How Strategy Creates Freedom Instead of Limitation – Using plans to unlock possibilities
Many people think that a strategy limits them to a very strict way of doing things. Planning might seem like a heavy thing that takes away your spontaneity or creativity. However, the truth is quite the opposite. Having a well-defined strategy actually enables you to have more space and not less. It converts your vague goals into achievable ways. It lowers the points of conflict and the mental mess in your head. It gives you a sense of orientation without confining you.
Stronger decisions and better opportunities become possible when you know your destination. The need to react to life is replaced by that of shaping life with your own will.
Let us see in what ways strategy is a source of freedom.
Strategy removes guesswork and creates mental space
Uncertainty is very exhausting. If every decision needs totally new thinking, the brain gets overburdened. A strategy solves that problem. It shows what is important and what can be left aside. It sets one’s priorities so that one no longer needs to follow every option that comes one’s way.
This neatness of thought increases one’s power to do something. One cannot dwindle between different options anymore but rather one goes out to try and learn. There is a certain lightness that comes with having a clear direction. That feeling is freedom.
A strong plan strengthens creative thinking
Most people think of creativity as something that can only be done without or beyond the given limits. However, in fact, a plan provides creativity with something it can go against. It is a framework which helps one to stay focused.
Consider an artist whose work is limited to only few colors in his/her palette. The limitation does not suffocate the creative work. On the contrary, it refines it. Strategy is similar to that. By specifying the extent, it brings concentration. And when you have concentration, your creative power increases because you realize which thoughts lead to your goal.
When you stop questioning the point of beginning, you get more room to think of the infinite possibilities.
Strategy Unlocks Smart Risk Taking
They say that plans get rid of the risks. What they actually do is helping to keep risks under control. Understanding your goals and your resources enables you to make daring moves without jeopardizing everything.
This is what strategy actually does. It points out what risks one should take. It provides you with a way to test an idea instead of just guessing. When you think you are ready, taking a risk does not scare you that much. You become more and more consistent and steady in your moves. That certainty is being free in one of its forms.
Planning helps you say no without hesitation
Most of the time, the main source of freedom is what you do not expose yourself to rather than what you choose. Without a plan, every opportunity would appear as if it were the most urgent one. Saying no would then be accompanied by feelings of guilt. You would also worry about missing something.
An efficiently built strategy gives you a well-defined filter. If a certain thing does not help you reach your goal, you can definitely let it go without feeling sorry for yourself. You keep your strength for what is really important to you. You distance yourself from the noise. You avoid being overwhelmed.
That skill of saying no gives you a lot more room for ideas and projects that really matter to you.
Strategy allows you to move faster
At first, a plan could be seen as something that slows down the process. However, after that, everything moves at a greater speed. When you have already planned your steps, you do not have to stop in order to think the way again. Thus, you save yourself from taking unnecessary detours and from redoing the work again.
Speed without having a goal will only result in exhaustion. On the other hand, having the goal without speed will cause frustration. Strategy does both – speed and goal setting. This is what enables a person to not only be efficient but also flexible on his/her journey. The combination of these two qualities is what propels one to move forward with both momentum and stability.
Plans create measurable wins that encourage progress
Freedom is something that grows when there is visible progress. Strategy is what provides you with checkpoints, milestones, and indicators. The working things become visible. The things that do not work can be changed. One feels motivated when one sees one’s progress made clear.
Small successes lead to the development of self-confidence. Confidence, in its turn, is the main source of motivation. Motivation broadens your understanding of possible things. The whole ripple effect starts with having a simple structure and clarity. It goes on as long as one keeps refining one’s path.
Strategic thinking builds resilience
People who do not have a plan usually rush to do something when unexpected events occur. Those who have a strategy on the other hand adjust their actions. They know what their priorities are. They recognize their means. They are able to shift the things without going off the track.
That ability to adjust is actually the real power of strategy. The latter prepares you for situations that are different from what you expected. It arms you with the necessary tools to overcome your defeats. It works to keep you steady when things change in your life or around you. The state of being resilient can thus be considered as another kind of freedom as it enables one to keep going despite the obstacles that one comes across.
Strategy creates independence through self-directed action
Knowing your objectives makes you stop depending on others to approve of you. You stop waiting for somebody else to give you the orders. You get up the courage to follow your own ideas by yourself.
This independence is one of the most powerful types of freedom. A strategy contributes to it step by step. Firstly, through clarity. Then, through progress. Last but not least, through mature decision making which is not influenced by the outside world.
How to build a strategy that expands possibility
A strategy that leads to freedom has some simple characteristics.
- It has a definite goal. The need of knowing where one is going is implied.
- It is adaptable. One can always make changes as one gains more knowledge.
- It focuses on the most important things. It lets one know which things come first.
- It separates the way into stages. One knows how to take the first step.
- It keeps track of progress. One can tell when the work is bearing fruit.
There is no need for a complicated system. What is really needed is a clear map that helps to keep up with the work regularly. After you have that map, you get more freedom to discover.
The actual result: strategy offers you more options, not fewer
Planning is not something that limits one. It is rather something that gives one more freedom. It brings one’s attention to the essential, invigorates one’s creative powers, and makes one more-strong and resistant. It is the courage to say no to that which tires you and yes to that which helps you to move forward that strategy confers.
When you devise a strategy that is in line with your principles and goals, you do not react to life anymore, but you live by will. That change leads to a bigger area of opportunities than you might have thought.
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