In my listening to others to myself as well I have come to recognize one most common desire by nearly all of us. That most frequent want is: to add, to improve, to mitigate or eliminate something within our lives, more succinctly nearly all of us wish to make a positive change in our life by either increasing and or decreasing a condition. Unfortunately, however, our choices of where to focus our energies and which approach to implement with our desire to attain our success often run from misguided, to nonexistent, to unrealistic, to ineffective, to unsustainable and more often than not, are doomed to fail from the onset, or worst of all we end up succeeding but realize we have achieved one important outcome and have irretrievably lost two more precious parts of our life in the process with our unbalanced approach.
In his legendary bookthe Art of War Sun Tzu states If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles. Likewise another quote from Sun Tzu: Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat. Perhaps this great ancient Chinese military generals philosophy can also apply nicely to each of us with our quests to achieve, to contribute, and gain harmony with our lives and relationships. First and foremost perhaps we must come to know ourselves and be courageous and candid with both our gifts and deficiencies. To truly know our enemy must we not fully know ourselves? Whether our challenges are health/fitness, relationships, financial, serenity or causes we desire to champion; our foundation for moving forward must rest on the understanding of who we are and how we have more often than not stood in our own way. I have met the enemy, and I see them clearly each morning in my own mirror.
So what War do you wish to achieve victory with my friends? Is it your health? Is it with relationships? Is it financial? Is it a cause for Humanity? And once you have decided upon the ONE important focus for yourself, do you see, do you have the clarity to discern that you are not a victim, but rather the master of your fate?
Seek out mentors, ponder extensively, educate yourself with research. Write out your vision outcome and then, and only then, plan the tactics, the specific activities that will progress your war forward with incremental victorious battles. Be wise with what you do, as well as with what you dont do, and victory, success and feeling a sense of completeness and peace will be yours. As Shakespeare writes in The Merry Wives of Windsor the world will be your oyster to open with your sword of wise strategy swung in the direction dictated by effectively planned tactics.
No greater tragedy can occur with our lives than to Win Our War and with this success come to realize that we had wasted our time, resources and energy in fighting the WRONG War. Choose your Wars wisely my friends, choose them most wisely, for there is but one, and only one Today, one lifetime for each and every one of us. Then move on to pick the battles you will fight in support of your WAR; do so with courage, wisdom, enthusiasm, determination and yes, perspiration as well.
Michael Starr is the owner of Executive Coaching Services. He can be reached at www.executivecoachingservices.net or by calling 501-908-2298.
