You Have A Strategy That Is Perfectly...

I don’t suppose it’s a news flash that chess is strategy game. One of the first books I ever received as a young child was a chess book written by a business associate of my dad. It was a new type of instructional in a question and answer format that came with a book mark slide piece that was designed to progressively reveal the answers after I had an opportunity to figure it out for myself. I didn’t get far with the book or go on to excel at chess but the book was such a cool concept. Really it was the instructional strategy I remember more than the content of anything in the book.

Another cool chess related concept was found in the television show “Have Gun Will Travel”. It was a western starring Richard Boone who played the hero known as Palidin. In case you were not privileged to see this show it’s available here. If you are satisfied to just know more I’ll refer you to Wikipedia… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Have_Gun_-_Will_Travel.  Paladin had a business card with the black knight and like the Lone Ranger’s silver bullet, he had an ample supple of these black knight chess pieces to leave behind after he solved a case. And like any hero, western or otherwise Paladin had a strategy that was unique to his character.

….(Flash forward about 40 years) I was innocently riding along in my car probably about circa 2006 listening to one of my favorite communicators Andy Stanley. All of a sudden these words attacked me from the car speakers… “You have a strategy that is perfectly designed to get the results you are getting”. Then he repeated it… and spent several minutes explaining what he meant. I won’t give you the rest word for word but the upshot is this:

Each of us has a strategy for everything we do. We may not be aware of it, the strategy may not be well thought out, it might not be thought out at all. Our strategy may be to wing it. Our strategy may be to make it up as we go along. But we have a strategy for every single thing we do in life… and it’s that strategy that is creating results we are getting... for better or for worse...for richer or for poorer. (They’re taking this phrase out of a lot wedding vows these days and that too suggests a strategy… but I digress…)

This is true about our diet. It’s true about our exercise. It’s true about our finances. It’s true about our relationships. It’s true about our interaction or lack of it with God. And to our primary point in this blog, it’s true about our career. You already have a strategy. The question we all need to ask is respectfully borrowed from television therapist Dr. Phil: “How’s that workin for ya?” How is your career strategy working for you?

This blog is filled with “strategic alternatives” or approaches designed to assist you in an attempt to “Maximize Your Career”. Every single idea presented here may not be for you. But take a few minutes right now and think about your current career strategy. Does it need tweaking? Is your strategy to wing it? Maybe your strategy is to analyze and reanalyze to the point you never execute on anything. Get a pen and notebook and jot down your strategy.