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."
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