March 26, 2022
Strategizing Your Life
Strategizing your life is an interesting thing.
It’s a mix of controlling the things you can control while staying flexible enough to embrace the opportunities that come.
This means maximizing your day-to-day efforts while also considering your future.
A question that adds perspective to your day-to-day choices — “What would my life look like in ten years if I continued doing exactly what I am doing right now?”
If your answer is unsatisfying, you need to change something.
This is my mental exercise:
- Take account of the different factors in your life.
- What are you already doing?
- Who are you already around?
- What industries are you already a part of?
- What are you already responsible for?
- What skills do you already have?
- List out the things you want in 5-10 years.
- What do you want to be doing?
- Who do you want to be around?
- What industry do you want to be a part of?
- What do you want to be responsible for?
- What skills do you want to have?
After I thoroughly understand the gap between where I am and where I want to be, I get granular, understanding the skills, mindsets, and actions that are needed.
I know I’ll adapt as I continue, but my aim becomes specific and measurable.
Simplify
Finally, I simplify as much as possible.
I never want to have to be thinking about 20 things all at once. That decreases my probability of success. Instead, I try to find the thread that links at least 75% together. I will use that thread to create a system, and then I will periodically make that system a part of my day-to-day.
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”
James Clear (author of Atomic Habits)
Credit to two great people who recently reiterated this concept for me –find the few things that will allow you to perform better today, and will simultaneously give you an edge in the future.