6 Powerful Steps To Strategic Thinking

I’ve always had people tell me “just act”, and if you think about it, there’s some truth to it. You need to act to move forward.

But just take a moment and look around at some of the most successful people of our time, do you think they just put in the actions, and that’s it?

No, because there is no point of action if there is no destination.

Before hard work, a destination must be somewhat clear.

It sounds like common sense but most people don’t have a destination in mind. In other words, they don’t know what they’re struggling for. And if that’s the case, in my opinion, I think you are better off doing nothing than purposeless action.

I mean that. Most people would perceive that as: “I don’t need to work”, but no, you aren’t going to achieve even the slightest bit without the work. I’m telling you to work, but on the right thing.

The only way you understand what’s right or wrong is if you choose the right destination from the very beginning and if it truly comes from you.

If your life sucks right now, then good. It’s meant to suck because you didn’t think your life through.

That’s why this letter is going to be important because most of your success will come from your level of thinking and strategy. And there is a right way and wrong way to go about it.

What’s the right way? It’s to acknowledge that you have full control. Because you have full control, you are the driver.

Now, imagine a driver that doesn’t know the destination?

You must have the bigger picture. You must have a vison. And then, and only then, can you re-engineer and work hard towards that vision.

I’ve been in many job interviews in the past and the one good thing I’ve noticed about job interviews is how they use that question very often: “where do you see yourself in 5 years”

You know what the surprising thing is? It’s the topic most people get stuck on.

Taking control of your life doesn’t mean to follow the crowd and do what everyone does. It’s a matter of strategic thinking. It’s about deciding where you see yourself in 5 years, in 5 months, and even in 5 days. And that should be backed by what you do today.

It’s stupid, because even when people plan out their life, they’re doing it with the opinions and values of others.

You are where you are because you’ve given into other people’s story of where you should be instead of giving into your own.

But the truth is that it’s never been about other people. It’s never been about competition. And I don’t say that to sound soft or give you a compliment. I’m saying it because I genuinely mean it.

It’s one of my strongest beliefs. Your biggest competitor is you. It’s never been other people. Why? Because you will battle more with yourself than any other person or the world for that case.

Life will always be a constant battle between your lower self and your higher self. Not other people.

You are your biggest enemy and if there’s anything that will throw you off your big vison, it’s you. Not other people.

Now let’s take a quick look into ways you fail to think and strategize. And yes, I’m talking from experience.

The first one is not being able to think in macro and micro terms. This is a skill. This is how you should think. Think macro (big things - big vision) and think micro (the little things – your daily routine).

You must jump back and forth between the macro and micro. For example, think about your big vision, and what you’re doing and what you aren’t doing to back that today.

Most people don’t do this. They either get motivated by the big vision and don’t act, or they just have no destination in mind, doing all the micro day-to-day things with no purpose.

You lack strategy if you can’t delay gratification.

You have no strategy if your strategy is to give into every little immediate fun.

This is important and the toughest one of all because if you’re self-aware, you will recognise that every marketing plan plays on your weakness of instant gratification. You fail strategy if you are unaware of traps and dead-end avenues. You need to be able to see ahead months and even years from now. It doesn’t mean that you know everything, but you must have an idea of what’s coming. Think, what roadblocks or obstacles may there be on the journey to your destination?

That leads me on to intelligence. You may lack intel. You may assume you know everything, which is a disaster.

But like I say in every letter, information is power.

Your life purpose should be to build intel. Be open minded. Don’t only consume from one source but pull in multiple perspectives. Why shouldn’t you have knowledge that you can extract from multiple sources? It will only make you more credible.

One that I’ve struggled with my entire life is self-knowledge. To strategize means knowing yourself. How do you best learn? By reading? By listening to audios? Or by practically doing the task at hand? Study yourself. Study your own brain. I’ve found that I learn best by building.

You lack to think and strategize if you constantly chase the small prize rather the larger prize. You simply have the inability to estimate the worthiness of things. One thing I can pull from my own life is social media. I did short-form content for more than a few years, and what I realised is that I always took action that brought the small prizes.

But what I acknowledge now is how the bigger prize could be YouTube. Why? Not because it’s more prestigious to say I’m a YouTuber than a TikToker, but because I can give more value via a long-form video, and therefore create more impact. The more value you provide, the bigger the game you’re in. Always look one prize higher.

One final thing is how most people fix problems at the surface level, not at the root. Which is why you always have the same problems coming back. You are providing a temporary fix, not a permanent one. Always solve problems at the root.

These are just some of the ways you might be fuc*ing up. So, what’s the proper way to think and strategize? I’ve got 6 steps for you.

Intention The first step of strategic thinking is your intention.

