Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Strategy

      There are so many areas of our lives that may seem to us to flow along without much thought.  However, if we really did give some thought to matters, the major aspects of our life need to have some form of strategy to them.

     Strategy is a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major or overall aim.  This doesn’t seem to be a difficult concept to understand.  If we are working at some type of secular employment, we will find that in various areas we have what is normally referred to as the “policies and procedures” of the company.

     We may have office policies, or we may be engaged in a factory and their may be operational procedures.  These are all strategies that the company has put into place to safely and effectively reach the ultimate goal of the company, whatever that has been determined to be.    

     If you have ever played chess, you’ll understand better this aspect of having a strategy to your game play.  There are a few basic strategies which every beginner player should understand and every long-time player should review from time to time.  In considering a few of these briefly I have turned to the article from ichess. (https://www.ichess.net/blog/chess-strategy-tips-for-beginners/ )

     Try to control the center from the opening to the end.  This is one of the most important chess strategy tips for beginners to learn. The center is the most important section of the board since your pieces can pretty much have access to the whole board when they are correctly located in the center.”

     Always develop all your pieces as quickly as possible.  Developing your pieces quickly is also a very important chess strategy since your pieces are like your army, they are the ones that will help you dominate the board, and eventually help you win the games.”

     Try not to move the same piece multiple times in the opening.  “Not moving the same piece multiple times in the opening goes along with the concept of developing your pieces quickly. This is because by moving the same piece multiple times, you allow your opponent to develop several pieces much faster.”

     Protect your king by castling as soon as possible.  “One of the main chess tactics is to always keep your king in a safe position, while you try to create weaknesses around your opponent’s king if it’s possible.”

     Don’t move your queen too soon.  “Not moving the queen too early in the game is one of the most important chess strategy tips for beginners. Most beginners try to move the queen too early in order to create mating threats on f7 or f2.  These threats are usually not real and the player who moved the queen usually loses several tempos on trying to get the queen back to a safe square.”

     Connect your rooks and place them on the columns that will be open.  “The rooks are usually the most difficult pieces to activate. This is because they can only move horizontally and vertically. It’s not easy to move these heavy pieces when there are not open columns.”

    Think twice before moving your pawns.  They can’t go back!  “As you already know, pawns can only move forward. That’s the reason why this is a fundamental chess strategy for players of all levels, not only for beginners.”

     If you have a bad piece, try to exchange it very quickly.  “Being able to identify when any particular piece doesn’t have a bright future is a very important aspect of chess strategy at all levels. This actually makes a difference between novice players and masters.”

     And there may be other strategies when playing chess that you would want to learn in order to improve your game.  However, I am merely using the game of chess as an example because it is very well known that within this particular game using strategy is the key to winning.

     We can use very similar basic strategies within our lives to improve our chances of being happier and more successful at whatever we try to accomplish.  Consider the following:

1.      Try to control the center from the opening to the end.  The center of our very being is being able to control our emotions.  Regardless of the situations we may face, by keeping ourselves in proper control of mind and spirit we will be able to handle it much better.

2.      Always develop all your pieces as quickly as possible.  We should take every opportunity to improve ourselves by developing all the qualities we may possess.  It may be that some of these abilities will be used to a greater degree than others, but we should strive to do the best we can in all things.

3.      Try not to move the same piece multiple times in the opening.  There are times in our lives when we get into the thinking that we can continue to make the same decisions and take the same actions that have resulted in unwanted situations and for some reason they will eventually end in success.  We must not continue to allow ourselves to make such decision by “moving the same piece multiple times” when it is our desire to have a different and better outcome.

4.      Protect your king by castling as soon as possible.  You are the “king” of your life decisions.  You need to surround yourself with others who are going to protect you from yourself and from other situations that will bring harm to your goals.  Being successful doesn’t mean having people who will always agree with your decisions, but having those who help support the decisions that you make and who will provide constructive criticism in keeping you in control.

5.      Don’t move your queen too soon.  We must agree that within our life routines there is that “someone” who has been our guiding light or the source of our encouragement.  Perhaps they have been the continuing source of strength that helps us get through whatever difficulties we have to face.  We would NEVER want to put that individual in a compromising position or endanger them in any way.

6.      Connect your rooks and place them on the columns that will be open.  There will be contacts that we develop within our lives.  They may be business associates or they may have a connection to our personal lives.  Whatever the case may be, these are the people that we need to place as cornerstones to anchor our lives and our strategies to reality.  These are the ones we look to as part of the foundation of our very being.

7.      Think twice before moving your pawns.  They can’t go back!  There will always be those “little things” in our lives.  At times we may feel that they are of very little importance.  We may think that these are the things that we can do without.  We might not give serious thought the letting them go or discarding them in some fashion.  These may be the very things that we need to carry out the strategies that we have planned within our lives.  Never be hasty in discarding what may appear as insignificant.

8.      If you have a bad piece, try to exchange it very quickly.  At some point in our lives we may realize that we have made some bad choices and decisions.  Regardless of our emotional attachment or the fact that we may “look bad” because of certain decisions, there will come a time when we must let them go!  Cut our loses the best we can and try to make the consequences of the decision as painless as possible.

     I’m not trying to say that everything we do is going to become the existence of perfection that we are perhaps imagining.  But our lives can become better by planning our strategies to properly reach the goals that we have set for ourselves.  There may be times and circumstances when a specific strategy doesn’t apply or maybe doesn’t give the results we desire and we will need to adjust accordingly, but that doesn’t mean we should move through life aimlessly without any goals in view or without any means to reach them. We should strive to do the best we can even though, we’re only human!

QUOTE TO CONSIDER


THOUGHTFUL GEM

"Your strategy will define 

your approach to the problem."



No comments:

Post a Comment