Do you have a strategic mindset?
Your answer may varies, based on your knowledge or understanding of the word: a strategic mindset. What do you think it is?
Don't worry if it looks fuzzy to you at the moment... By the time you reach the end of this article, you will understand clearly, with some test to see if you have it or not.
Read on...
What does it mean to have a strategic mindset?
Having a strategic mindset means being intentional about your thinking (that is, you monitor your progress in reaching your goal).
Having a strategic mindset means that you recognized your flaws and the areas in your life that needs improvement, and then set out steps to overcome those challenges.
Examples of a Strategic Mindset at Work
Individuals with a strategic mindset are constantly looking for a more efficient route forwards ➡. They have a tendency to question and refine their current approach in the face of set-backs and challenges.
A rare skill among survival skills that we all need.
While others diligently follow the same convoluted path, individuals with a strategic mindset are constantly looking for a more efficient route forward ➡. It helps them figure out how to direct their efforts more effectively.
How to Develop a Strategic Mindset
Here are 3 steps that will help to improve your approach, and boost your mind strategically.
Let's dive in...
1. Whenever you feel like you are not making progress in your personal life, career, goals and other activities that you feels are important and must be done, ask yourself: "Is there a better way of doing this I can apply? "
Then, relax and make your research... When you found it, apply, and upgrade your system of working.
2. When you are stuck on a project or at something that needs to get done, do you quit and rather procrastinate? You and I knows that procrastination is a thief of time, yet, how often do you follow the rules?
Now do this... The next time you found yourself being stuck again, ask yourself: "What are the things I can do to help myself?" What this question will do, is... It will force your mind to look beyond the present distractions or approach that is not helping you, and will boost your mind to create a more practical solution to solve the immediate problem, or the challenge.
3. Do you have a challenging job that is giving you an occasional headache? Can something be done about it? ...Yes. The next time you face that challenging project again, calm down, and ask yourself: "What are things I can do to make myself better at this?" ...and then you will see your mind firing up ideas and solutions from an uncommon place you least expected.
Your Mind is Ready to Help You... But Will You Let It?
If your mind must be used as the tool it is, you must get out of your own way.
So often in life, our greatest obstacle is ourselves.
It's not that we can't force ourselves to grit our teeth and push through another four hours of work.
It's not that we don't know what we should be doing, or how we could better apply ourselves.
Self-sabotage happens in small, almost undetectable moments.
Our minds breed resistance through repetition: how often we have self-defeating thoughts, or spend time with people who demotivate us, or give up after a temporary setback.
If you want this to be the year that changes your life, this has to be the year that you change yourself.
If one could spend huge money on developing physical muscles, then, a survival tool such as a strategic mindset is not an exception.
But... How can I get out of my own way??
Here are 7 ways to get started...
1. Start dreaming and thinking in strategy, not theory. Think about how you could create or accomplish something, not if you could.
To accomplish this, you must stop speaking to people who drain, exhaust, frustrate and fundamentally misunderstands you.
2. If you have doubt, look the monster square in the eye, and say, 'I can do this'. Knowledge is changing, so should you. Don't settle or be okay with ignorance. Know the number down to the cent.
* If you're overweight, know by exactly how much calories you need to burn.
* If you are overspending, know exactly where that money went.
* If you're underperforming, know exactly what your peers are doing.
You're not stuck because you're lazy, you're stuck because you're still in denial.
To accomplish this, start reading now...
One book you read this weekend can help you obtain the knowledge of a person's entire lifetime of work. Imagine if you read another next week, and then another the next.
3. You can get out of your way, if you stop putting effort into spending time with people who fundamentally do not understand your vision.
Stop putting effort into spending time with people who consistently make you feel frustrated and uncomfortable. Let them fade into the background until they are gone from your life for good.
To accomplish this, you must start spending as much time as you can with people who have already accomplished the things you want to do.
4. Stop trying to master your habits, and start to master your mind. It is your mind that's the control panel, and it needs to be attended to first and foremost.
Get out of your way and write down everything you worry about in a day.
Pick out the themes... These are the areas of your life that need your attention.
Think of everyone who has ever hurt you, hold their face in your mind's eye, and wish them joy and wellness. You can only be as good as you wish for your greatest enemy.
To accomplish this, you must write down what your ultimate goals are for the day, week, or the months ahead, and then consider whether or not they are actually goals worth having.
A lot of people who aspire to be very wealthy get there and implode their lives because what they wanted was not actually more money, rather, something deeper and more fulfilling.
5. Get out of your own way by training your mind to understand where people are coming from, instead of trying to retaliate against people who offend, judge or make condescending remarks toward you.
Attempt radical empathy. Imagine how they feel.
Understanding where people are coming from, have freed my mind off negativity, and has also helped me to build a positive mindset.
This will work for you too.
6. Do not trade your attention for a cheap notification by texting, calling or email anyone who is non-essential.
Do not let the best hours and days of your life be consumed by random notifications and nonsensical messages that only clutter your space and mind.
Use your mind as the tool it is, and not as a junk, or a waste dump.
To accomplish this, write down everything you did today and imagine if you repeated this day for the next 25 years. Where would you be? How would you feel?
Evaluate how well you're doing in life not by the virtues of your personality, but of your character. Your personality is who you are to other people. Your character is who you are when you're alone.
7. Feel your heart with love. Love is a great motivator and a teacher. Without love, life is meaningless.
If there's someone in your life that you care about, tell them and tell them often.
Stop using being "busy" as a status symbol. Get out of your own way. It does not make you look successful, it makes you look like someone who does not know how to manage their time.
Don't expect to receive kindness if you are not kind. Don't expect to be respected if you do not respect. Don't expect to be valued, if you don't appreciate.
If you want to be the wisest person in the room, surround yourself with people smarter than you.
Consult with mentors who have done things similar to what you are trying to do. Study their lives and their mistakes; then, learn from them.
Don't worry if you aren't where you want to be yet. You probably won't ever be. Keep working anyway.
Have you had Enough?
Remember that your mind can be sharp and strategic, only if you keep training it with mind games and questions to help broaden it's horizon.
A time will come when you will need to call on it for answers or solutions to problems — maybe at the time when you need to make a big decision in your life, or handling a difficult project, or maybe, enduring a difficult job.
In that moment, you will ask yourself... 'How can I do this better?' or 'What can I do to get better at this?
As you do this consistently, you will notice improvements in no time within your mindset.
The more you use the mind, the more you will boost the ability of your mindset.
And the more you boost your mindset, the more informed decisions you will make.
There is more information about this subject on the free e-book I have prepared for you — plus actionable steps on how to discover your strength, talents and purpose in 30 days — Click Here to get it!
No comments:
Post a Comment