What is the ultimate thing you’re striving for? Have you ever thought about it? The outcome you are aiming to reach? If you can’t tell what it is then you’ve already failed strategic thinking because you have no intent on what you actually want. No intent, no strategy.

Be specific with what you want. Not vague.

Back in the past, when countries would go to war, they all had specific a intention. They would not sacrifice lives for no specific outcome. Same goes for you, don’t live a life with no intent. Start with intent, then backward engineer what you must do.

I’ve been banging on about destination because if there is no destination, then any turn in any way would be sufficient. Don’t let that be you. You need a vision. Most people don’t have this and no wonder why they lack motivation and results.

That big vision might change. But every time it does, you must align your daily doings with that big vision. Macro and micro, remember? If macro changes, go back to micro (the small things) and align. Believe it or not, this is how most successful people accomplish things that seem impossible to the average person. They start with strong intent.

Awareness And Planning Now that you have figured out your intention, you have a foundation. But you need to go internal, and allocate your time, attention, and energy. That means having awareness and planning. Where is your time, attention, and energy going? Life will forever be dynamic and fluid. It will never be static. It is constantly changing, and you must be aware and anticipate the changes.

Like I mentioned (especially for the business people out there), you can do all the competitor analysis, but I want you to remember that the real competition is you. Not other people.

Are you anticipating the responses of your lower self when you’re trying to excel and grow? Are you anticipating how your mind will bring resistance, excuses, and trick you from achieving your intention?

If you have no self-awareness, your lower self will always win by default.

Preparation Of Resources This one’s for all the people who fail to plan, and therefore plan to fail. It was me for a very long time.

Preparation of resources.

You need to think about resources. Your actions and what you can do will be limited if you have no reserves.

Most people don’t think about reserves.

If we bring it back to the war analogy, back in war times, those countries who hadn’t thought about resources were wiped out in an instant. Because they had no troop flexibility, armour, food, supply etc.

Again, go internal. Look at your level of training, experience, hard work, discipline, unique capabilities etc. Do you know your strengths and weaknesses? This is all self-improvement is.

You need to develop yourself internally to the point of handling any and all external circumstances.

Focused Effort This is by far the most important one. Focused effort. One similarity between war and real life is how the breakthrough in both come via a weak point.

In order to win a battle, you must apply focused force at a point that breaks through to victory.

How does this look like in real life? Well, look at where you are focusing your efforts.

Some people say they lack in time, energy, and attention. But on the contrary, I would say you have so much time, energy, and attention.

How are you concentrating those? Where are you putting all your eggs? Into which basket? The right one or the wrong one?

You can’t do 20 things at once. Nothing moves forward. Everyone has limited resources, like we spoke about in the previous step. You must concentrate your resources and efforts properly.

Organised Action Now, it’s all about discipline.

Once you’ve got your intentions, planning, resources and where to focus your efforts, you now need to execute, or in other words, organised action.

I don’t know what it is that you’re doing so I’m not going to talk much on this. But just remember that a great plan poorly executed leads to failure. This is also true the other way, great execution with a poor plan also leads to failure. You need great planning and great execution.

This can take years. It just comes down to how bad you want it, as well as your practise of getting good at executing.

Get good at getting shit done...

Record the video Create the art Learn to play that instrument Code that program Do it over and over again, and you will execute without even asking yourself to.

Flexibility & Adaptability No one knows what will happen in the near future. That’s why the last step is to remain adaptable.

Strategy isn’t saying one thing and sticking with it for years.

Proper strategy is being flexible and adaptable.

Why? Because you can’t change the environment, but the environment will constantly change.

The battlefield might look like one thing today and a completely different thing tomorrow. You must adapt to different scenarios.

I’m telling you; your plan will change. Don’t be attached, rigid or dogmatic to anything, and be adaptable to almost everything. It goes for everyone who does business. If your business plan fails, then you must go in a different direction. You must be flexible enough to change every now and then from the original idea.

Being adaptable and flexible means being open minded.

Those are the 6 steps I found to be most useful for strategic thinking.

I hope you haven’t just read this and done nothing. I hope you haven’t just listened to the things I’ve said but studied it and made notes of it. Why? Because you must feed the information into your subconscious mind. Only then does things start to take effect.

Also, don’t just accept what I say. I know a lot of creators are arrogant in that sense. But think about whether you agree or disagree, and how you can incorporate it into your own worldview, because everyone has one. See if it aligns with your values.

The simple summary is that every single move you make must have purpose. You must think where is this current step leading me? And does it fit into the bigger picture?

It’s not hard. All you have to do is think about where you want to go (destination) and ensure everything you do today and onwards is setting you up for the life that you want and be flexible enough to adapt.

This isn’t just about your work. This applies to success in general. Apply strategy to relationships, raising children, workout routines, and everything else.