Strategic Life

Recently I was doing a leadership training and we talked about strategic planning tools that were available. I mentioned that one that is designed to be used for personal or family strategic planning.

After the training I continued to explore the tool and found it to be very helpful. It aligned with many of the other strategic plans I have developed for personal improvement in the past.

I started to realize that these tools are not earth shattering. It isn’t that one tool will help you improve while all others won’t provide value.

Instead, all the tools provided value. It isn’t about the format. It is about doing it at all. Do you go through life strategically? Or do you take it as it comes?

There is value in being flexible and taking life as it comes. We all know there are aspects of life that are completely outside of our control. What about everything else?

I estimate that over 90% of our lives are within our control. I come to this number because even when something happens to us, we determine how we react. We control our response.

This is why I advocate for everyone to think through their life in a strategic manner. Asking the tough questions and making long-term decisions requires the deep thought necessary to determine the best path forward. It shows us multiple options to choose from, even if those options aren’t great.

Instead of choosing by default and going through the motions, we choose based on what we feel aligns best with our desires and who we are as a person.

I follow the systems and habits approach to life. This focuses on the key behaviors and mindsets we hold. It helps us adjust the things we do on a regular basis to help us improve over time.

It has had a tremendous impact. But along with all the work on changing small behaviors and building new habits, was the strategic planning going on in the background.

To me, changing behaviors in a non-strategic way will be a recipe for disaster. So is strategic planning without the systems work required.

The best approach is to do both. Be strategic about your life. Decide what is important and what isn’t. You will be surprised that some aspects that everyone assumes you should want don’t move the needle for you. Others will fly off the charts.

This is how you start to know yourself. By planning, you start to realize the path forward. You start to live life by taking control.

The strategic approach to life is one that is often ignored. Most people are far too busy trying to keep up with their to do list or complaining about what they don’t like. They don’t stop to ask what it is that they really want so they can align their thoughts and behaviors in a way to put them in the greatest position to succeed.

Find one of the many strategic planning tools around and work through it to develop a plan for your life. Then, use the systems and habits approach to improvement to create the necessary change and improvements.

After a few months, revisit the strategy plan. Redo it regularly to keep course correcting. You will gain so much clarity by having a plan and then working the plan that you will want to keep updating it.

After years of this, you will start to create the life that you desire but didn’t think was possible. You will uncover passions in yourself, and find the grit needed to keep going. You will start to live a strategic life.