The Importance of Being Strategic
Since school, I always resonated with Stoicism. Seneca wrote about tranquillity, which basically is knowing your life course and not getting distracted by paths crossing it.
But it’s one thing is to read and agree with Stoic principles, and another to actually live it. Not to mention that alcohol didn’t help with any of this either.
I had to make my own mistakes just to rediscover things I already knew. Especially now, when life seems to be chaotic and busy as never before. Obviously, I haven’t lived 2000 years ago when Seneca was around, but I can imagine life was way slower back then without that slot machine in our pockets. And you could see only a limited number of crazy people in one day. Now, we love watching those who are shouting the loudest, saying the most obnoxious things, stirring up our souls even more.
Anyway, better later than never. And today we will cover the importance of being strategic in life. I know there are lots of books and videos about this, and generally, we all agree this is what we need to do. But not that many of us actually do it, as we get drowned in another million things we need to do in life. And we just bounce back between things we need to do, not getting anywhere. So yes, we all may agree it’s important, but let’s look at what we can actually do about it. And the first step is organizing your life.
My argument is that we need to cut out first before we start adding things. We need to organise our lives as we organise our weekend trip. But how many of us are clear what’s already in our lives, so that we could actually cut unimportant things out.
My argument on this is that we need a life organiser. All you need to do is to get a notepad, and try to dump all the things out of your mind onto the paper. Whether you have all this in your head only, or written down in various places around your computer, phone notes and notebooks, just get another notebook. Just write down all your to-do things, ideas, goals, thoughts, priorities into a single notebook first.
Only then, try to organise them in some way so you would have some common themes. In my case, I have: finance, health, family, spiritual and entertainment lists. Start transferring these items from your dump list into the relevant theme.
This will cost you almost nothing, you can buy a notepad for a pound or a dollar. You don’t need anything fancy, no leather covers, nothing. But once you do it, you will feel some sense of control again. I call mine a “life book”. It brings a sense of control and peace, as I know all I need to know, worry and do is in one place, and I can edit it easy as I want to.
It also allows me to understand about how much I have already going on in all 5 areas of my life. So it keeps me grounded and wanting to cross out things from the list instead of adding more – as when I see my lists are getting too long, I clearly realise I won’t follow through on it. So, I become more realistic with my goals.
Being strategic is key – have a place where you organise your life. Cut unimportant things out and focus on important ones. I will talk about being strategic and organising your life more, as I don’t understand how so many people can live without it – it would drive me absolutely crazy. But that’s enough for today, as I know your phone has fried your brain, which I will talk about as well.
And for now, put this thing in your hands down, get a cheap notepad and just try it. There is nothing to lose, and you can always go back to looking for that magic sauce you are trying to find later. Have a great day.