Setting your Strategy (V1)

Have you ever wondered why is it so difficult to get started on something you always wanted to do? What keeps the great athletes focused on the final goal?. If you don’t set a specific goal such as I want to lose 15 pounds, your brain will be filled with excuses. By setting a strategy you can alway keep your mind on the goal. So what is the strategy? When do you implement the strategy? Why do I need a strategy to get things done? 

Prerequisite 

There are multiple flavors of strategy, it really depends on what you are trying to do: 

• Build a new app
• Start a new business 
• Lose weight 

For individuals or a team; a north star needs to be established. In most literature this is referred to as the Vision and Mission Statement.

Setting your Team Strategy 

Life is a competition whether in sports or business, teams with the best strategy win. Not only once, but continue to win, until a better team comes forward.

Here are the steps:

1. If you are a team leader, you need to set a vision for the team to move forward” e.g “If you are an NBA team,  your vision is to “ Win the Larry O’Brian Trophy”
2. Set a plan, with high level milestones. Using the NBA example, recruitment by X date, Wins by X date, perfected plays by X date.
   1. Tips: do not confuse your strategy plan with a project plan, or details of deliverables ( Think C-suite thinking)
3. Be prepared to change your strategy, if it is not working. Many companies have a great strategy first but forget to change. Others will catch up, at that point your strategy has to keep changing to make your moves unpredictable.  

Setting your Individual strategy 

Just like a team, you need to set your vision/final goal before you can come up with your strategy. It is more difficult to set up a personal goal, because there is no one other than yourself to keep you accountable.

Here are the steps:

1. Come up with a long term, aggressive but attainable goal: If you need help determining your goal, read the article on goal creation.
2. Create a milestone plan, and add specific dates of when you are planning to reach each. For e.g if your goal is income independence, you can say you are planning to be making X by X month.
3. Keep your motivation jar full, by exercising and looking for the reasons why you have decided to do what you do.
4. Keep it simple, I have noticed that once my goals become complicated they quickly fade.