STRATEGY

or how do we get there?

Ever caught yourself wondering, "Okay, but where the heck am I actually heading with this?" Trust me, you're not alone. We've all been there, whether it's working on company yearly activities, figuring out our next move in our careers or simply planning a big trip. Well, it seems pretty obvious that firstly we must know the answer to "where" before we even start thinking about "how". Understanding our endgame is a key before we try to plot out our moves. Imagine a person laying bricks day after day. Without a goal, these bricks just form a pile, not a structure. However, with a plan, each brick becomes part of something larger - a house, an office, a monument. Similarly, in crafting a strategy, the 'where' must precede the 'how'.

Seneca the Younger's wise words are most often quoted here  (and rightly so), because they resonate here probably the most:

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Truth be told, goals are tough and setting them can be (and usually is) a real headache. There are tons of methods out there to help us out, but still, many of us find ourselves improvising daily without concrete objectives. But imagine you’re in the minority with a clear target, whether it’s achieving Jennifer Lawrence’s body from 'The Hunger Games', increasing sales by 20%, mastering a new language, landing your dream job, completing a marathon in under four hours, or relocating to your ideal city. What’s the next step? How do we transform a vision, currently existing only in our minds or on paper, into something tangible, something real? This is where a well-crafted strategy becomes crucial.

Got Goals? Time for a Strategy!

You've probably already heard a bunch of complex definitions of strategy. They usually contain many difficult words or mathematical equations that are hard to break through, making it difficult to apply them in our everyday life. 

But if we cut through the complexity and bring it down to its essence we get the following:

“Strategy is the way we’re going to use our resources during a given time in order to achieve the goal.”

"If you filter this down to the most important things: it’s really about using what we have - our resources - to reach our objectives within a specific timeframe. It sounds straightforward, but let's unpack it in a bit more detail.