The Law of Strategy

The third law of life is strategy. We know that our attitude is the first key and that we are in control of our lives which is the second key now we look at the third key which is how we get to our goals – the plan. The law of strategy states that ‘proper planning prevents poor performance’. Strategy is how we get what we want and although if you just set a goal you’ll sometimes see it come to fruition and for anyone familiar with the law of attraction you’ll know that this works and if you’ve study it you’ll also know why.

Strategy is how we achieve our goals and generally starts with a question, for instance: ‘what’s the best way to make this goal happen?’ In martial arts it is a fast process as with any goal that is immediate and the answer usually comes instinctively or through trained responses. With longer term goals though we have more time to plan, however our trained responses and instincts will still play their part.

Once you start with the key question phrased in the most positive and optimistic way we follow with the answers. A good way is to get a clean sheet of paper and at the top write the goal and underneath ask the question ‘what’s the best way of achieving this?’ this activates not only the intellect but also the deeper intelligence. Underneath the question write down the numbers 1 to 20 and start answering your questions. This will bring structure to your goal. Don’t stop at any point even if the answer seems to be the right one, don’t judge it, just do it as this is a brainstorm session not a decision process. Once you have gotten as far as you can you can look again at your list and you’ll easily see that some of the suggestions are better than others and you can focus your attention on these.

Now you can start to be more specific: dates, times, amounts, descriptions. Once you have the specifics you’ll find that your goal has taken on a real shape and personality and at this point you have gone a long way to achieving it. Your strategy is the steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal. What do you need to be and by when? Who can help? What finance if any will you need? How many hours will it take and where will you apply them?

I’ve mentioned before that you can have whatever you want as long as you want it more than what you don’t want and at the strategy stage you can start to deal with these ‘don’t wants’ as they’ll start to appear as objections in your thought process but if you really want to achieve your goal you’ll use your positive attitude to override these negatives. One of the problems to overcome is that our in built survival system is designed to help us survive, but survival is not the same as thriving, so our inbuilt comfort zone will start to complain at being pushed to do more than just survive and maintain the status quo. At first these negative thoughts can really hold you back but after a while of achieving goals you’ll get to know how they feel and how to deal with them.

If you have any sticking point on how to achieve your goal and questions that you simply can’t answer then here is another good way and in fact it is the easiest way. One of the things I do is to read my questions just before I go to sleep, either at night or as part of a ‘power nap’. These naps are great for silencing the external hubbub and chatter and allowing your massive intelligence to focus on the answer. I have often woken with the answer clear in my mind or it has popped into my mind shortly after fully formed.

The great polymath Goethe used to sleep with pen and paper by his bedside and if he woke up with any idea or an answer in the night he would simply write it down so he didn’t forget it. you can do the same and if you don’t come up with an answer straight away then just wait and the answer will come. Other techniques can be to go for a walk, a drive or a run. Read a book or watch TV anything that will take the pressure off your conscious mind so that your subconscious can work on the problem.

After a while of successfully setting and achieving your goals you’ll get to know the answers automatically but every now and then you’ll meet a new problem and need to use some strategy to find the answer. Tomorrow we’ll look at the 4^th law of success which is one of the major keys to achieving anything.

Thanks for reading today and I look forward to speaking to you again tomorrow. If you are interested in changing your life for the better you can look no further than to join us in the National Martial Arts College where we cover everything that I have so far covered in my blogs. We use the study of martial arts to deepen our understanding of our true selves whilst making lots of similar friends and staying very fit. Try a free lesson at http://www.nat-mac.co.uk/www.nat-mac.co.uk/info.php?p=8

Best wishes

Tony Higo

Chief Instructor

National Martial Arts College

0800 092 0948