others. Why?

There are some brilliant people who, despite their intellect and talent are just not capable to cope with the everyday challenges because they are not used to think tactically. The success is not a certain result of the abilities; it is a complex of talent and capability of putting it in action.

My advice is – Always have a plan B, C, D…Z…

The possibility for success is not only one and it is not just around the corner. They are many but, just like in the fairy tales, you have to cross seven mountains in order to get them. How does the strategic thinking help you do that? It is simple, just learn how to estimate your chances and plan carefully the next steps. Successful people do it all the time; many of them even do it unconsciously. In fact, strategic planning should become a part of you, something natural, like a reflex.

One of the most important abilities, in my opinion, is to learn how to divide your goals on short term, medium term and long term goals. Sounds simple bun very few people think about it.

The long term goals should be abstract wishes that you desire to become true in the future. They shouldn’t be related to certain objects or people. Think about how you imagine your life in X years, the feelings they you want to feel, the place you want to be, etc. For instance:

“I want to have relaxed life at the seaside, loving family and a dog” or

“I want to have successful business, dynamic life and lots of entertainments”.

On the other hand, poor strategic is to pursue goals like:

I want to get married do Paul, to have 3 kids and his mother to stop hating me” or

“I want to become a manager of the company where I work now, to buy Ferrari and all my ex classmates to envy me”.

The first two goals are wisely defined because the focus is on YOU, your feelings and emotions, the dynamic and the context of you future life. You have defined the environment (in your home country or abroad, in the mountain or by the sea, in a big city or a small village), the level of stress, what kind of responsibilities you are willing to have, etc.

In the next two sentences there are some essential mistakes like:

–          You have related your happiness to some certain people;

–          You have focused on the superficial side of the success, not to your own desires and feelings;

–          You have related the success with material objects;

–          You are not really certain that someday you will achieve it;

–          You might even think that you don’t deserve it.

Just avoid the traps of the vanity and greed and you will have more chances to be successful even financially.

The next step to “dream effectively” is to place your medium term goals. These are the big changes in your life that you should make in order to achieve the long term goal. Always have your plan B. Sometimes the methods of achieving tour dreams will be controversial. Maybe your career will require more education, but at the same time you will have to work harder at the office. Maybe in your love life you will need to pay more attention to the needs of your partner but at the same time you will try to explore other opportunities. This is the place where you should develop your skills to estimate your potentials, juggle with the responsibilities and chose opportunities. At this stage you will give up one thing try another, invest and lose, find the imperfections in your plans and yourself fix it and go ahead. Don’t give up, because your long term goal is still there and one way or another you can get to the abstract place where you want to be.

People say that for God listening to people’s plans is like hearing a joke. Well then if we use the same metaphor, maybe for Him hearing the strategic plans is like a listening to a complex symphony – beautiful, emotional and fascinating.

And last but not least, I should tell you about the short term goals.

Well, these are the things you can do this week, today, in this very hour which will bring you one step closer to your goal, like, hmmm reading this article.

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