What is proactive, strategic thinking? It’s about long-term success. Winning, success, whatever you want to call it, can be defined however you want: the largest market share, wealth, free time, more freedom in general, or any other measure. Ultimately, adopting a proactive, strategic mindset is about finding the best path to long-term success.
So, how do we do that?
Long-term success largely comes down to plans and systems. Mission, Vision, and Goals (plan) are all very important, but we spend very little time on those in the day-to-day. You don’t “do” Vision at 9:30 am on Thursday. You don’t “do” Goal 2 at 3:30 pm Monday. You run plays, to borrow a sports analogy. Meaning, you take specific action steps.
Since long-term means taking a lot of actions, consistency tends to win the long game. Consistency results from high-quality systems. Well-designed systems support consistent actions as part of a clearly defined plan (Mission, Vision, Goals), which leads to long-term successful results.
The key to high-quality systems is to make consistency attractive. New and impulsive is the calling card of the present age, but boring consistency wins long-term. So, the components of the system have to be attractive: every day, good or bad, sick or well. Want to eat healthier? Find the “good for you foods” that you find tasty and enjoyable. That’s a system. Want to exercise consistently? Find the activity you like and/or the accountability partner to join you that makes it fun and easy. Want to make better business decisions? Design a decision-making process that is fun and includes key team members you like and trust and use it for every important decision.
Systems are easy if done right. Systems are effective if they make boring consistency easy. Long-term success is the natural outcome if boring consistency wins the day.
Do a systems checkup to make sure they: exist(!), are attractive, are fun, and perhaps even include a few “lifehacks”.
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